Paul Radin Papers
1933-2000
SFH 23
Jason Baxter and Wendy Kramer
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
2010; revised 2019.
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
sfhistory@sfpl.org
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4567
sfhistory@sfpl.org
Title: Paul Radin Papers
Creator:
Wolf, Mary Sacharoff-Fast
Creator:
Radin, Paul
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 23
Identifier/Call Number: 35
Physical Description:
4 cartons
(4 cubic feet)
Date (inclusive): 1933-2000
Date (bulk): 1934-1935
Abstract: Chiefly surveys from
Radin's supervision of over 200 workers who interviewed ethnic groups in the San Francisco
Bay Area for the State Emergency Relief Administration of California (SERA) over a period of
nine months in 1934-1935. Known as SERA project 2-F2-98 (3-F2-145), its abstract was
published in September 1935 as "The Survey of San Francisco's Minorities: Its Purpose and
Results." In addition to records from the WPA project, there is one folder of later
correspondence from Jon Lee, a graduate of Oakland Technical High School whom Radin hired to
collect and translate Chinese folklore, as well as a small amount of Mary Wolf's research
materials on Radin, which includes Wolf's academic papers, a few of Radin's files, and some
biographical information. The collection includes a series of index cards containing survey
data on Italians in San Francisco, which was received as a separate accession but appears to
be from the same SERA survey.
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English.
Access
The collection is open for research. Paper is extremely acidic and fragile; please handle
with care.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in
writing to the City Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San
Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Paul Radin Papers (SFH 23 ), San Francisco History Center, San
Francisco Public Library.
Provenance
Donated by Professor Luis S. Kemnitzer of San Francisco State University on behalf of
Calvin Fast Wolf and Mary Sacharoff-Fast Wolf, Nov. 2003. Mary Wolf was a would-be
biographer of Radin who had acquired original papers from her friend and Radin's widow,
Doris Woodward Radin, as well as colleagues, associates, and relatives.
Provenance
Documents on Japanese population, loaned by San Francisco State University Treganza Museum
to Lane Hirabashi on Oct. 23, 1984; five folders. Photocopies of Japanese population
documents (1.5 inches) returned by Lane Hirabayashi to San Francisco History Center on April
6, 2019. 2019-40.
Documents on Philippines population, loaned by SFSU Treganza Museum to Marilyn Alquizola on
Feb. 24, 1988. Originals (1 inch) returned by Lane Hirabayashi to SFHC on April 17, 2019.
2019-41.
Related Materials
For related materials in the San Francisco History Center, please see the library's online
catalog:
Lee, Jon. Chinese Tales Told in California. Collected by Jon Lee; revised by Paul Radin.
San Francisco: Sutro Branch, California State Library, 1940.
Radin, Paul. The Italians of San Francisco. [San Francisco: SERA Headquarters]: August,
1938. SERA project 2-F2-98 (3-F2-145)
Conservation Note
Paper clips and staples were removed; files transferred to acid free folders and boxes.
Processed by
Jason Carson Baxter and Wendy Kramer.
Finding Aid
Prepared by Jason Carson Baxter and Wendy Kramer in 2010. Revised in
2019 to reflect documents on Japanese and Philippines populations
incorporated into Series 1.
Biography
Dr. Paul Radin is considered to be one of the formative influences in contemporary
anthropology and ethnography in the United States and Europe. He was born in Lodz (Russian
Poland) on April 2, 1883, the son of a reform rabbi and scholar. In 1884, his family moved
to Elmira, New York, and then to New York City in 1890. Educated in the public school
system, Radin entered the College of the City of New York as a sub-freshman at the age of
fourteen, graduating in 1902. After a brief stint in graduate studies at Columbia exploring
the zoology of fish, Radin went to study physical anthropology in Munich. This two-year
period afforded him time in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, where he began a process of
self-cultivation. He returned to Columbia in 1907 with a major in anthropology and a minor
in statistics under the famed professor Franz Boas, the so-called "Father of American
Anthropology." Receiving his Ph.D. in 1911, Radin took a series of appointments around North
America, first with the Bureau of American Ethnology (1911-12), then a joint fellowship from
Columbia and Harvard to study the Zapotec culture (1912-13), followed by four years with the
Geological Survey of Canada, studying the Ojibwa of southeast Ontario. His ancillary work on
the Winnebago culminated in his Autobiography of The Winnebego Indian in 1920.
