Gschwind / Swent, Langan, Waterman, Mendenhall, and Herz family papers, 1848-2000

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Summary

Abstract:
Personal papers of Langan and Eleanor Swent and related families, as well as material on mining and travel.
Extent:
17 Linear Feet (37 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Gschwind / Swent, Langan, Waterman, Mendenhall, and Herz Family papers (M1979). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection contains correspondence, photographs, oral histories, memoirs & journals, mining company reports & documents, World War II memorabilia, travel souvenirs and other material.

Biographical / historical:

This group of related family papers primarily concern Langan Waterman Swent (1916-1992) and his wife Eleanor Herz Swent (1924-). Langan Swent was born in Oakland, California to James and Ursula Swent. Ursula's parents were George Washington Langan and Ella Mendenhall, and James' parents were Rudolph Swent and Amy Waterman Swent. Rudolph's last name was originally Gschwind and was Americanized to Swent until he and Amy were divorced. He then went back to the Gschwind name and remarried a woman named Alice Frazier. The collection contains letters and ephemera from their extended honeymoon trip around the world.

Eleanor (often referred to as "Lee") was born in Lead, South Dakota, where her father Nathaniel Herz was chief metallurgist for the Homestake Mining Company. Her mother Janet Kimpston Herz was a high school geology teacher before marriage.

Langan spent his childhood in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains where his father managed the San Luis Mining Company in Tayoltita. After finishing school at Moses Brown in Rhode Island he worked a year at Guanacevi, then spent 1934-1938 at Stanford as an Engineering major and 1939-1940 at mining graduate school at Cal. He briefly returned to Tayoltita as a geologist's helper before conducting graduate work in geology at Harvard from 1940-1941. Langan was on active duty in the Navy during World War II, mostly in the Mediterranean theater as an officer in charge of landing craft. He was part of initial landings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Southern France, then became group and flotilla commander landing infantry, and finally tought at an amphibious training camp in Florida.

After the war, Swent began working at Homestake in an engineer training program. In 1946 Langan and Eleanor met in Lead and were soon married. Soon after, Langan was offered a job back at San Luis in Mexico, working for Larry Morel, who had succeeded his father James as head. Langan was assistant manager for seven years, and in 1954 the Swents moved back to States with Langan as manager at Homestake working on ventilation and temperature issues. As Homestake began to diversify with uranium in Wyoming and Utah he was transferred to Grants, New Mexico, and he became manager of operations involving uranium, with a special focus on mine safety. In 1966 Langan was transferred to the home office in San Francisco as VP of Operations with responsibilities in Peru, Australia, the United States and Canada. In 1984 Langan retired but remained a consultant to Homestake and the American Mining Congress. Eleanor taught ESL classes in Oakland Chinatown for almost twenty years and became involved with the Regional Oral History program at Berkeley, conducting many mining industry oral histories. Langan passed away in 1992, but Eleanor continues to write and publish. In 2021, the University of Nevada Press published her book One Shot for Gold, about one of California's most productive gold mines.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Eleanor Swent, 2013. Accession 2013-135.
Arrangement:

Series 1. Langan W. Swent (LWS) / Eleanor Herz Swent (EHS) personal and professional papers

Series 2. Langan & Eleanor Swent correspondence (personal & professional)

Series 3. Langan & Eleanor Swent travel diaries, photographs, etc.

Series 4. Mexico - Guarisamey District History

Series 5. Langan Swent, Navy WWII

Series 6. Swent/Langan/Mendenhall papers

Series 7. Herz/Kimpston papers

Series 8. Gschwind papers

Series 9. Gschwind - Alice & Ru (Rudolph) honeymoon postcards, diaries, travel ephemera

Series 10. Photographs

Series 11. Miscellaneous

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.

Terms of access:

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Gschwind / Swent, Langan, Waterman, Mendenhall, and Herz Family papers (M1979). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.

Location of this collection:
Department of Special Collections, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
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