Peveril Meigs Baja California Research Materials
Finding aid prepared by Special Collections & Archives
Special Collections & Archives
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, California, 92093-0175
858-534-2533
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Copyright 2005
Descriptive Summary
Title: Peveril Meigs Baja California Research Materials
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0530
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, California, 92093-0175
Languages:
English
Physical Description:
12.4 Linear feet
(5 archives boxes and 8 oversized folders)
Date (inclusive): 1925 - 1979
Abstract: Photographs, journals, maps and related research materials on Baja California, Mexico, created by geographer Peveril Meigs
III. Meigs conducted field research in northern Baja between 1925 and 1936 observing geology, climate, indigenous populations,
mission sites, and local culture in preparation for his 1932 doctoral dissertation entitled "The Dominican Missions of Lower
California" and his ethnographic monograph entitled
The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California (1939).
Creator:
Meigs, Peveril, 1903-1979
Related Materials
SEPARATION NOTE: Published books, journals, and maps from the Peveril Meigs collection have been separated from the papers
and added Library's holdings. To identify and list these items, conduct an author search in the ROGER catalog on the term
"Meigs, Peveril 1903 1979 Former Owner."
Scope and Content of Collection
Photographs, journals, maps and related research materials on Baja California, Mexico, created by geographer Peveril Meigs
III. Meigs conducted field research in northern Baja between 1925 and 1936 observing geology, climate, indigenous populations,
mission sites, and local culture in preparation for his 1932 doctoral dissertation entitled "The Dominican Missions of Lower
California" and his ethnographic monograph entitled
The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California (1939).
The collection contains journals with daily observations of people, the natural environment and historical sites; photographic
prints, scans of negatives, and glass lantern slides, some of which have been mounted in albums; and hand drawn maps, particularly
of the area around Arroyo Leon. The journals and all photographic images have been digitized and are available for viewing
on the UC San Diego Library Digital Collections website. The collection also includes notes and typescripts on Meigs's fieldwork
and published sources on Baja California and Dominican mission history; annotated publications; and correspondence with his
dissertation advisor, Dr. Carl Sauer, and other notable scholars including ethnographer A.L. Kroeber, geographer Homer Aschmann,
and historian Peter Gerhard. Of interest is Meigs's translation, from Spanish into English, of Dominican padre Luis de Sales's
"Noticias de la Provincia de Californias en Tres Cartas," notes and data compiled in the 1950s on Baja California's climate
history, and several papers by Meigs on peninsular Indian culture written in the 1970s. The collection does not contain material
related to Meigs's research on other arid deserts or tide mills.
Arranged in eight series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS BY MEIGS, 3) WRITINGS BY OTHERS, 4) JOURNALS, 5) PHOTOGRAPHS, 6)
MAPS, 7) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS, and 8) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
Biography
Peveril Meigs, III was born in Flushing, New York, on May 5, 1903. His family moved to Santa Barbara, California, and Meigs
later attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received an A.B. (1925) and a Ph.D (1932) in geography. As
an undergraduate studying with Dr. Carl O. Sauer, Meigs became interested in Baja California and planned his first trip to
the peninsula in the summer of 1925, accompanied by fellow graduate student Charles Warren Thornthwaite.
On his first trip, Meigs and Thornthwaite travelled as far south as San Fernando de Velicatá and visited David Goldbaum in
Ensenada, the Johnson Ranch in San Antonio del Mar, the Hamilton Ranch, the flour mill and saltworks at San Quintín, the Meling
Ranch, and the mining center of Real Del Castillo. They also made a long stay in the town of El Rosario, a brief tour of Mexicali
and visited the Dominican mission sites of San Fernando, El Rosario, Santo Domingo, and San Pedro Mártir.
Meigs returned to Berkeley as a graduate student in the fall of 1925, presented his photographs to a seminar in geography
and stimulated interest in the peninsula among graduate students and faculty, including Dr. Oscar Schmieder, who went on to
study the Russian colony in the Guadalupe Valley. In the summer of 1926, Dr. Sauer, Meigs, and graduate students Sam Dicken
and Fred Kniffen embarked upon a second trip that retraced many of the destinations of the first and concentrated on Dominican
mission sites. Sauer and Meigs returned and published "Site and Culture at San Fernando de Velicatá," the first installment
in a Baja California series published by the University of California Press. Sauer served as Meigs's advisor as he continued
his graduate studies and began work on his dissertation.