From 1920-1925, he wrote and did field research at the University of Cambridge, publishing
Primitive Man as Philosopher in 1927. From 1927 to 1930, while at Fisk University in
Nashville, Radin collected oral histories of former slaves' conversion experiences, many of
which remain unpublished.
During the Great Depression, Radin moved to Berkeley, where he remained until 1941. From
1930 to 1940, Radin accomplished three major feats: an analysis of the Patwin language of
California, his survey of San Francisco's Minorities in 1934-1935 for the State Economic
Recovery Act (S.E.R.A. Project 2-F2-98 (3-F2-145)), and the monumental Catalogue of Mexican
Pamphlets in the Sutro Collection of the California State Library in 1939 for the Works
Progress Administration (W.P.A. project 665-08-3-236). During these trying years of the
Depression, Radin still managed to publish Social Anthropology (1932), Method and Theory of
Ethnology (1933), and Primitive Religion (1937) at a time when publication—especially in
academia—was curtailed.
After 1949, Radin lectured in Oxford, Cambridge and Carl Jung's Institute in Zurich.
Working from Bollingen Foundation grants, he continued his research on the Winnebago. He
joined Brandeis University in 1957, where he worked until his death on February 21, 1959 in
New York City.
Scope and Content
The bulk of the collection consists of surveys from Radin's supervision of over 200 workers
who interviewed ethnic groups in the San Francisco Bay Area for the State Emergency Relief
Administration of California (SERA) over a period of nine months in 1934-1935. Known as SERA
project 2-F2-98 (3-F2-145), its abstract was published in September 1935 as The Survey of
San Francisco's Minorities: Its Purpose and Results. The stated purpose was a cultural
survey to find employment for "white collar" unemployed workers on temporary relief. Radin's
focus was "to study the steps in the adjustment and assimilation of minority groups in San
Francisco and Alameda counties, from the first arrival to the present time, with particular
emphasis upon certain aspects of this acculturation such as...making for the acceleration
and retardation of this process and specific influence of such major disturbance of the
Depression." Bypassing a typical questionnaire method, Radin instead had the amateur
interviewers record anything and everything which the interviewees wished to say. The
results appear in a narrative format-- sometimes in the form of poetry and short stories--
and encompass all manner of immigrant experience. Survey materials include typed and
handwritten interviews and research on ethnic groups; many duplicated and variant versions
are found. Some interviewers identify themselves, and their report appears in their own
hand. Sometimes the interviewees are named or given pseudonyms or just a form of address and
initial ("Mr. X"). Occasionally, the reports take the form of correspondence to "Dr. Radin,"
and some are written on hotel stationery from San Francisco.
Radin wanted to present the material in two forms: monographic analyses of minorities and
illustrative autobiographies. He states:
"The information obtained was divided into two groups, that which was definitely
autobiographical, and that which consisted of comments on every imaginable topic of
contemporary life, in San Francisco and the world in general. Since the survey was made in
1934-35, the General Strike and the effects of the Depression were naturally favorite
subjects, and since many of those interviewed had either themselves gone through the Great
War or whose fortunates had been specifically affected by it, we meet references to it in
almost every account." (p.6)
In the first series of general files, those on the Italians are also those used in Radin's
monograph, The Italians of San Francisco: Their Adjustment and Acculturation, published in
August, 1935. The second series contains the work of Jon Lee of Oakland, a recent graduate
of Oakland Technical High School whom Radin hired to collect and translate Chinese folklore.
The materials were collected as part of the SERA project that contained the other ethnic
surveys but were later published separately as The Golden Mountain: Chinese Tales Told in
California by the Sutro Branch library in 1940 (WPA no. 666-08-3-236).
The collection includes a series of index cards containing survey data on Italians in San
Francisco, which was received as a separate accession but appears to be from the same SERA
survey.
