Papers of the Gump family of San Francisco, consisting of family correspondence and other personal documents as well as some Gump's Department Store correspondence and business records.

After buying out his brother in-law’s mirror and frame shop in 1861, immigrants Solomon Gump and his brother Gustav founded the S and G Gump Company. They remained owners of the shop until Solomon’s son, Abraham Livingston (widely referred to as A.L.), took over at the turn of the century. When the 1906 earthquake demolished the store, A.L. was forced to start anew. It was this event and his love for far Eastern design that made Gump’s the high-end, San Francisco attraction it came to be. The launch of their catalog in the 1950s made their store nationally recognizable as their goods were now accessible across the country. Following his father, A.L.’s, death in 1947, Richard Gump took control and became president of the company until he retired and sold the store in 1975. Two years later, he began communicating with UC Berkeley about donating his property on the island of Moorea. As of the official signing in 1981, the property became the Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station. The Bancroft Library conducted an oral history with Richard Gump in 1989.

Number of containers: 4 cartons, 2 oversize boxes, 1 box, 1 volume, and 1 oversize folder (Linear feet: 6.4)

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Collection is open for research.