Joseph Jensen (1886-1974) was a petroleum engineer and geologist for the Tidewater Oil Company and predecessors (1917-55). In 1927, he was appointed to the Water and Power Committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and personally participated in the discovery and development of several oil fields in Los Angeles. He later served as chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (1949-70). The collection consists of correspondence, speeches, papers, publications, and personal material of Joseph Jensen, mining engineer and chairman of Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District, relating to petroleum development in Los Angeles and water resources in California.

Jensen was born in 1886 in Salt Lake City, Utah; received mining engineering degrees from the University of Utah, the Royal School of Mines, Freiberg (Germany), and Columbia University; worked at Tidewater Oil Company and predecessors as a petroleum engineer and geologist, 1917-55; appointed to Water and Power Committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in 1927; personally participated in the discovery and development of several oil fields in Los Angeles and wrote articles on those fields and methods used by the industry; served as chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California from 1949-70.

20 boxes (10 linear ft.)

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