Register of the Flower (Elsie) Collection, 1900-1968

Processed by Don Walker; machine-readable finding aid created by Don Walker
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
University Library, University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA 95211
Phone: (209) 946-2404
Fax: (209) 946-2810
URL: http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections.html
© 1998
University of the Pacific. All rights reserved.



Register of the Flower (Elsie) Collection, 1900-1968

Collection number: Mss45

Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections

University Library

University of the Pacific

Contact Information

  • Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
  • University Library, University of the Pacific
  • Stockton, CA 95211
  • Phone: (209) 946-2404
  • Fax: (209) 946-2810
  • URL: http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections.html
Processed by:
Don Walker
Date Completed:
November 1998
Encoded by:
Don Walker
© 1998 University of the Pacific. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Flower (Elsie) Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1900-1968
Collection number: Mss45
Creator:
Extent: 4 linear ft.
Repository: University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Flower (Elsie) Collection, Mss45, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library

Access Points

personal name

Flower, Elsie (1886-1969)
Peffer, Edward F.
Welk, Lawrence -Correspondence

corporate name

Stockton Record (firm)
Radio Station KGDM (Stockton, Calif.)

subjects

Stockton (Calif.) -Social life and customs
Stockton (Calif.) -Social conditions
Stockton (Calif.) -History
San Joaquin County (Calif.) -History
Copperopolis (Calif.) -History
Knight's Ferry (Calif.) -History
Columbia (Calif.) -History
Calaveras County (Calif.) -History
Women broadcasters -California -Stockton
Women journalists -California -Stockton
Tuolumne County (Calif.) -History
Amador County (Calif.) -History

personal name

Hunt, Rockwell Dennis (1868-1966)
Flower, Edwin L.

Biography

Elsie Flower (1886-1969) was a northern California print and radio journalist based principally in Stockton. While still a child (1902) she was brought to that city by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin L. Flower of Knight's Ferry. Flower attended Stockton High School, but left before graduating to work as a reporter for Chester Rowell's Fresno Republican. She was subsequently employed at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Stockton Daily Independent (1920s) and the Stockton Record (1925-1945). In 1944 Edward F. Peffer, owner of Stockton's CBS-affiliated radio station KGDM, conceived a fifteen minute local news show and hired Elsie Flower to produce and moderate it. The program began with stories about the war service of returning soldiers, then gravitated to boosting local events and businesses, fostering an interest in local history and helping local people in trouble. Flower's "City Journal" program ran thrice-weekly for nearly fourteen years. It was superseded, due to a change in station ownership (KGDM became music station KRAK) and format, by "Valley Journal" a shorter "women's news" program covering all areas of the Central Valley and the southern Mother Lode (1958).

Scope and Content

The Flower Collection consists of: correspondence (1900-1968); KGDM "City Journal" radio scripts (1945-1955); notes, drafts, photos, pamphlets and clippings pertaining chiefly to San Joaquin County, the southern Mother Lode and the West.

 

BOX 1: FLOWER FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE, 1900-1968

 

1.1: Edwin L. Flower corresp., 1900-1910 [23 items]

 

1.2: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1920-1930 [6 items]

 

1.3: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1930-1940 [10 items]

 

1.4: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1943 [9 items]

 

1.5: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1944 [5 items]

 

1.6: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1946 [3 items]

 

1.7: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1947-1948 [3 items]

 

1.8: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1949 [7 items; incl. Japanese Americans]

 

1.9: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1950 [32 items; chiefly "fan letters"]

 

1.10: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1951 [22 items; chiefly "fan letters"]

 

1.11: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1952 [2 items; incl. Japanese Americans]

 

1.12: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1953 [5 items]

 

1.13: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, Jul-Aug 1953 [6 items; incl. F. Hal Higgins on farm machinery history]

 

1.14: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1954 [8 items]

 

1.15: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1955 [3 items]

 

1.16: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1956-1957 [3 items]

 

1.17: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1958-1959 [5 items]

 

1.18: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1960 [4 items]

 

1.19: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1961 [6 items]

 