In addition to records from the WPA project, there is one folder of later correspondence
from Jon Lee, as well as a small amount of Mary Wolf's research materials on Radin, which
includes Wolf's academic papers, a few of Radin's files, and some biographical
information.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in five series: Series 1: General Ethnic Surveys, Series 2:
Ethnic Surveys on China, Series 3: Letters from Jon Lee, Series 4: Italians Survey Cards,
and Series 5: Mary Wolf Papers. Series 2 is subdivided into general ethnic surveys and
ethnic surveys and research on China, including Jon Lee's work on folklore and material for
The Golden Mountain. Since Radin's numbering system reflects several rewrites and
rearrangements, his original labeling and arrangement have been retained. Pages have been
re-ordered only when a page was out of order or an ethnic group was misfiled (i.e., Irish in
Icelandic). Others have been left as originally filed; i.e., "Italians" includes Sicilians
and Swiss. Identifying notes--such as "Lower Class"—have been kept in the folder as
received. No attempt has been made by the archivist to sort out ethnic groups from
nationalities in that confusing era of multi-generational immigration and war-torn
geographies. Hence, there is a file called "Jews" in the "Racial Minorities Survey,"
featuring Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Roumanian and other groups, as well as files on
"Roumanians" and "Russians" that include Jewish experiences. "Mexican" sometimes encompasses
Central and South America, even though there are separate files for these as well. On a
curious note, one will also find a file for "Miqueton"—apparently a territory in Northern
France.
Existence and Location of Originals
Photocopies of Japanese population were added to Series I in 2019. Existence and location
of originals is unknown.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Depressions -- 1929 -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Ethnology -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social conditions.
Italians -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Italian Americans -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Minorities -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Chinese Americans -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area --
Folklore.
Immigrants -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Chinese -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social life and customs.
Wolf, Mary Sacharoff-Fast -- Archives
Series 1
Radin Ethnic Surveys (General) 6347
1934-1935
Physical Description: 73
folders(ca. 2.5 cu. ft.)
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by ethnic group or nationality, with Radin's numbering system
noted.
Scope and Contents
Interviews with members of various ethnic groups in California--mostly from the San
Francisco Bay Area--carried out by over 200 SERA workers under the supervision of Paul
Radin.
box 1, folder 1, radin_number XI
box 1, folder 2, radin_number XLII
box 1, folder 3, radin_number VB
box 1, folder 4, radin_number IX
box 1, folder 5, radin_number -
Americans/Autobiographical 6358
box 1, folder 6, radin_number VII
Americans: Frontier Memories 6359
box 1, folder 7, radin_number XLVII
box 1, folder 8, radin_number XVI
box 1, folder 9, radin_number XVII
box 1, folder 10, radin_number XLIII
box 1, folder 11, radin_number XLI
box 1, folder 12, radin_number XLII
box 1, folder 13, radin_number XXXV
box 1, folder 14, radin_number XXII
box 1, folder 15, radin_number XXV
box 1, folder 16, radin_number XIV
box 1, folder 17, radin_number XIXA
box 1, folder 18, radin_number XIXB
box 1, folder 19, radin_number LI
box 1, folder 20, radin_number -
box 1, folder 21, radin_number XXVIIA
box 1, folder 22, radin_number XXVIIB
box 1, folder 23, radin_number XLVIA
box 1, folder 24, radin_number XLVIB
box 1, folder 25, radin_number XLVIC
Greek "Professional Class" 6378
box 2, folder 1, radin_number XXIX
box 2, folder 2, radin_number XXIV
box 2, folder 3, radin_number XVIIB
box 2, folder 4, radin_number XVIIC
box 2, folder 5, radin_number XXXIIA
