Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Blake, Anson Stiles, 1870-1959
- Abstract:
- Consists chiefly of typescripts and manuscripts of Blake's speeches to San Francisco Bay Area social clubs and organizations, concerning California history and contemporary issues, including labor relations, the cement and asphalt business, Berkeley, and other topics. Includes papers relating to his participation with the California Historical Society and the Society of California Pioneers, and a small amount of personal correspondence, receipts, and miscellany. Also includes some material on Blake's father, Charles Thompson Blake and his travelling and business partners, Roger Sherman Baldwin, Charles T.H. Palmer, and Caspar T. Hopkins, who is represented by a [1932] typed copy of his autobiography, written in 1888-1889.
- Extent:
- 1.5 boxes (0.75 Linear feet)
- Language:
- Collection materials are in English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Consists chiefly of typescripts and manuscripts of Blake's speeches to San Francisco Bay Area social clubs and organizations, concerning California history and contemporary issues, including labor relations, the cement and asphalt business, Berkeley, and other topics. Includes papers relating to his participation with the California Historical Society and the Society of California Pioneers, and a small amount of personal correspondence, receipts, and miscellany. Also includes some material on Blake's father, Charles Thompson Blake and his travelling and business partners, Roger Sherman Baldwin, Charles T.H. Palmer, and Caspar T. Hopkins, who is represented by a [1932] typed copy of his autobiography, written in 1888-1889.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Anson Stiles Blake was born in San Francisco on August 6, 1870. He was the son of Harriet Stiles Blake and Charles Thompson Blake. His father, C.T. Blake was an early pioneer to San Francisco, arriving in 1849 from New Haven, Connecticut after a difficult voyage through Central America. Anson Blake attended Lincoln Grammar School and Boy's High School in San Francisco before moving with his family to Berkeley where he attended the University. Upon graduation in 1891 Blake went to work for the Bay Rock Company in Oakland, moving two years later to the Oakland Paving Company a macadamizing outfit run by his father and his father's associate C.T.H. Palmer. In 1899 he became president of that company. In 1894 he married Anita Day Symmes, a recent U.C. graduate.
Blake's interest in such businesses arose from his father's and grandfather's own mining and mine-equipment backgrounds. (His grandfather patented the Blake Rock Crusher in 1858.) In 1904 he helped to form the San Pablo Quarry Company which supplied materials to the city of San Francisco for its rebuilding after the earthquake. In 1914 the company, which later became Blake Brother's in Richmond, was created and this business was in Blake's control until 1954. Rock from this company helped to keep islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin from flooding in addition to supplying the bayside rock edges of Treasure Island for the 1939 Fair there.
Throughout his life, however, Blake's interests diversified far beyond those of the quarrying concern. He took an interest while still at Berkeley in the University YMCA - Stiles Hall - (donated by his grandmother,) and helped to support it throughout his life. He was a member of many clubs including the Berkeley City Club, the Claremont Country Club the Athenian Club and others. He wrote prolifically on a wide variety of subjects and was a frequent speech-giver. Speech topics covered such subjects as, Racial Contrasts on the Southwestern Frontier, to the effects of Prohibition on California grape growers. Usually, though, they dealt with history. He was president of both the Society of Calif. Pioneers and the Calif. Historical Society, the latter from 1945-48. He was on the Board of Trustees of CHS from 1924-1959 and was made a fellow in 1958. He did extensive research on his father, concentrating on the years Charles Blake spent mining in the Sierras during the Gold Rush. Among Anson Blake's papers are letters written by his father's traveling and business partners describing their trip to California and the Gold Rush.
In 1953 the California State Legislature bestowed upon him the title of Grand Old Man of Stiles Hall in honor of his 50 years of service. In 1958 he was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University. He died on August 17, 1959, eleven days after his 89th birthday.
- Acquisition information:
- Source unknown.
- Physical location:
- Collection is stored onsite.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Industrial relations--California.
Quarries and quarrying--California.
Businessmen. - Names:
- Blake, Charles Thompson,
1826-1897
Hopkins, Caspar T. (Caspar Thomas), 1826-1893 - Places:
- California--History.
- Indexes:
-
Index
Agriculture--California Folder 26 American Federation of Labor Folder 14 Art--San Francisco Bay Folder 32 Berkeley, California, 1875-1900 Folder 8 Berkeley, California--Transporation--Railroads Folder 9 Berkeley, University of California Folder 8 Bidwell, John Folder 18 Botany Folder 16 California--Emigration Folder 17, 18 California--History, 1861-1865 Folder 11 California--Politics and government, 1849-1879 Folder 21 Chapman, Charles E. Folder 15 Cleland, Robert G. Folder 15 Collective bargaining Folder 14, 21 Congress of Industrial Organizations Folder 14 Conservation Folder 30 East Bay Municipal Utility District--History Folder 17 Kensington, California Folder 22 Labor--California Folder 29 Labor disputes Folder 21, 34 Mines and mining Folder 25 Palmer, Charles T. Folder 24, 35 Prohibition--California Folder 27 Race relations Folder 28 San Francisco--Politics and government, 1846-1848 Folder 31 San Francisco--Social life and customs, 1846-1848 Folder 31 San Francisco Bay Folder 31, 32 Street-cars--Berkeley, California Folder 9 Sutter, John A. Folder 24 Sutter's Fort Folder 24 Trade-unions Folder 23, 29 Wine and winemaking Folder 27
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022