1.20: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1962 [15 items; incl. letter from Charles M. Weber III outlining his plans for re-creation of his grandfather, Capt. Weber, founder of Stockton's, home on Weber Point]

 

1.21: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1963 [15 items]

 

1.22: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1964 [12 items; incl. one letter from Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson's scty. on beagle "ear lift" episode she had complained about]

 

1.23: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1965 [10 items; incl. one letter from Lawrence Welk together w/ musical score, politely declining to play friend's composition she had sent]

 

1.24: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1966 [8 items]

 

1.25: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1967 [14 items]

 

1.26: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, 1968 [10 items]

 

1.27: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, n.d. c1940s [22 items]

 

1.28: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, n.d. c1960s [10 items]

 

1.29: Corresp. to Elsie Flower, n.d. [25 items]

 

BOX 2: ELSIE FLOWER RADIO SCRIPTS, 1945-1950

 

2.1: KGDM "City Journal," 1945 #1

 

2.2: KGDM "City Journal," 1945 #2

 

2.3: KGDM "City Journal," 1946 #1

 

2.4: KGDM "City Journal," 1946 #2

 

2.5: KGDM "City Journal," 1947 #1

 

2.6: KGDM "City Journal," 1947 #2

 

2.7: KGDM "City Journal," 1948 #1

 

2.8: KGDM "City Journal," 1948 #2

 

2.9: KGDM "City Journal," 1949 #1

 

2.10:KGDM "City Journal," 1949 #2

 

2.11: KGDM "City Journal," 1949 #3

 

2.12: KGDM "City Journal," 1950 #1

 

2.13: KGDM "City Journal," 1950 #2

 

BOX 3: ELSIE FLOWER RADIO SCRIPTS, 1951-1955

 

3.1: KGDM "City Journal," 1951 #1

 

3.2: KGDM "City Journal," 1951 #2

 

3.3: KGDM "City Journal," 1951 #3

 

3.4: KGDM "City Journal," 1952 #1

 

3.5: KGDM "City Journal," 1952 #2

 

3.6: KGDM "City Journal," 1952 #3

 

3.7: KGDM "City Journal," 1952 #4

 

3.8: KGDM "City Journal," 1953 #1

 

3.9: KGDM "City Journal," 1953 #2

 

3.10: KGDM "City Journal," 1954 #1

 

3.11: KGDM "City Journal," 1954 #2

 

3.12: KGDM "City Journal," 1955

 

3.13: KGDM "City Journal," n.d. #1

 

3.14: KGDM "City Journal," n.d. #2

 

BOX 4: NOTES & DRAFTS; PHOTOS; FINANCES

 

4.1: San Joaquin General Hospital, Stockton

 

4.2: Hubbard ms. on race & delinquency in Stockton

 

4.3: Mickelson ms. on submarine warfare, 1914-18 #1

 

4.4: Do. #2

 

4.5: Do. #3

 

4.6: Do. #4

 

4.7: Hospital for Escalon?

 

4.8: Misc. drafts [incl. essay on founding Haggin Museum, Stockton]

 

4.9: Unsorted photos [58 of people, incl. snapshot of Ina Coolbrith as old lady; 31 landscapes, bldgs. & interiors; largely unident.]

 

4.10: Binder of drafts

 

a-F. Hal Higgins. "When farm tractors first whipped the desert"

 

b-[untitled suite of excerpts from Stockton newspapers outlining Symphony history, 1926-1951]

 

c-misc. "City Journal" excerpts, incl.: A.B. Cohn; soldiers returning from WWII; the jeep; nursing in SJ Co.; Father Serra

 

4.11: Copperopolis notes

 

4.12: Flower Family Genealogy & Biographical info

 

4.13: Misc. drafts

 

4.14: 1962 calendar w/ annotations

 

4.15: Finances notes

 

4.16: Carl Wente. "The past, present and future of the Great Central Valley"

 

4.17: Poetry typescripts [by Elsie Flower?]

