Guide to the Robert Underwood Johnson papers, 1889-1924

Processed by The Bancroft Library staff

The Bancroft Library.

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California, 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Note

Biological and Medical Sciences --Agriculture --Forestry History --History, California --History, Central Valley/Sierra Geographical (by Place) --California --Central Valley/Sierra

Guide to the Robert Underwood Johnson Papers, 1889-1924

Collection number: BANC MSS C-B 385

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Contact Information:

The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Processed by:: The Bancroft Library staff
Encoded by:: Xiuzhi Zhou

Collection Summary

Collection Title: Robert Underwood Johnson Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1889-1924

Collection Number: BANC MSS C-B 385

Creator: Johnson, Robert Underwood, 1853-1937

Extent: Number of containers: 8 boxes (1245 folders),1 oversize folder

Repository: The Bancroft Library.

Berkeley, California 94720-6000

Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Abstract: Chiefly concerning conservation of the Yosemite area, including campaign, 1913, against Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Material relating to Sequoia, General Grant and other national parks and to forest reserves included. A few printed items: reports, circulars, copies of laws, etc., with the papers. Includes 146 letters of John Muir and letters from General and Mrs. John Bidwell, Mr. and Mrs. James Mason Hutchings, Charles D. Robinson, George G. Mackenzie, Edward T. Parsons, William E. Colby, Charles Howard Shinn, and other Californians, and John W. Noble, Gifford Pinchot, Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Theodore Roosevelt. George Bird Grinnell and others prominent on the national scene.

Languages Represented: English

Information for Researchers

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library 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.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Robert Underwood Johnson papers, BANC MSS C-B 385, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Material Cataloged Separately

Printed Material

California. Commissioners to manage the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove. Report, 1866-7 (San Francisco. Towne & Bacon, 1868).
California. Commisioners to manage the Yosemite Valley ... Rules, Regulations and By-Laws ... (Sacramento ... 1885)
Rules and Regulations of the Yosemite National Park (Facsimile signature, John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior).
McLean, John T. Statement concerning Senate Bill no. 2708 and House Bill no. 7712 ... [1896]
Manson, Marsden. A statement of San Francisco's side of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir matter ... Dec. 30, 1909.
The Water Users Association of the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts ... Available sources of water supply for San Francisco ... [1913?]
Miller, Clement H. Address ... before the San Francisco Center of the California Civic League ... 1913.
Chittenden, H. M. Forests and reservoirs ... 1908 (reprinted from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Proceedings, v. xxiv, p. 924[?].
U.S. Department of the Interior. Report of the Advisory Board of Army Engineers to the Secretary of the Interior ... relative to sources of water supply for San Francisco ... 1913.
Boone and Crockett Club. Brief History ... with officers, constitution and list of members for the year 1910.

Maps

Le Conte, John N. (Compiled for the Sierra Club) -1893:

Map of a portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the King's River.
Le Conte, John N. (Compiled for the Sierra Club) -1893:

Map of a portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Valleys.

Biography

Robert Underwood Johnson, author, conservationist, and diplomat, was born in New York in 1853. For more than forty years he was associated with The Century Magazine. Associate Editor under Richard Watson Gilder, he succeeded to the editorship from 1909-1913. In 1920-1921 he served as Ambassador to Italy and represented the United States at the San Remo Conference. After his return to this country he devoted himself chiefly to the publication of poetry and his memoirs, Remembered Yesterdays, until his death in 1937.

In the summer of 1889, Johnson came to California to organize a series of articles for The Century. He met John Muir and with him visited Yosemite -an experience which profoundly influenced his life. He spent the next twenty five years actively promoting all the movements to safeguard the natural beauty of the West. He aided campaigns to make Yosemite Valley and the Sequoia Big Tree groves National Parks. In 1913, he spearheaded in the East the unsuccessful fight to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley from becoming the reservoir for San Francisco's water supply.

Scope and Content

His voluminous papers were sold by his family. Unsuccessful in disposing of the papers as a unit, the dealer who acquired them divided them into groups to facilitate their sale. The Bancroft Library purchased in 1950-1951 from Mary A. Benjamin that portion which dealt with California and Johnson's interest in conservations.

There are relatively few copies of Johnson's own letters in the collection. Of these, by far the largest portion consists of carbon copies of letters written in 1913 in the Hetch Hetchy campaign. The 146 letters of John Muir are, of course, the most important segment. There are, also, letters from General and Mrs. John Bidwell, Mr. and Mrs. James Mason Hutchings, Charles D. Robinson, George G. Mackenzie, Edward T. Parsons, William E. Colby, Charles Howard Shinn, and other Californians, and John W. Noble, Gifford Pinchot, Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell and others prominent on the national scene.

