Margaret Wentworth Owings papers, 1913-1996

Summary

Creators:

Owings, Margaret Wentworth

Abstract:

Collection contains correspondence, speeches, articles, and files related to Margaret Owings' work in environmental conservation and wildlife preservation. She was particularly concerned with mountain lions, sea otters, sea lions, California redwoods, and parks and wildlife in Africa. Owings was the only woman on the California State Park Commission in the 1960s. The collection contains only a few personal papers, including a small amount of correspondence with family members, awards, biographical information, and files related to her husband, architect Nathaniel Alexander Owings.

Extent:

Number of containers: 10 boxes, 4 cartons, 1 oversize box, 1 oversize folder, 5 volumes Linear ft.: 9.6 linear ft.

Language:

English

Background

Scope and content:

The Margaret Wentworth Owings Papers, 1913-1996, consist of correspondence, speeches, articles, and files related to her work in environmental conservation and wildlife preservation. She was particularly concerned with mountain lions, sea otters, sea lions, California redwoods, and parks and wildlife in Africa. Owings was the only woman on California State Park Commission during the 1960s. The collection contains only a few personal papers, including a small amount of correspondence with family members, awards, biographical information and files related to her husband, architect Nathaniel Alexander Owings. Her art work is also not covered in this collection of papers.

Biographical / historical:

Born April 29, 1913 in Berkeley, California, Margaret Wentworth Owings was a 1934 graduate of Mills College, where her father, Frank Wentworth, was a trustee, and completed graduate studies in art at the Fogg Museum at Harvard University in 1935. She set her artistic career aside and earned international recognition as a tireless advocate for sea otters, mountain lions and other wild creatures.

Honored with the National Audubon Society Medal, the Gold Medal Award from United Nations' environmental program, the Department of the Interior's Conservation Service Award, and many other citations and medals, Mrs. Owings inspired new generations in the fight to preserve wilderness and the animals that call it home.

She is most closely identified with the California sea otter, a threatened marine mammal whose cause she championed as founder and president of the Friends of the Sea Otter. She also led successful campaigns to end bounty-hunting of mountain lions in California, and to impose moratoriums on hunting mountain lions-an effort that was crowned passage of a state initiative banning lion hunting in the state.

As a member of the Point Lobos League, she fought successfully in 1947 to save beaches between the Carmel River and Point Lobos State Reserve. With her husband, noted architect Nathaniel Owings, she campaigned to keep the scenic Big Sur coast in its undeveloped state.

In addition to her role with Friends of the Sea Otter, which she led as president from its founding in 1968 until the early 1990s, she was on the council of the Save-the-Redwoods League, a member of the California Parks Commission (1963-69); a trustee of Defenders of Wildlife (1969-74); a board member with the National Parks Foundation (1968-69); a trustee of the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation (1968-76); a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund (1972-82); founder of the Rachel Carson Council established to carry on the work of combating toxics in the environment; and a member of the Big Sur Land Trust.

In addition to her long commitment to wildlife conservation, Mrs. Owings and her husband were devotees of the art and Indian culture of the Southwest. They were seasonal residents of Santa Fe, N.M. for more than 30 years and assembled a significant collection of Pueblo Kachinas, now in the permanent collection of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

[Excerpted from Friends of the Sea Otter website]

Acquisition information:

The Margaret Wentworth Owings Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Margaret Owings in several installments from October 1987 through March 1997.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

Website