Guide to the Alfred P. Swineford Papers
Processed by Special Collections staff; latest revision, D. Tambo
Department of Special Collections
© 2002
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Alfred P. Swineford Papers, ca. 1885-1890s
Collection number: Wyles Mss 14
Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara- Department of Special Collections
- Davidson Library
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Santa Barbara, CA 93106
- Phone: (805) 893-3062
- Fax: (805) 893-5749
- Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
- URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
- Processed by:
- Special Collections staff; latest revision, D. Tambo
- Date Completed:
- 01 November 2002
- Encoded by:
- David C. Gartrell
© 2002 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Title: Alfred P. Swineford Papers,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1885-1890s
Collection Number: Wyles Mss 14
Creator:
Swineford, Alfred P.
Extent:
.2 linear feet
(1 half-size document box)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Language:
English.
None.
No further reproduction of items in the collection without written permission of donor or heirs. Copyright has not been assigned
to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted
in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special
Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which also must be obtained.
Alfred P. Swineford Papers. Wyles Mss 14. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Gift of Mrs. June Main, 1974.
The following information is drawn from a biographical sketch contained in the collection:
Alfred P. Swineford was born in Ashland, Ohio, on September 14, 1834. He learned the printer's trade as a young man, and worked
at his trade for a number of years in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and with the
Chicago Times. He moved to Marquette, Michigan in 1867 and established the
Mining Journal, which he edited until 1884.
Swineford was active in politics, serving in the Michigan House of Representatives and also serving as Commissioner of Mineral
Statistics for the state of Michigan. He was chosen as a Michigan delegate to the national Democratic conventions in 1872
and 1884, and was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor of Michigan.
In March 1885 Swineford was appointed Governor of Alaska by President Grover Cleveland. He arrived at his post in Sitka, Alaska
in September 1885 and resigned the position in March 1889.
He later held other public offices and in 1898 wrote the book,
Alaska, Its History, Climate and Natural Resources. He died in Juneau, Alaska, October 26, 1909.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains a biographical sketch of Alfred P. Swineford, copies of correspondence from him to his daughter, Nelly
Flower Stafford (Mrs. E. O. Stafford), a manuscript entitled "A Cruise of Ten Thousand Miles in Alaskan Waters," and a description
of Ketchikan. The often lengthy letters describe in detail Swineford's impressions of Alaska and its inhabitants in the era
immediately preceding the Gold Rush there.
The copies were given to the UCSB Libraries in 1974 by Mrs. June Main, a UCSB employee, married to one of the descendants
of Nelly Flower Stafford. The original manuscripts were retained by the family.
A larger Alfred Swineford Collection, at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, contains another set of the copies as well as
other materials relating to Swineford's time in Alaska.
Box 1: 1
Biographical Sketch (typescript, author unknown), n.d.
Box 1: 2
Correspondence (copies), 1885 - 1889
Box 1: 3 - 4
Writings
Box 1: 3
A Cruise of Ten Thousand Miles in Alaskan Waters (copies of a handwritten manuscript by Alfred P. Swineford), n.d.
Box 1: 4
Description of Ketchikan (typewritten transcript of manuscript by Alfred P. Swineford), n.d.