Because of the importance of individual correspondents, the letters have been arranged alphabetically. A listing of the correspondents by year (appended) has been made to preserve as far as was practical some chronological aspect of the papers.

Box 1

Correspondence A-Cl

box

Box 2

Correspondence Co-Hal

Box 3

Correspondence Ham-Mar

Box 4

Correspondence Mau-Olm

Box 5

Corresondence Oln-Rob

Box 6

Correspondence Roo-Wh

Box 7

Correspondence Wi-Z Robert Underwood Johnson and Mrs. Johnson, miscellaneous papers

Box 8

Miscellaneous papers

portfolio Portfolio:

Muir maps of Yosemite

(see also John Muir, 146 letters, 1889-1914)

1889

Davis, Horace

Leighton, Rufus

Mills, William H.

Robinson, Charles D.

Shinn, Charles Howard

1890

Armes, William Dallam

Armstrong, James B.

Bidwell, John (and Mrs. Bidwell)

Chichester, Charles F.

Deming, Lucius P.

Edmunds, J.

Grinnell, George Bird

Groff, Lewis A.

Hutchings, James Mason

Irish, John P.

Lathrop, George Parsons

Mackenzie, George G.

Newsham, Thomas J.

Noble, John Willock

Plumb, Preston P.

Robinson, Charles D.

Royce, Josiah

Scidmore, Eliza (Ruhamah)

Shinn, Charles Howard

Spinney, George F.

Stiles, W.A.

Stock, Ernest C.

Ward, Augustus H.

1891

Barnard, A.F. (Mrs. John K.)

Brown, John Nicholas

Carter, Thomas H.

Chandler, George

Crippen Kate M.

Field, Kate

Fiske, George

Ford, William Warwick

Fox, John

Grinnell, George Bird

Hague, Arnold

Harrison, J.B.

Hittell, John Shertzer

Johnstone, E. McD.

Lyman, Hart

Noble, John Willock

Robinson, Charles D.

Royce, Josiah

Shinn, Charles Howard

Sprague, George E.

Stiles, W.A.

U.S. Dept. Of Interior (Chief Clerk E.M. Dawson) - filed under Dawson

Waite, Edwin G.

Ward, Augustus H.

1892

Bidwell, Annie (Mrs. John)

Bishoprick, N.J.

Carter, Thomas H.

Grinnell, George Bird

Irish, John Powell

Noble, John Willock

Robinson, Charles D.

Stidger, John S.

Watd, Augustus H.

Weigel, Eugene F.

1893

Allen F.B.

Bowers, Edward A.

Carey, John Maull

Chandler, George

Collman, O.J.

Dawson, E.M.

Fernow, Bernhard Eduard

Grant, Lewis Addison

Grinnell, George Bird

Hague, Arnold

Hawley, Joseph Roswell

Hutchings, Emila A. (Mrs. James M.)

Irish, John Powell

Jordan, David Starr

Lamont, Daniel Scott

Leupp, Francis Ellington

Lyman, Hart

Noble, John Willock

Olney, Richard

Platt, Orville Hitchcock

Robinson, Charles D.

Shinn, Milicent Washburn

Smith, Hoke

Stevens, William H.

Stiles, W.A.

Thurber, Henry T.

Ward, Augustus H.

Williams, Elliot

1894

Miller, Charles Ransom

Sargent, Charles Sprague

1895

American Forestry Association

California Secretary of State

Gardner, Frank Saltus

Olmsted, John Charles

Pinchot, Gifford

1896

Bowers, Edward A.

Gibbs, Oliver Wolcott

McAllister, Elliott

Pinchot, Gifford

Sargent, Charles Sprague

Sierra Club, San Francisco

White, T. Brook

1897

Kasson, John Adam

1898

Allison, William Boyd

Bliss, Cornelius Newton

DeVries, Marion

Hale, Eugene

Hermann, Binger

Lacey, John Fletcher

Lodge, Henry Cabot

McAneny, George

Mackenzie, George G.

Platt, Orville Hitchcock

Quay, Matther Stanley

Reed, Thomas Brackett

Rothrock, Joseph Trimble

Sargent, Charles Sprague

Sayers, Joseph Draper

Stone, William Alexis

Zerely, J.W.

