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Title: Walter Stalder papers
Dates: 1881-1949
Collection Number: MSS-440
Creator/Collector:
Stalder, Walter, 1881-1949
Extent: 21 boxes, 6.07 cu.ft
Repository:
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco, California 94118
Abstract: The papers of Walter Stalder, petroleum geologist and oilfield historian, includes photographs, manuscripts, maps, blueprints,
studies, negatives, and slides primarily relating to oil deposits.
Language of Material: English
Access is unrestricted
[Identification of item]. Walter Stalder papers. Collection Number: MSS-440. California Academy of Sciences
Biography/Administrative History
Walter Stalder was born in Oakland, California on 6 April 1881. While attending the University of California (BS-1904, MS-1907),
he worked for the San Francisco Chemical Co. as a chemist (1904-1907) and later a petroleum geologist (1907-1909). Other
employment included M.L. Requa and Nevada Petroleum Co. (1909-1911), Union Oil Co. of California (1911) (when and where the
fundamentals of present decline curve method of estimation oil reserves originated), Nevada Petroleum Co. (1911-1913), and
Independent Oil Producers (1914-1915) where he worked as Chief geologist on valuation. In 1916 he opened a private construction
practice.
Stalder is noted for bringing in the Marysville Buttes Gas Field, the first real commercial discovery in Northern California,
and as a contributor on early California oilfield history and its geology.
Memberships include: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers
(chairman San Francisco section 1945), American Chemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Seismol
Society of America, California Academy of Sciences (1923), Commonwealth Club of California (chairman mineral resources section
1922-1929).
Walter Stalder died 15 March 1949.
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers of Walter Stalder, petroleum geologist and oilfield historian, includes photographs, manuscripts, maps, blueprints,
studies, negatives, and slides primarily relating to oil deposits.
Petroleum--Geology
Geology
Petroleum
Petroleum reserves