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Sawyer (Preston) collection
MS.082
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Preston Sawyer collection
Creator:
Sawyer, Preston, 1899-1968
Identifier/Call Number: MS.082
Physical Description:
89 Linear Feet
119 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1847-1968
Abstract: This collection contains biographical
material, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and realia created or collected by the
Sawyer family of Santa Cruz dating from 1847 to the 1960's.
Language of Material:
English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Preston Sawyer Collection. MS 82. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Purchased from Ariel Sawyer.
Le Moyne Preston Sawyer, collector, photographer, proofreader and historical writer, was
born in Santa Cruz on December 6, 1899. He was the son of Frank and Gertrude Fields Sawyer.
He had one sibling, a brother, Robin Ariel.
Preston and Ariel's father, Frank, worked at several occupations, including leather and
saddle making, shoe repair, and candy maker. His wife Gertrude Fields Sawyer, encouraged
writing and collecting, while her sister Clara Fields Gardner encouraged their traveling.
Ariel ran the Sawyer Tile Company. Both boys graduated from Santa Cruz High School.
As a youth Preston was a newsboy and had an interest in stamp and postmark collecting. Over
the years he amassed a large collection of first and last day post marks, stamps, and
cancellations from numerous California post offices.
As a young man, Preston Sawyer worked as a movie extra in the very early film industry
located in Santa Cruz. A prolific amateur photographer, he snapped hundreds of pictures of
movie stars and the sets while waiting for work. In addition to taking his own photographs
he collected pictures covering early Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas. The vast amount
of his photographs reside in Santa Cruz County Historic Photographs.
In 1935 he was hired at the
Santa Cruz Sentinel as a proofreader, a job he
held for almost three decades, except for a stint in the Army during World War II. In 1948,
he began a weekly feature "Santa Cruz Yesterdays" which appeared in the Sunday edition. The
articles were based on his extensive collection of photographs and reference materials, many
culled from local second-hand shops he visited on his lunch hours. By 1955, approximately
364 historical pictorial stories had been printed. Sawyer retired from the
Santa Cruz
Sentinel
in 1962.
In the late 1960's Sawyer's treasure trove of Santa Cruz and California history, collected
over the course of his life, was purchased by and split between the Santa Cruz Public
Library and the University Library at UCSC. The reference materials and books went to the
Public Library while the University received the postal collections and correspondence, as
well as photographs, glass and newspaper plates, and other material.
Preston Sawyer died in October of 1968 in a rest home in Watsonville, after a five year
illness.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains biographical material, correspondence, and photographs from the
Sawyer family of Santa Cruz, and the
Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper. In
addition there is a fair amount of ephemera and realia (3 dimensional material) pertaining
to local Santa Cruz history, as well as history of California and some of national interest.
The bulk of the ephemera consists of vintage postcards and postal exchanges, advertisements
by Santa Cruz businesses, news and realia of Boy Scouts and boys' clubs from Santa Cruz and
San Francisco, Worlds' Fairs and expositions. Of special interest is the material from the
WWI and WWII era. See each series scope and content notes for details.
The material is arranged into 5 series: Biographical, Correspondence, Photographic
material, Ephemera, and Realia.
"What the Camera Saw in Monterey and Vicinity, Sept. 17-21, 1919", by Preston Sawyer;
F869.M7 S29 1919, Special Collections and Archives.
"History of Richard Headrick, 'the little minister,' nine years old", 1927, by Hazel
Headrick; BX8495.H4H4, Special Collections and Archives.
Finding aid revision statement
This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project in 2021-2022.
Previous versions of this finding aid are available upon request.
Processed by Maureen Carey and Debra Roussopoulos. Additional accruals (box 117- )
processed by Kate Dundon.
Related materials can be found in the following collections:
- MS284 Postmark Collection
- MS404 Preston Sawyer Movie Collection
- MS427 Santa Cruz County Historic Photographs
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Santa Cruz (Calif.) -- History
Ships -- Photographs
Santa Cruz County (Calif.) -- Photographs
Sawyer, Preston, 1899-1968