Meigs returned to Baja California each summer for the next three years, focusing on the history and geography of the Dominican
missions and the native populations surrounding them. In 1927, Meigs was accompanied by Horace Byers, a Berkeley undergraduate
interested in making meteorological observations. In 1928, Meigs, under the direction of Dr. A.L. Kroeber and accompanied
by his wife Yvonne, spent several weeks living with and studying the Kiliwa Indians in Valle Trinidad. He was joined by his
brother Stewart on a similar trip in 1929.
Meigs returned to the peninsula to complete his studies of the Kiliwa Indians in 1936. The results of these studies were published
in 1939 as
The Kiliwa Indians of Lower California.
Following several teaching apppointments in California and Louisiana, Meigs served as a geographer with the Office of Strategic
Services (1942-1945) and the Arctic Institute of North America (1948-1949). While he spent most of his professional career
studying the physical geography of arid and arctic zones, Meigs returned to his Baja California studies in the 1970s, publishing
several articles in
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly that reexamined his earlier field work.
Peveril Meigs died September 16, 1979, in Wayland, Massachusetts.
Digital Content
Journals and photographic images from the collection have been digitized and can be viewed through links in the container
list, or by clicking the link below.
Preferred Citation
Peveril Meigs Baja California Research Materials, MSS 530. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2000, 2001.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Dawson, Glen, 1912-
Gerhard, Peter, 1920-
Kelly, William H. (William Henderson), 1902-
Kroeber, A. L. (Alfred Louis), 1876-1960
Sales, Luis de, 1745-1807
Sauer, Carl Ortwin, 1889-1975
West, Robert C. (Robert Cooper), 1913-2001
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Climate
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Description and travel
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Geography
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- History
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Maps
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Pictorial works
Indians of Mexico -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
Kiliwa Indians
Maps -- Mexico -- Baja California -- 20th century
Meling Ranch (Baja California, Mexico)
Missions -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula) -- History
Missions -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula) -- Pictorial works
Photographic prints -- 1920-1929
Photographic prints -- 1930-1939
Ranches -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
CORRESPONDENCE
Scope and Content of Series
Series 1) CORRESPONDENCE: Letters from other Baja California historians, geographers, and anthropologists, as well as editors,
booksellers, and family members. Notable correspondents include Carl Sauer, A.L. Kroeber, Homer Aschmann, and Peter Gerhard.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.
Box 1, Folder 2
Antigua Libreria Robredo
1949
Box 1, Folder 3
Aschmann, Homer
1954
General note
Includes Baja California climatic data charts.
Box 1, Folder 5
Dawson's Book Shop
1979
General note
Glen Dawson.
Box 1, Folder 6
Gerhard, Peter
1943 - 1951
Box 1, Folder 7
Kelly, William
1940 - 1949
Box 1, Folder 8
Kroeber, A.L.
1932 - 1939
Box 1, Folder 9
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery
1935
Box 1, Folder 10
Meigs, Loren (brother)
1925 - 1932
WRITINGS BY MEIGS
Scope and Content of Series
Series 2) WRITINGS BY MEIGS: Drafts summarizing field notes, typescripts, notes on bibliographic sources, and reprints of
Meigs's work related to Baja California, including research notes for his published works on the Kiliwa Indians and several
reprints of articles published in
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. Of interest is Meigs's translation of Padre Luis de Sales's "Noticias de la Provincia de Californias en Tres Cartas," an
important account on Dominican activity in Baja California. Materials are arranged alphabetically.
Box 1, Folder 14
Baja California bibliographies
1952 - 1961
Box 1, Folder 15
Baja California climatic data
1919 - 1967
General note
Notes and charts.
Box 1, Folder 16
Capes of Human Hair from Baja California and Outside
1970
General note
Reprint and negative of illustration. Published in
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 1970.
Box 1, Folder 17
Creation Myth and Other Recollections of the Niji Mishkwish
1971
General note
Reprint, draft, photograph, drawing, and map. Published in
Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1971.