1899

Hague, Arnold

1900-01

No letters

1902

Sargent, Charles Sprague

1903

Barnes, Benjamin F.

Pinchot, Gifford

1904

Perkins, George Clement

Pinchot, Gifford

Roosevelt, Theodore

1905

Gibbs, Oliver Wolcott (in margin of Johnson to Gibbs)

Loeb, William

Millard, Bailey

Pinchot, Gifford

Roosevelt, Theodore

1906

Pinchot, Gifford

Strother, Edgar French

1907

Colby, William Edward

Hughes, Charles Evans

Pinchot, Gifford (and his secretary, Harry L. Hill)

Wells, Philip Patterson

1908

Bowers, Edward A. (and his sister, Fannie A. Bowers)

Carnegie, Andrew

Chittenden, Hiram Martin

Colby, William Eduard

Hague, Arnold

Hough, Romeyn Beck

Hughes, Charles Evans

Loeb, William

McGee, William John (Introd. To Proceedings of Governors' Conference ...)

Mendenhall, Thomas Corwin

Pinchot, Gifford

Rhodes, James Ford

Roosevelt, Theodore

Sargent, Charles Sprague

Shipp, Thomas R.

Walcott, Charles Doolittle

Ward, Augustus H.

Wheeler, Benjamin Ide

Will, Thomas Elmer

1909

American Forestry Assn. (J.A.P. Farnham)

Badè, William Frederic

Bowers, Edward A.

Brougham, H. B.

Colby, William Edward (Sierra Club)

Fife, George Buchanan

Foster, Samuel Lynde

Gleason, Herbert W.

Kolb, Charles A.

Luebkert, Otto

McFarland, John Horace

McGee, William John

Martin, Thomas Commerford

Miller, Charles Ransom

Olmsted, John Charles

Parsons, Edward T.

Shipp, Thomas Roerty

Van Dyke, Henry

Whitney, Caspar

Will, Thomas Elmer

1910

Badè, William Frederic

Ballinger, Richard Achilles

Carpenter, Fred W.

Colby, William Edward

Dargan, Olive

Gregory, Henry E.

Laut, Agnes C.

McFarland, John Horace

Watrous, Richard Benedict

Whitman, Edmund Allen

1911

Fisher, Walter L.

Hilles, Charles Dewey

Norton, Charles Dyer

Osborn, Henry Fairfield

Roosevelt, Theodore

1912

Adams, Samuel

Fisher, Walter L.

Harrison, Francis Burton

Long, Percy Vincent

Meany, Edmond Stephen

Shinn, Charles Howard

1913

Allen, Edward W.

Ammon, Sameul A.

Ashbough, Lewis E.

Aston, Taggart

Badè, William Frederic

Balmers, Edwin

Barendt, Arthur H.

Barker, Henry Ames

Barrow, David Crenshaw

Bayne, Samuel Gamble

Beal, Junius Emory

Becker, Dorothy E.

Boardman, Mabel Thorp

Bobbs, William Conrad

Borah, William Edgar

Bowers, Claude Gernade

Bowers, Edward Augustus

Bowles, Samuel

Brandegee, Gfrank Bosworth

Branson, I R.

Braucher, Howard S.

Bridgman, Herbert Lawrence

Books, John Pascal

Brown, Alice M.

Burnham, John Bird

Burton, Theodore Elijah

Carpenter, Ford Ahman

Chamberlain, Allen

Chamberlain, George Earle

Colby, William Edards

Colquitt, Neyle

Colt, Le Baron Bradford

Crocker, Mrs. Emmons

Crow, Martha Foote

Davis, Milton Fennimore

Delano, Julia

Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel

DeVelbiss, Frank J.

Dickinson, F. E.

Dodds, Alexander

Drapeau, Louis C.

Drinker, Henry Sturgis

Dunn, Russell L.

Dunnigan, John S.

Eckstorm, Fennie (Hardy)

Eliot, Charles William

Elliott, Henry W.

Ely, M.W. (Sec. to H.S. Graves)

Fernow, Bernhard Eduard

Ferris, Scott

Fitch, George H.

Forbes, Edgar Allen

Freeman, John Ripley

Fuller, Hubert Bruce

Gallinger, Jacob Harold

Gardner, Obadiah

Garfield, James Rudolph

George, Charles E.

Gleason, Herbert W.

Graves, Henry Solon

Gray, Henry G.

Gregory, Henry E.

