Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- Mr. and Mrs. Erin C. Hurst were residents of the Land Park neighborhood, located in Sacramento, California, for many decades. The family papers are comprised of financial records, photographs, newspaper articles, poetry, ink drawings, jewelry and glass-ware. The bulk of the collection are from the family of Heidi (Quillinan) Hurst, which documents the history of the Berk, Olson, Rhodes, and Quillinan families from 1879 through 2014.
- Extent:
- 23 Linear Feet 21 archival boxes, 1 lock box, 1 silverware case
- Language:
- English
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Erin and Heidi Hurst family papers are comprised of financial records, photographs albums photographs-slides, newspaper articles, poetry, ink drawings, jewelry and glass-ware. The bulk of the collection are from the family of Heidi K. (Quillinan) Hurst. The major documents detail the history of the Bjork (Berk) and Olson family arrival in United States including the original naturalization papers of Frederick R. Bjork (Berk) 1879. Also of note are the articles, letters, and ephemera surrounding the life and death of Allen Rhodes in WWII.
This collection is organized into four series:
• Series 1. Heidi (Quillinan) and Erin Hurst
• Series 2. Vivian (Olson) And Norman Quillinan
• Series 3. Berk, Olson, Rhodes Family Papers
• Series 4. General
The first three series contain documents of the Hurst, Quillinan, Berk, Olson, and Rhodes family life events through birth, marriage, school and death records. Also included are the extensive collections of photographs of the Quillinan family's travel around the world, especially historical areas in Europe (1950s to 1970s). The S.F.Chronicle & Berkeley Gazette newspaper articles are about WWII and includes the death of Allen Rhodes, son of Vivian (Olson) Quillinan. The fourth series titled "General" contains items from the household of the Hurst family which include jewelry, glassware, a stamp, coin, postcard and a sea-shell collection.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Mr. and Mrs. Erin Hurst were residents of Sacramento, California and lived in the William Land Park neighborhood for many decades. Heidi K. Quillinan was born in 1950 and raised in Sacramento. She married Erin C. Hurst, originally from Lodi, in 1982. Heidi was a student at Holy Spirit Elementary School and a graduate of Bishop Manogue Catholic High School (1968), both located in Sacramento. She later received a business degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. Heidi was employed as an accountant for ten years, while Erin Hurst retired from the Sheet-Metals Union of Northern California in 2004. Heidi Hurst lived in Sacramento until her death March 29, 2007.
Heidi Hurst's mother, Vivian (Olson) Quillinan, was a descendant of the Berk family. The Berk (Birch) family first established themselves in the United States with the arrival of Frederick Reynold Bjork, who immigrated from Ludvika, Sweden, along with his family in 1879. The spelling of the name was Bjork was later changed or translated to Berk in 1884 when Frederick was made a legal citizen of the United States. Mr. Berk had married Hilda Johnson, of Grangesberg, Sweden, in 1870, and together they had six children, at least three of whom made the journey to the United States, including Hannah Bertha Berk, born in Sweden in 1876. Hannah married Otto Victor Olson in Chicago, Illinois, in 1904. The Olson family moved to California, where Otto V. Olson had many poems published in the Berkeley Gazette in the 1940s, and was an electrical engineer by trade. Otto and Hannah were the parents of Vivian Olson, Heidi's mother, born in 1908. Vivian married Allen Rhodes, about whom little is known, and gave birth to Allen Hugh Rhodes in 1924. She later married Norman Quillinan, Heidi's father, in 1930.
Allen H. Rhodes (listed as Allen F. Rhodes Jr. on the Berk family tree), half-brother of Heidi, enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces during WWII. He achieved the rank of Corporal and was attached to the 32nd Photographic Squadron, 5th Reconnaissance Group. He was on the troop ship, the SS Paul Hamilton, when it was torpedoed and sank in the Mediterranean on April 20, 1944. He was listed as missing in action and later declared dead. He is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia and was awarded a Purple Heart posthumously.
Heidi Hurst's father, Norman M. Quillinan, was a native of Berkeley, California, who studied at the University of California, Berkeley and entered the insurance business in 1939. Mr. and Mrs. Quillinan moved to Sacramento in 1945 where Norman was employed as an Insurance Executive for the firm McGee & Thielen. He became President of the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce in 1959. During his term in office, which began in 1960, the Sacramento City Chamber of Commerce formed committees for the new California State Fair and Governor's Mansion, and Norman encouraged new industry to relocate to the city of Sacramento. Mr. Quillinan was an active member of numerous civic organizations including the Board of Trustees of Sacramento State University, the University Club and chair of United Way. He also served on the board at Mercy Hospital and was active in the Camellia Festival Association. The Quillinan family travelled extensively around the world. In 1980, during one of their travels, Norman and Vivian were involved in a maritime disaster on the Prinsendam Ship off the Gulf of Alaska.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research. Certain folders may be restricted due to the presence of private information of living individuals.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests to publish or quote from private collections held by the Sacramento Public Library must be submitted in writing to sacroom@saclibrary.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Sacramento Public 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 patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.
- Location of this collection:
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828 I StreetSacramento, CA 95814, US
- Contact:
- (916) 264-2976