Box 1, Folder 19
Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California
1935
Box 1, Folder 20
Kiliwa Indians - Dialects
Box 1, Folder 21
Kiliwa Indians - Notes
1917 - 1977
Box 1, Folder 22
Kiliwa Indians - Valle Trinidad notes
1929
Box 1, Folder 23
Kiliwa Indians of Lower California
1932 - 1969
General note
Correspondence and manuscript draft.
Box 1, Folder 25
Notes on the Paipai of San Isidoro, Baja California
1977
General note
Reprint. Published in
Pacific Coast Archeological Society Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 1977.
Box 1, Folder 26
Noticias de la Provincia de Californias en Tres Cartas, by Luis Sales. Translated by Meigs
Box 1, Folder 27
Noticias de la Provincia de Californias en Tres Cartas, by Luis Sales. Translated by Meigs
Box 1, Folder 28
Rains and hurricanes in southern Baja California
1966
General note
Draft and notes.
Box 1, Folder 29
Some Pictographs in Northern Baja California
1976
General note
Reprint. Published in
Pacific Coast Archeological Society Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1, January 1976.
WRITINGS BY OTHERS
Scope and Content of Series
Series 3) WRITINGS BY OTHERS: Baja California-related publications by other authors that have been heavily annotated by Meigs.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Box 1, Folder 30
Diary of Junipero Serra; Mch. 28 - June 30, 1769. Part III
1902
General note
Published in OUTWEST, vol. 16, no. 5.
Box 1, Folder 31
Gifford, E.W. "The Kamia of Imperial Valley"
1931
General note
Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 97.
Box 2, Folder 1
Gifford, E.W. and R.H. Lowie. "Notes on the Akwa'ala Indians of Lower California"
1929
General note
University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 23, No. 7, pp. 339-352. 2 copies, both annotated
by Meigs.
Box 2, Folder 2
Hastings, James Rodney, ed.
Climatological Data For Baja California
1964
General note
University of Arizona. Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Technical Reports on the Meteorology and Climatology of Arid Regions,
No. 14.
Box 2, Folder 3
Hendry, George W. "Francisco Palou's Boundary Marker"
1926
General note
California Historical Society, San Francisco, 1926.
Box 2, Folder 4
Mexico. Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganaderia. Servicio Meteorologico Mexicano
1924 - 1954
General note
Manuscript meteorological data charts recording temperature, rainfall, dominant wind direction, number of days of fog, and
number of cloudy days for reporting stations in Baja California and Sonora from the 1920s to the 1950s. Completeness of the
data varies for each station
Box 2, Folder 5
Nelson, Edward W.
Lower California And Its Natural Resources
1921
General note
Published in
Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XVI.
Box 2, Folder 6
North Mexican Center for Anthropology
1953
Box 2, Folder 7
Rogers, Malcolm J. "The Stone Art of the San Dieguito Plateau"
1929
General note
Reprinted from
American Anthropologist, Vol. 31, No. 3, July-September 1929.
Box 2, Folder 8
Shreve, Forest. "A Desert by the Sea"
1935
General note
Carnegie Institution of Washington, News Service Bulletin, School Edition. Vol. 3, No. 26, Release Date Sunday, September
29, 1935.
Box 2, Folder 9
Shreve, Forest and R.D. Mallery. "Desert Investigations"
1934
General note
Annual Report of the Division of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1933-1934. Issued December 14, 1934.
JOURNALS
Scope and Content of Series
Series 4) JOURNALS: Meigs's field notes from his annual summer expeditions to Baja California, 1925-1929. Notably absent from
the series are his notes from 1936. While the journals mostly contain daily accounts of his field work, including land measurements,
sketch maps, photograph captions, and interviews with subjects, the 1925 journal begins six months before he enters the field,
offering a glimpse of Meigs's life as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. The final entry in the series is a copy of Dr. Oscar
Schmieder's study of the Russian colony at Guadalupe Valley, heavily annotated by Meigs while he studied the Kiliwa Indians
in 1929. The journals were numbered by Meigs and are arranged chronologically.
Box 2, Folder 10
Outlined account of Baja California explorations
1926 - 1928
General note
Contains references to journal page numbers and photographs. Probably created in preparation for a publication for the
Baja California Travel Series.
Box 2, Folder 11
Journal 1
1925 January 1-August 3
Journal 1, 1925 January 1 - August 3
Box 2, Folder 12
Journal 1A
1925 June 25-July 26
General note
June 25 - July 26. Baja California. Notes before going and measurements of elevation.