 

4.18: Foreign currency [1 Weimar Republic, Germany; 1 Japanese]

 

BOX 5: NOTES & DRAFTS; PHOTOS; FINANCES #2

 

5.1: Elsie Flower Guestbook, 1930-1934

 

5.2: Elsie Flower. untitled memoir on the making of KGDM's "City Journal"

 

5.3: Calaveras drafts

 

5.4: Calaveras photos [incl. people, bldgs., landscapes; b/w & color slides]

 

5.5: Draft on Rock walls

 

5.6: Draft on Dishes

 

5.7: Draft on State Mental Hospital, Stockton

 

5.8: Draft on Ben C. Wallace, Stockton moritician

 

5.9: Stockton notes

 

5.10: Draft on "blackouts" (1942)

 

5.11: Helen Weber Kennedy notes

 

5.12: Draft on Bret Harte

 

5.13: Xmas card list, 1966

 

5.14: "1906" Club (San Francisco)

 

5.15: Flower Family in New York

 

5.16: Draft on Columbia, Calif.

 

5.17: Notebook #1 [lt. blu canvas]

 

5.18: Notebook #2 (c1951) [blk leatherette]

 

a-national personalities, incl.: Frank Stanton, CBS; G. Bromley Oxnam, Methodist Bp.; Anna Louise Strong, Communist; A.L. Van Meter, tycoon

 

b-Stockton personalities, incl.: Edward D. Eldridge; Adelina Galgiani; John R. Simplot; Sperry family

 

c-Stockton places, incl.: Rural Cemetery; Public Library; Central Methodist; Stockton Symphony

 

5.19: Spiral notepads [6]

 

a-Tully C. Knoles, Pres. of College of the Pacific, Stockton

 

b-Stockton Asylum

 

c-California Missions

 

d-1962 expenses

 

e-Stockton City Govt. [sm. "Herald Square"]

 

f-Misc. notes [sm. Herald Square"]

 

5.20: Brad Davis ms. on California wheat

 

5.21: Harry T. Fee---3 essays on Calif. history topics

 

5.22: US Army organizational structure notes

 

BOX 6: PAMPHLETS & SCRAPS---SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

 

6.1: "Talk of the Town" 1:1 (1912) [a short-lived Stockton weekly news magazine]

 

6.2: Stockton Arts [incl.: Art League; Civic Theatre; Haggin Museum; Stockton Symphony]

 

6.3: Stockton Businesses [incl.: Hickinbotham Bros.; Hotel Wolf; Le Tourneau; Port of Stockton; Stockton Record]

 

6.4: Stockton Churches [incl.: Buddhist; St. Mary's Catholic; lst Christian; lst Congregational; Episcopal]

 

6.5: Stockton Clubs [incl. American Legion; Garden Club; Italian Gardeners' Society; Pan-Pacific; Pen Women; Philomathean]

 

6.6: Stockton Public Services [incl.: Cemetery; Community Center for the Blind; County Jail; Public schools; State Insane Asylum]

 

6.7: Peffer Family of Radio Station KGDM

 

6.8: San Joaquin County misc. clippings

 

6.9: Elsie Flower's KGDM radio show fan mail scrapbook

 

BOX 7: PAMPHLETS & SCRAPS---SOUTHERN MOTHER LODE; CALIF. LOCALITIES

 

7.1: Amador County

 

7.2: Calaveras County

 

7.3: Tuolumne County

 

7.4: Columbia

 

7.5: Copperopolis

 

7.6: Knight's Ferry

 

7.7: Murphys

 

7.8: Monterey Bay Area

 

7.9: San Francisco Bay Area

 

7.10: Missions

 

7.11: Other Northern California

 

7.12: Other Southern California

 

BOX 8: PAMPHLETS & SCRAPS---CALIF.; THE WEST; US; EUROPE; MISCELLANY

 

8.1: California---General

 

8.2: U.S.---Western States

 

8.3: U.S.---Eastern States & General

 

8.4: Europe (chiefly Netherlands, Gt. Britain & France)

 

8.5: Rockwell D. Hunt---Late Writings & Biographical Materials

 

8.6: Papillon Dogs

 

8.7: Souvenir Theatre Booklets---"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" & "John Brown's Body"

 

8.8: Diet & Health

 

8.9: "Survival Under Atomic Attack" (1950)

 

8.10: Misc. Pamphlets

 

8.11: Misc. Clippings