William Hammond Hall papers, 1873-1911

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Summary

Creators:
Hall, Wm. Ham. (William Hammond)
Abstract:
The William Hammond Hall papers (MS915) consists of correspondence, technical reports, scrapbooks, and blueprints generated during his time as the first State Engineer of California (1879-1889), as a supervising engineer for the U.S. Geological Survey (1889), and as a private civil engineer designing dams and irrigation projects in California, Utah, Washington and southern Africa. Correspondence includes letters written to California Governors William Irwin and George clement Perkins in his capacity as State Engineer, and extensive correspondence with Frederick Law Olmstead & Co. regarding the Allesandro (California) town improvement project. Reports include U.S. Geological Survey materials from the California and Lahontan divisions, as well as reports relating to the construction of the Santa Ana Canal, the Northern Pacific, Yakima, and Kittitas Irrigation Co., dams on the Sacramento, Yuba, American, and Feather Rivers, and irrigation projects in the California Central Valley. Additionally, there are reports and miscellaneous notes on subjects such as artesian wells, stream gauging, sewage, and other hydrology topics. Blueprints in the collection date from Hall's time as a private engineer, and include plans relating to the Santa Ana Canal project (California), Central Irrigation District projects (California), the Northern Pacific, Yakima, and Kittitas Irrigation Co. (Washington), and miscellaneous plans and maps from projects built in southern Africa. The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings pertaining to Hall's professional interests, including 3 volumes relating to irrigation and the cultivation of crops, 2 volumes relating to river and flood control, and clippings relating to Supreme Court decisions concerning irrigation and water rights.
Extent:
9 boxes, including 13 volumes, 13 oversize folders (3.5 linear feet)
Language:
Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

Compiled in the office of State Engineer (California), 1878-1888, and Division Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey. Includes survey reports of California rivers and the land surrounding them, blueprints of projects from private civil engineering practice, and correspondence.

Biographical / historical:

William Hammond Hall was a California engineer who served as Superintendent and Engineer of Golden Gate Park (1871-1876), a consultant in the grading and development of the University of California campus at Berkeley (1872-1873), chief engineer for the Central and West Side Irrigation Districts (1870s), the first State Engineer of California (1879-1889), and Supervising Engineer of the Irrigation Bureau at the United States Geological Survey (1889). Beginning in 1890, he worked in the private sector as a civil engineer.

Acquisition information:
Papers comprising collection MS915 were acquired by donation from Katherine Buchanan Hall, daughter of William Hammond Hall in 1951.
Arrangement:

The William Hammond Hall papers are arranged in four series: Series I - Correspondence, Series II - Reports, Series III - Scrapbooks of Newspaper Clippings, Series IV - Blueprints.

Series I - Correspondence is organized chronologically, by format, and in two cases by correspondent: 4 volumes of letterbooks (including one dedicated to communication with California Governors), and 4 folders of unbound correspondence, including 1 folder consisting of correspondence with Frederick Law Olmstead & Co.

Series II - Reports is organized chronologically, with one subseries consisting of reports authored for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Series III - Scrapbooks of Newspaper Clippings is organized first by subject, then chronologically.

Series IV - Blueprints is arranged by project and ordered according to an internal numbering system (K numbers). Unnumbered blueprints appear at the beginning of the series, with the remainder organized sequentially and grouped by project.

Physical location:
Collection is stored onsite.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

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