Box 2, Folder 13
Journal 2
1926 May-June
General note
May - June. Baja California. Sauer's trip 1.
Box 2, Folder 14
Journal 3
1926 June-July
General note
June - July. Baja California. Sauer's trip 2.
Box 2, Folder 15
Journal 4
1926 July-August
General note
July - August. Baja California. Sauer's trip 3.
Box 3, Folder 1
Journal 5
1927 May-June
General note
May - June. Baja California. Field notes 1.
Box 3, Folder 2
Journal 5A
1927 May
General note
Meteorological data. Includes newspaper articles about Meig's 1926 and 1927 explorations.
Box 3, Folder 3
Lower California Day Book
1927 May 14
General note
One entry, dated May 14.
Lower California Day Book, 1927
Box 3, Folder 4
Journal 6
1927 June-July
General note
June - July. Field notes 2.
Box 3, Folder 5
Journal 7, 8, and 9
1927 July
General note
Volume contains "1927, July - August, Field notes 3"; "1927-1928, Winter"; and "1928, Summer, 2 weeks, includes Kiliwa study."
Journal 7, 8, and 9, 1927
Box 3, Folder 6
Journal 10
1928 May-July
General note
Kiliwa study, first summer, with Yvonne, 1.
Box 3, Folder 7
Journal 11
1928 May-July
General note
Kiliwa study, first summer, with Yvonne, 2.
Box 3, Folder 9
Journal 13
1929 May-June
General note
Santa Catalina Mission. Geography of Kiliwas.
Box 3, Folder 10
Journal 14
1929 June
General note
Schmieder, Oscar. "Lower Californian Studies. II. The Russian colony of Guadalupe Valley." University of California Publications
in Geography 2, no. 14 (1928). 409-434. Heavily annotated by Meigs while in the field in 1929.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND LANTERN SLIDES
Scope and Content of Series
Series 5) PHOTOGRAPHS. Arranged in two subseries: A) Photograph Albums and B) Lantern Slides.
The collection originally contained several hundred nitrate negatives. Due to their deteriorating condition, the negatives
were scanned and destroyed. All photographic images in this series can be found on the UC San Diego Library Digital Collections
website, where they are individually scanned, described and, where possible, linked to the journal entry that describes the
day the image was captured.
A) Photograph Albums: Meigs assembled an album of his first field trip to Baja California in 1925, containing original prints
and his own captions. Negatives largely do not exist for this album, and some prints are missing. Following the example of
the 1925 album, in 2007 the nitrate negatives were scanned and new prints were collated into modern albums along with original
prints, using caption titles supplied by information in Meigs's journals. During this process, Meigs's own numbering system
for matching prints, negatives, and captions was maintained. In some cases, descriptions in the albums have been supplemented
with additional notations found on his negative envelopes. Several gaps remain in the photograph series where negative envelopes
were empty or missing. In most cases, the numbers and captions of absent photographs have been noted and designated as "Missing"
within each album.
B) Lantern Slides: 63 glass slides used in presentations by Meigs. The slides are largely copies of images originally captured
on nitrate negatives; these images have been scanned from the negative and are available on the Library's Digital Collections
website.
Oversize FB-350, Folder 1
Album
1925
General note
From Tijuana to El Rosario. Includes images of the Santo Tomas valley, Johnson's Ranch at San Antonio del Mar, the San Telmo
valley, the Hamilton Ranch in Santo Domingo, the San Quintin flour mill and saltworks, and the town of El Rosario.
Oversize FB-350, Folder 2
Album
1926
General note
San Fernando Velicata to Santo Tomas. Includes images of the missions of San Fernando Velicata, Nuestra Senora del Rosario,
San Vicente Ferrer, Santo Domingo de la Frontera, and Santo Tomas.
Oversize FB-351, Folder 1
Album
1927
General note
Tijuana to El Marmol. Includes images of Japanese abalone fisherman, the onyx mine at El Marmol, the rancho at Santa Catarina,
the San Fernando mine, and the saltworks at San Quintin.
Oversize FB-351, Folder 2
Album
1928
General note
Valle Trinidad to Tijuana. Includes images of Kiliwa Indians around Arroyo Leon, street scenes in Ensenada, and panoramic
views of Tijuana from the hill above the port of entry on the US side.