Grinnell, George Bird

Gronna, Asle J.

Hadley, Hiram

Hall, Edward Hagaman

Hampson, Alden

Hanna, Paul

Harrison, Francis Burton

Hart, Albert Bushnell

Havens, Munson

Hawes, Austin Foster

Hobson, Richmond Pearson

Hollis, Henry French

Holt, Hamilton

Hooper, FranklinWilliam

Hornaday, William Temple

Houston, David Franklin

Hughes, William

Hurt, Huber William

Ingersoll, Ernest

James, Edward Janes

Jones, Herschell Vespasian

Kelley, Edgar Stillman

Kern, John Worth

Kunz, George Frederick

LaFollette, Rovert Marion, 1855-1925

Lane, Franklin Knight

Lay, Charles Downing

Laylin, Lewis Cass

Lehane, W.C.

Lenz, Rudolph

Levy, Glorence N.

Lewis, James Hamilton

Kitchfield, Grace Denio

Lodge, Henry Cabot

Loughran, Patrick H.

Lowell, Abbott Lawrence

Lowes, John Livingston

Lyman, William Denison

Lyon, Mrs. Frank D.

McAdoo, William Gibbs

McDonald, Henry M.

Macfarland, Henry Floyd

McFarland, John Horace

McGowan, Pattillo H.

McLean, George Payne

Mann, James Robert

Manning, Warren Henry

Marshall, Eleanor Eltinge

Martin, Frederick Roy

Martin, Thomas Commerford

Martine, James Edgar

Mezes, Sidney Edward

Miller, Clement H.

Mitchell, John Murray

Mondell, Frank Wheeler

Moore, John Bassett

Morgenthau, Henry

Myers, Henry Lee

Nelson, H.W.

Nelson, William Rockhill

Nichols, Marian C.

Noble, Frederic Perry

Noel, Edmund Favor

O'Gorman, James Aloysius

Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1870-

Osborn, Henry Fairfield

Osborne, Grover Pease

Owen, Rovert Latham

Page, Carroll Smalley

Parsons, Edward T.

Parsons, Herbert

Parsons, Samuel

Pennybacker, Anna J. (Hardwicke)

Pinchot, Gifford

Poindexter, Miles

Quarles, E.A.

Ranous, Dora Knowlton (Thompson)

Redfield, William C.

Rhodes, James Ford

Ridsdale, Percival Shelden

Royce, Josiah

Ruckstuhl, F.W.

Sargent, Charles Sprague

Schell, Edwin Allison

Schuyler, Georgina

Schwarz, George Frederick

Scidmore, Eliza (Ruhamah)

Sedgwick, Henry Dwight

Semple, Helen Merrick

Sherman, Lawrence Y.

Shorter, H.J.

Slattery, Harry A.

Sloane, William Milligan

Smith, Byron Laflin

Smith, Geddes

Smith, Henry Louis

Smith, Hoke

Smoot, Reed

Stafford, John Richard

Steenerson, Halvor

Stiger, William D.

Stone, Melville Elijah

Sullivan, Eugene J.

Swain, George Fillmore

Sweet, Mary Caroline

Taft, William Howard

Towner, Horace Mann

Tumulty, Joseph Patrick

Underwood, Oscar Wilder

VanWagoner, J. D.

Villard, Oswald Garrison

Wadsworth, William Austin

Wadsworth, H. H.

Washington, William DeHertburn

Watrous, Richard Benedict

Webb, Charles A.

Weeks, John Wingate

Wells, Amos Russel

Whitman, Edmund Allen

Whitney, Caspar

Wilson, Woodrow

Wyvell, Manton M.

1914

Anderson, E.H.

Badè, William Frederic

Bridgman, Herbert Lawrence

Colby, William Edward

Conrad, W. J. (On Johnson's letter)

Davis, Milton Fennimore

Frothingham, E. H.

Hall, Edward Hagaman

Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1870-

Parsons, Edward T.

Parsons, Herbert

Smith, Emory E.

1915

No letters

1916

Blake, Jacob M.

1917-1919

No letters

1920

Rhodes, James Ford

1921

No letters

1922

Badè, William Frederic

Grinnell, George Bird

1923

Butler, Ovid M.

Drury, Newton Bishop

Fenton, Benjamin W.

Maudlin, Cecil Vearl

Sargent, Charles Sprague

Shinn, Charles Howard

1924

Badè, William Frederic

Butler, Ovid M.

Peyton, Jeannie S.