Access to Collection
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Organization of the Collection
Arrangement
Biographical / Historical Note
Scope and Content
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: The Jon Brenneis photograph archive
creator:
Brenneis, Jon
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 2002.171
Physical Description:
124,000 photographs
(57 boxes (negatives), 14 boxes (photographic prints and transparencies), 3 oversize boxes (photographic prints), 1 box (transparencies))
Date (inclusive): 1940-1990, bulk 1946-1985
Abstract: The professional photographic archive of freelance photojournalist Jon Brenneis of Berkeley, California. Covering a wide range
of news, popular culture, and human interest stories, chiefly from 1948 into the 1980s, particular strengths are science and
technology, high tech companies of the San Francisco Bay Area, and corporate and business history focused on Bay Area companies.
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Access to Collection
Collection is open for research; access requires advance notice.
Conditions Governing Use
Jon Brenneis's copyright in this material has been assigned to the Regents of the University of California, for the benefit
of The Bancroft Library.
In addition to copyright considerations, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California
gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction
of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.
Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility
for any use rests exclusively with the user.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the
Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html
.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Jon Brenneis photograph archive, BANC PIC 2002.171,The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Jon Brenneis photograph archive was given to The Bancroft Library by Jon Brenneis on March 27, 2002.
Organization of the Collection
This collection is organized into series:
- Photographer's Favorites
- University of California Subjects
- Life Magazine Negatives
- Time and Fortune Magazine Negatives
- Various Subjects and Clients
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in groupings created by the photographer. Within each grouping (or "series"), arrangement tends
to be by photographer's filing code number, which is approximately chronological. Some series, particularly of photographic
prints, are grouped by subject rather than chronology or filing code.
Biographical / Historical Note
Jon Brenneis (1921-2013) was a freelance photojournalist and commercial photographer based in Berkeley, California. Born John
Martin Brenneis, Jr., he was an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley (class of 1942). He served in the U.S.
Marine Corps as a photographer during World War Two (1942-1946), and continued in his profession upon returning to civilian
life. His first civilian assignment was for Life magazine in 1946, photographing chinchillas. The same year, he began doing
work for Standard Oil of California. Time Inc. and Standard Oil continued to be clients for decades. In addition, Brenneis
produced work for countless other national publications and California companies. In the late 1940s, he collaborated with
former Marine Corps photographers to form “Cal-Pictures” (originally “Cal Pix”), building a darkroom and lab to process their
own film. Brenneis was a successful photographic innovator, finding ways to make compelling images of cutting edge advances
in science and technology, particularly in his frequent contributions to Scientific American. He often photographed internationally
for clients such as Chevron. In the 1980s, Breinnes’s work shifted toward travel photography, but his work for corporate clients
continued on a limited basis. Jon Brenneis retired in 1993.
Scope and Content
The Jon Brenneis archive consists of approximately 124,000 photographs spanning his forty-year career as a professional photographer.
Brenneis's worked encompassed the San Francisco Bay Area and ranged across the United States and sometimes internationally.
He photographed for Life Magazine in the late 1940s and 1950s, and was a frequent contributor to Time, Fortune, and Scientific
American magazines. His work ranges from human interest stories to popular culture to politics, but it is his documentary
and promotional work for Bay Area corporations and industries that is most voluminous and perhaps most historically significant.
His clients included Chevron and Standard Oil, Crown Zellerbach paper company, Kaiser Industries, the Southern Pacific Railroad,
Bank of America, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, and numerous others. His work documenting science, technology, and the
“high tech” industry from the mid-1950s through the 1980s is particularly noteworthy. Major clients included Hewlett-Packard
and IBM, but Brenneis also documented scientific work (particularly nuclear physics) at the University of California, Berkeley
and at the Stanford Linear Accelerator. Other University of California subjects on both the Berkeley and Davis campus are
also numerous. Brenneis’s photographs frequently appeared in Scientific American, and this diverse work covered medicine,
nuclear physics, lasers, computers, micro-electronics, fiber optics, windmill generators, barn owls, primates, and rice culture
in California, among many other topics.
Brenneis's international travel photography is not included in the archive at the Bancroft Library. Researchers should note
that negatives are lacking for many stories, particularly for early magazine work, and that prints are present for a small
proportion of his jobs.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Banks and banking -- California -- Photographs
Computer industry -- California -- Photographs
Electronic industries -- California -- Photographs
High technology industries -- California -- Photographs
Oil industries -- Photographs
Paper industry -- California -- Photographs
Executives -- Portraits
Nuclear physicists -- Portraits
Scientists -- California -- Portraits
Bank of America -- Pictorial works
Chevron Oil Company -- Pictorial works
Crown Zellerbach Corporation -- Pictorial works
Hewlett-Packard Company -- Pictorial works
International Business Machines Corporation -- Pictorial works
Kaiser Industries Corporation -- Pictorial works
Kaiser Permanente -- Pictorial works
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Southern Pacific Company -- Pictorial works
Standard Oil Company -- Pictorial works
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center -- Pictorial works
University of California, Berkeley -- Pictorial works
University of California, Berkeley. Department of Physics -- Pictorial works
University of California, Davis -- Pictorial works