box 2, folder 6, radin_number XXXIIB
box 2, folder 7, radin_number XXXIICA
box 2, folder 8, radin_number XXXIICB
box 2, folder 9, radin_number XXXIID
box 2, folder 10, radin_number XXXIIDa
box 2, folder 11, radin_number XXXIIDb
box 2, folder 12, radin_number XXXIIDc
box 2, folder 13, radin_number XXXIIDe
box 2, folder 14, radin_number XXXIIDf
box 4, folder 22-27
Japanese
Physical Description: 6
folders
box 2, folder 15, radin_number VIII
box 2, folder 16, radin_number XLIX
box 2, folder 17, radin_number XXXIX
box 2, folder 18, radin_number XXXIII
box 2, folder 19, radin_number XXXIV
box 2, folder 20, radin_number II
box 2, folder 21, radin_number XIII
box 2, folder 22, radin_number XXVI
box 2, folder 23, radin_number XXXI
box 2, folder 24, radin_number XLV
box 2, folder 25, radin_number XLV
box 2, folder 26, radin_number XXXVIIA
box 2, folder 27-28, radin_number XXXVIIA
box 3, folder 1, radin_number XXXVIIB
box 3, folder 2, radin_number XXXVIIB
box 3, folder 3, radin_number XVIIIA
box 3, folder 4, radin_number -
Scandinavian Report B 6409
box 3, folder 5, radin_number -
Scandinavian Report C 6410
box 3, folder 6, radin_number XIII
box 3, folder 7, radin_number XV
box 3, folder 8, radin_number XXX
box 3, folder 9, radin_number XXX
box 3, folder 10, radin_number XX
box 3, folder 11, radin_number XXIA
box 3, folder 12, radin_number XXVI
box 3, folder 13, radin_number XLVII
box 3, folder 14, radin_number XLIV
Yugoslavia incl. Serbia 6419
box 3, folder 15, radin_number -
Miscellaneous countries 6420
Series 2
Radin Ethnic Surveys (Chinese) 6348
1934-1935
Physical Description: 19
folders(1.0 cu. ft.)
Subseries A
Chinese Folklore and autobiographical materials 6941
Arrangement
Arranged as received, by Radin's folder titles and numbering system.
box 3, folder 16, radin_number -
box 3, folder 17, radin_number LIIA
box 3, folder 18, radin_number LIIB
box 3, folder 19, radin_number LIIC
box 3, folder 20, radin_number LIIC
box 3, folder 21, radin_number LIIE
box 3, folder 22, radin_number LIIE
Subseries B
SERA worker Jon Lee's papers, including material for "The Golden
Mountain"
6350
Arrangement
Divided into Lee's Chinese survey files and his files for The Golden Mountain, each
arranged numerically.
box 4, folder 1, radin_number -
box 4, folder 2, radin_number LIID
box 4, folder 3, radin_number -
Jon Lee- China No. 1 6430
box 4, folder 4, radin_number -
Jon Lee- China No. 2 6431
box 4, folder 5, radin_number -
Jon Lee- China No. 3 6432
box 4, folder 6, radin_number -
Jon Lee- China No. 4 6433
box 4, folder 7, radin_number -
Jon Lee- China No. 5 6434
box 4, folder 8, radin_number -
Jon Lee- China No. 6 6435
box 4, folder 9, radin_number -
Material for "The Golden Mountain" No. 1 6436
box 4, folder 10, radin_number -
Material for "The Golden Mountain" No. 2 6437
box 4, folder 11, radin_number -
Material for "The Golden Mountain" No. 3 6438
box 4, folder 12, radin_number -
Material for "The Golden Mountain" No. 4 6439
box 4, folder 13
Series 3
Letters from Jon Lee 6351
1943-1945
Physical Description: 1
folder
Scope and Contents
Letters to Radin from Jon Lee while he was in the Army during World War II, stationed
in India and China.
box 4, folder 14-15
Series 4
Italians survey cards 6352
[1934-1935]
Physical Description: 2
folders
Scope and Contents
Index cards containing data from interviews with Italian Americans, apparently compiled
as part of Radin's research for the portion of the SERA project later published as The
Italians of San Francisco: Their Adjustment and Acculturation. Includes a few cards
about Chinese Americans.
Series 5
Mary Sacharoff-Fast Wolf papers 6353
[193?]-2000
Physical Description: 7
folders
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
box 4, folder 16
Miscellaneous Radin WPA Project documents 6602
1936
box 4, folder 17
Anthropology Term Paper 6603
1988
box 4, folder 18
Master's Thesis 6604
1989
box 4, folder 19
Biographical Material on Radin (photocopies) 6605
2000
box 4, folder 20
"Survey of San Francisco's Minorities" and SERA political cartoon (color
photocopies)
6606
undated
box 4, folder 21
WPA Project Master Control List 6607
undated