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Finding Aid of the Joseph Jensen Papers
1058
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Title: Joseph Jensen Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1908-1972
Collection number: 1058
Creator:
Jensen, Joseph, 1886-1974
Extent:
20 boxes (10 linear ft.)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Abstract: 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.
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Language:
English.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including
copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds
the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Joseph Jensen Papers (Collection 1058). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
1720760
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- Gift of Joseph Jensen, 1967 & 1973.
- Gift of John Jensen, 1974.
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.
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. Includes correspondence with Mormon and political leaders in Utah, papers relating to the Canoga Citrus Growers
Association, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and correspondence with Los Angeles mayors from Fletcher Bowron to Sam Yorty.
Expanded Scope and Content Note
Joseph Jensen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1886. He received mining engineering degrees from the University of Utah,
the Royal School of Mines, Freiberg, Germany, and Columbia University. He was employed by Tidewater Oil Company and its predecessors
as a petroleum engineer and geologist from 1917-1955 and participated in the development of the petroleum industry in Los
Angeles.
In 1927 Jensen was appointed to the Water and Power Committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and began an involvement
with water resources in southern California which culminated in his tenure as the chairman of the Metropolitan Water District
from 1949-1970, a period of intense activity in California water development.
This collection is especially rich in materials relating to the petroleum industry in Los Angeles from 1917-1940. Jensen personally
participated in the discovery and development of several oil fields in Los Angeles and wrote numerous articles on the oil
fields and the methods used in those early days of the petroleum industry in California.
Also of interest in the collection is correspondence with Mormon and political leaders in Utah, papers relating to the Canoga
Citrus Growers Association, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and correspondence with mayors of Los Angeles from Fletcher Bowron
to Sam Yorty.
There is little Primary material relevant to Jensen's involvement with the
Metropolitan Water District. Most of the material consists of statements distributed at press conference and various publications
relating to the MWD.
The arrangement of the collection has generally followed that of Jensen's papers as he kept them. Exceptions to this are explained
in the body of the register.
Arranged in the following series
- Biographical material (Box 1).
- Alphabetical correspondence and papers (Boxes 1-16).
- Chronological correspondence (Box 16).
- Speeches and publications (Boxes 17-18).
- Metropolitan Water District (Box 19).
- Personal material (Box 19).
- Offprints, etc. of publications by Joseph Jensen (Box 20).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the repository's online public access catalog.
Jensen, Joseph 1886-1974--Archives.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Calif.).
Canoga Citrus Growers Association.
Petroleum engineers--California, Southern--Archival resources.
Water resources development--California, Southern.
Developing California's natural resources [oral history transcript] / Joseph Jensen, interviewee. UCLA Oral History Department interview, 1970. Available at Department
of Special Collections, UCLA.