Oversize FB-351, Folder 3
Album
1929
General note
Arroyo Leon to Neji. Includes images from the Guadalupe valley, the town of Santa Catarina, and the village of Neji.
Oversize FB-351, Folder 4
Album
1936
General note
Includes images of Mission San Miguel and Indians at Manteca.
Box 4
Lantern slides
1925 - 1936
MAPS
Scope and Content of Series
SeriesES 6) MAPS: Maps created by Meigs, either as copies of existing maps or as field sketches, as well as a "Baja California
Sketch Map" containing C.W. Thornthwaite's signature on each leaf. The maps created by Meigs have been identified using the
title he attributed to them. Untitled maps have been identified by geographic region or landmarks. The Thornthwaite map appears
to be an enlarged and segmented copy of Carl H. Beal's "Reconnaissance geologic map and structure sections of Baja California,
Mexico." The twelve leaves of the map are accompanied by reduced-sized photocopies exhibiting numerous annotations by Meigs.
Arranged in alphabetical order.
Oversize MC-154-01
Diagrammatic sketch from Cape Colnett to San Felipe Bay
General note
Traced from sketch by J. van der Gracht. Pencil and colored pencil on tracing paper.
Oversize MC-154-01, Box
Diagrammatic sketch from El Rosario to the Gulf of California at 30 degrees N. Latitude
General note
Traced from sketch by J. van der Gracht. Pencil and colored pencil on tracing paper.
Oversize MC-154-01
Diagrammatic sketch from Santo Tomás to south of San Quintín
General note
Pencil and colored pencil on tracing paper.
Oversize MC-154-01
[Distribution of coastal rock formations from Tijuana to Santa Catarina]
General note
Ink, pencil, and colored pencil on tracing paper.
Box 5, Folder 5
Geological profile, Todos Santos Bay to Gulf
1926
General note
"Geol. Profile, Todos S. Bay to Gulf. Direction N. 71 Degrees E., Lindgren." Pencil on paper.
Oversize MC-154-01
Lluvia annual. Baja California Sur
General note
Unidentified publication.
Oversize MC-154-01
Maps published in
The Dominican Mission Frontier Of Lower California
1935
General note
"General Map emphasizing the Dominican area of Lower California" and "Physical Regions and Explorations."
Box 5, Folder 8
Northwest Mexico. Coastal Sectors
General note
Unidentified publication.
Oversize MC-154-01
[Sketch map of area surrounding Mission Santa Catarina]
General note
Pencil on tracing paper.
Oversize MC-154-01
Sketch map of San Quintín Bay
General note
Tracing from a blueprint by "C.J. Young (engineer), 1889, for the Compania Mexicana Internacional. Elevations from U.S. Steamship
'Ranger,' 1888. Blueprint loaned by David Goldbaum." Pencil on tracing paper.
Oversize MC-154-01
Sketch map of the San Telmo River mouth
General note
Pencil on tracing paper.
Oversize MC-154-01
Sketch map of the lands of Mission Santa Catarina
General note
Traced from "Terrenos de la ex-mision de Sta. Catalina. Wm. Denton, Fernando Lantern(?), 1895(?)." Pencil on tracing paper.
Box 5, Folder 13
Sketch maps of El Rosario
1926
General note
Pencil on paper.
Oversize MC-154-02
Thornthwaite, C.W. Baja California Sketch Map
1925
General note
Based on the work of Carl H. Beal for the Marland Oil Company. Segmented into 12 quadrangles; quadrangle 10 missing. Includes
set of reduced-size photocopies with annotations by Meigs.
Box 5, Folder 15
Vila, Vicente. Puerto de San Diego situado por 32 grados 32 minutos de latitud septent
1769
General note
Photocopy of a manuscript map in Archivo General de Indias, Seville.
MISCELLANEOUS
Scope and Content of Series
Series 7) MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS: Newspaper clippings, pressed plants, and a postcard from Ensenada.
Box 5, Folder 16
Newspaper clippings
1925 - 1962
Box 5, Folder 19
Principal publications by Peveril Meigs
1974
Box 5, Folder 20
Telegram from William A. Saathoff (foreman) to Eulogio Romero
General note
April 5, 1908.
ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES
Box 5, Folder 21
Originals of preservation photocopies