Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid to the California Surveillance Collection
larc.ms.0124
larc.ms.0124
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: California surveillance collection
Date (inclusive): 1929-1940
Collection number: larc.ms.0124
Accession number: 1999/028
Extent:
3.0 cubic ft.
(6 boxes)
Repository:
Labor Archives and Research Center
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English.
Abstract: The California Surveillance Collection consists primarily of undercover agent reports and other materials documenting the
activities of labor organizations and organizations on the left, 1934-1940, including the Communist Party of San Francisco,
and labor leader Harry Bridges. The materials were possibly gathered or created by Harper Knowles during his tenure as director
of the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion in San Francisco, and Stanley M. Doyle, an associate of Harper
Knowles. A second series in the collection contains household and financial records of Harper Knowles from 1901-1954.
Location: Collection is available onsite.
[Identification of item], California Surveillance Collection, larc.ms.0124, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco
State University.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives and Research Center 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 reader.
Collection is open for research.
The materials were given to the MeikleJohn Civil Liberties Institute by an anonymous donor, and nothing is known regarding
the provenance of these materials. Some of the materials came in large (8 1/2" x 11") envelopes with the return address of
the McGilvray-Raymond Granite Company, with two addresses: G7B South Anderson Street, Los Angeles, and 634 Townsend Street,
San Francisco.
The California Surveillance Collection was donated to the Labor Archives and Research Center by the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties
Unit, March 19, 1999, accession number 1999/028.
The collection is arranged into two series: Series 1: California Surveillance Files, and Series 2: Harper Knowles Personal
Papers.
Harper L. Knowles and Stanley M. Doyle, prominently represented among the documents, were both associated with the Radical
Research Committee, later the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion. Knowles, nicknamed "Moke," was the head
of that committee before he became executive secretary of the Associated Farmers. Doyle, also known as Larry Doyle and Stanley
Morton, was designated as a special investigating agent by the governor of Oregon; he worked closely with Knowles, especially
in investigating Harry Bridges.
The California Surveillance Collection consists primarily of undercover agent reports and other materials documenting the
activities of labor organizations and organizations on the left, 1934-1940, including the Communist Party of San Francisco,
and labor leader Harry Bridges. The materials were possibly gathered or created by Harper Knowles during his tenure as director
of the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion in San Francisco, and Stanley M. Doyle, an associate of Harper
Knowles. A second series in the collection contains household and financial records of Harper Knowles from 1901-1954.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American Legion. Subversive Activities Committee.
Bridges, Harry, 1901-1990
Doyle, Stanley M.
Industrial Association of San Francisco.
Knowles, Harper L.
Anti-communist movements--California--History--20th century.
Communism--United States.
Labor unions and communism.
Subversive activities--United States.