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Finding Aid to the Louise Sorbier Papers, 1854-1956,
MS 2031
MS 2031
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Title: Louise Sorbier papers
Date (inclusive): 1854-1956
Collection Number: MS 2031
Creator:
Sorbier, Louise, 1847-1929
Physical Description:
7 boxes, 1 flat box
(4.5 Linear feet)
Repository:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English.
Abstract: Comprises correspondence, organizational records,
legal documents, bound volumes, newspaper clippings, and ephemera documenting the
personal life and official activities of San Francisco suffragist and civic leader
Louise Sorbier. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, most of which
is addressed to Louise Sorbier. Also contains scattered records of women's and civic
improvement organizations in which Sorbier participated, including the Women's
Educational and Industrial Union, Woman's Congress Association of the Pacific Coast,
California Suffrage Amendment Campaign Association, Arguello Boulevard Improvement
Club, and Cemetery Beautifying and Anti-Removal Association; correspondence
addressed to Cecile Sorbier in her role as president of the San Francisco Club; a
scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the women's suffrage movement in San
Francisco in the 1890s; and newspaper clippings, mainly documenting the women's
suffrage and cemetery anti-removal campaigns in San Francisco.
CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates:
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Copyright has not been assigned to the California Historical Society. All
requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted
in writing to the Director of Research Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the California Historical Society as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the
copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Louise Sorbier Papers, MS 2031. California Historical
Society.
Arranged in three series: Series 1: Papers, 1854-1956; Series 2: Volumes,
1888-1927; Series 3: Newspaper Clippings, 1893-1928. The Papers and Newspaper
Clippings series are arranged in chronological order.
Sorbier family photographs have been transferred to the Photography Collection,
shelved in the Portraits Collection.
Louise Sorbier, née Bacon, was born in 1847 in Paris. She immigrated to San Francisco
with her parents as a child. She had three daughters with her husband, Jules
Sorbier: Josephine Sorbier (1873-1899), Cecile Sorbier (1875-1952), and Marie
Sorbier (1877-1947). She and Jules Sorbier divorced in 1877.
Louise Sorbier was a prominent organizer and member of many women's and civic
improvement organizations in San Francisco in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. She served as president of the Women's Educational and
Industrial Union, an organization founded in 1891 to provide women with educational
opportunities and vocational training. At the same time, she was active in the
women's suffrage movement of the 1890s, serving as president of the Eleventh
Amendment Club, and treasurer of the Woman's Congress Association of the Pacific
Coast, the California State Suffrage Constitutional Amendment Association, and the
Women's Suffrage Association. As an officer of these organizations, Sorbier
advocated the amendment of the state constitution to guarantee women's suffrage in
California.
In the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s, Louise Sorbier was active in various civic
improvement efforts in San Francisco, including and prominently, the cemetery
anti-removal movement. She served as director of the Outdoor Art League, president
of the Cemetery Beautifying and Anti-Removal Association, and vice president of the
Arguello Boulevard Improvement Club. Her daughter Cecile followed in her footsteps,
serving as president of the San Francisco Club and Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park
Endowment Committee, beginning around 1916. Louise Sorbier died in 1929.
This collection comprises correspondence, organizational records, legal documents,
bound volumes, newspaper clippings, and ephemera documenting the personal life and
official activities of San Francisco suffragist and civic leader Louise Sorbier.
Papers (1854-1956) mainly consist of correspondence addressed to Louise Sorbier.
Also included are scattered records of women's and civic organizations in which
Louise Sorbier participated, including the Women's Educational and Industrial Union,
Woman's Congress Association of the Pacific Coast, California Suffrage Amendment
Campaign Association, Arguello Boulevard Improvement Club, and Cemetery Beautifying
and Anti-Removal Association; as well as correspondence addressed to Cecile Sorbier
in her role as president of the San Francisco Club; Sorbier family wills; other
legal documents; and ephemera. Volumes (1888-1927) include a scrapbook of newspaper
clippings documenting the women's suffrage movement and its leaders in San Francisco
in the 1890s; the constitution and minutes of the Arguello Boulevard Improvement
Club; and five volumes of Women's Educational and Industrial Union records,
including three ledgers, a membership book, and the Ladies' Finance Committee
address book. Newspaper clippings (1893-1928), taken from various San Francisco
newspapers, mainly document the women's suffrage and cemetery anti-removal campaigns
in San Francisco, including the activities of the Woman's Congress, California State
Suffrage Constitutional Amendment Club, Eleventh Amendment Club, Women's Suffrage
Association, and Cemetery Beautifying and Anti-Removal Association.
This index is derived from a list of added entries in the legacy finding aid for the
Louise Sorbier papers. Names and subject headings are unauthorized. Dates, when
available, indicate the dates of the materials in which names or topics are
referenced.
Alemany, Joseph Sadoc
July 21, 1879, October 17, 1882
Arguello Boulevard Improvement Club, San Francisco
1909-1927
California Patriotic League, San Francisco
California State Woman Suffrage Educational Association
Cameron, George Toland
1925-1926
Cameron, Helen (DeYoung)
1921, 1928
Catholic Church, San Francisco
Cemetery Beautifying and Anti-Removal Association, San
Francisco
1915-
Cemetery Protective Organization, San Francisco
Church and social problems - Catholic Church
Democratic Party, San Francisco
1932
DeYoung, Michael Henri
1921-1924
DeYoung Museum, San Francisco
1921-1928
French in San Francisco
French Mutual Benevolent Society, San Francisco
1877
Gayley, Charles Mills
October 1, 1901
Girls High School, San Francisco
1895
Gleeson, Richard A.
Gordon, Laura deForce, ALS
1895 (Folder 3)
Hibernia Savings and Loan Society, San Francisco
December 29, 1877
Huntington, Collis P.
October 17, 1898
Japanese in San Francisco
1914
Johnson, Hiram W.
September 12, 1923
Martinache, N.J.
1877
Mitchell, Ruth Comfort
1920
Montgomery, George
1879-1900
Native Daughters of the Golden West, Grand Parlor
1916
Odd Fellows Cemetery Association, San Francisco
1907-1915
Patigian, Haig
October 11, 1924
Ramm, Charles A.
September 22, 1899
Regan, Dora
July 21, 1879, October 17, 1882
Richardson, Friend W.
September 22, 1926
Richmond District, San Francisco
1909-1927
Robinson, Elmer
1948
Rolph, James
March 14, 1923, January 30, 1926, January 7, 1926
Roullier, Albert
1931
Roullier, Emile Victor
1901
Samuels, D. Dry Goods, San Francisco
1874
San Francisco Club
San Francisco Savings Union
1882
Shaw, Anna Howard
Folder 25
Shortridge, Samuel M.
December 2, 1920
Sorbier, Cecile Marie
Sorbier, Josephine Marie
Sorbier, Jules Edmond
Tourny, George
1925-1926
Van Wyck and Cushing
1874
Women's Congress Association, San Francisco
1896
Women's Educational and Industrial Union
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Sorbier, Cecile Marie, 1875-1952
Societies--California--San Francisco.
Women civic leaders--California--San Francisco.
Women--California--San Francisco.
Women--Societies and clubs.
Women--Suffrage.
Clippings.
Scrapbooks.
Gift of the Cecile M. Sorbier Estate through Mr. George H. Cabaniss, Jr. November
1952.
No additions are expected.
Processed by California Historical Society staff; additions processed by Marie
Dunlap in 2010.