Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Joe de Kehoe Silence and the Sun Collection
- Dates:
- 1856-2010
- Creators:
- de Kehoe, Joe
- Abstract:
- The Joe de Kehoe Silence and the Sun Collection highlights the stories of women and Hispanic families living in California's Mojave Desert along U.S. Highway 66 during the Great Depression. The content was generated during the course of Mr. de Kehoe's research for his book titled, The Silence and The Sun: An historical account of people, places and events on old Route 66 and railroad communities in the Eastern Mojave Desert, California. The materials include audio cassette tapes of oral histories, digitized audio, electronic transcriptions, bound volumes, captioned photographs, and subject files.
- Extent:
- 180 Audio Cassette Tapes containing 124 oral history interviews, 8.31 Gigabytes containing 124 interviews reformatted to Windows Media Audio, 12.2 Megabytes containing 87 interviews transcribed in MS Word, 12 Volumes of printed and bound interview transcriptions, 817 Photographic Prints, and 47 Envelopes of subject files
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
Joe de Kehoe Silence and the Sun Collection. AR-2010-001. Mojave Desert Archives, Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, Goffs, California. Date accessed.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Joe de Kehoe Silence and the Sun Collection highlights the stories of women and Hispanic families living in California's Mojave Desert along U.S. Highway 66 during the Great Depression. The materials include audio cassette tapes of oral histories, digitized audio, electronic transcriptions, bound volumes, captioned photographs, and subject files.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Joe de Kehoe is the son of a career U. S. Navy chief petty officer and grew up on and near Navy and U. S. Marine Corps bases in California, Japan, Florida, and South Carolina. Joe graduated from California State University, Northridge, in 1970 with a BS in geology and earned an MS degree in geology from San Diego State University in 1972. As a result of his geologic field work as a student that he acquired an enduring appreciation for the outdoors and love for the subtle beauty and solitude of the Eastern Mojave Desert. During a 30-year career as an international petroleum exploration geologist, working in overseas posts for Mobil Oil and Diamond Shamrock Petroleum Corp., Joe lived and traveled extensively in the United Kingdom, Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and India including two mountaineering trips to the Nepal Himalayas.
In 1999, Joe de Kehoe began transcribing oral history tapes for the Mojave Desert Archives, adding great value to the Oral History Program. In the early 2000s, Mr. de Kehoe began conducting oral history interviews on his own, gaining access to collections of historical photographs in private hands. His geographical focus was roughly along old Route 66 in the California Desert. This work, which spanned a decade, resulted in his writing and publishing a book titled, The Silence and The Sun: An historical account of people, places and events on old Route 66 and railroad communities in the Eastern Mojave Desert, California.
As of 2010, he is retired spending most of his free time driving back roads and hiking trails in the Rocky Mountains from his home in Estes Park, Colorado.
- Acquisition information:
- Gifted by Joe de Kehoe to the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, 18 February 2010.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Carol Brown, Hugh Brown, Chris Ervin, Leslie Ervin, and Loris Mitchell
- Arrangement:
-
This collection is arranged in 3 series:
Series 1. Oral History Interviews, 1980 - 2009
Series 2. Photographs, 1888 - 2010
Series 3. Subject Files, 1856 - 2011
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Sponsor:
- Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2016-08-30 16:02:53 -0700 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research. For access, please contact the Archivist at the Mojave Desert Archives at archivist@mdhca.org.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights reside with the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Archivist at the Mojave Desert Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
Joe de Kehoe Silence and the Sun Collection. AR-2010-001. Mojave Desert Archives, Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, Goffs, California. Date accessed.
- Location of this collection:
-
37198 Lanfair Road # G-15Essex, CA 92332, US
- Contact:
- (760) 733-4482