Collection Guide
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Carmack, Willa Cloys Collection
2019.05
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Willa Cloys Carmack Collection
Creator:
Carmack, Willa Cloys, 1889-1968
Identifier/Call Number: 2019.05
Physical Description:
1.3 Linear Feet:
1 Carton and 1 Document Box
Date (inclusive): 1916-1962
Date (bulk): 1940-1959
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is over for research. Many of the Environmental Design Archives collections are stored offsite and advance notice
is required for use.
All requests to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.
[Identification of Item], Willa Cloys Carmack Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by the Beatrix Farrand Endowment courtesy of the Department of Landscape
Architecture and Environmental Planning.
Willa Cloys was an only child, born November 1, 1889, in the Midwest. Her father Edward H. Cloys was a building contractor
and the family moved to California around the late nineteen-teens. Willa was one of the first women to graduate with a degree
in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley, which at that time was part of the Department of Agriculture under the direction
of Professor John Gregg. After graduating with her degree in 1916, she is listed in the Berkeley City Directory, in 1917,
as a Landscape Architect.
By 1925, Willa married Robert M. Carmack, and based on the 1930 census they had two children, John and Sarah1. Throughout
her career, which spanned more than thirty years, she secured several large estate commissions in and around Hillsborough,
schools in San Leandro, the San Jose Women's Club, city parks in Petaluma, and a subdivision called Felton Gables in Menlo
Park, among others.
During the Depression, Cloys taught landscape design at the California School of Gardening, a school started by and for women
in Hayward in 1926 and lectured at California garden clubs. She was also a founding member of the California Horticultural
Society. Cloys was an early proponent of the use of native plants in California gardens and an active part of a network of
women working to influence how we garden in California today.
Sources:
Biography of Willa Cloys Carmack by April Halberstadt, May 2007
The Willa Cloys Carmack Collection spans the years 1916-1962 and includes personal, professional, and project records. This
collection is organized into two series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers.
Series I: Personal Papers contain correspondence, photographs, travel diaries, and handwritten notes about plant types. Much
of the correspondence are postcards to Willa's children during her travels and a few to friends. Photographs include a headshot
from the 1916 Blue and Gold yearbook noting her graduation from UC Berkeley. The bulk of material in this series is travel
paraphernalia from her trips to Italy (1926), Mexico (1955), across the Midwest (XX), and Japan (1956).
Series II: The Professional Papers include correspondence relating to professional topics, writings, presentations, professional
organizations and committees, reference material collected, and project records. Reference Files are the largest sub-series
containing nursery lists with handwritten notations, brochures by plant type, and reference materials such as magazines and
newspaper clippings related to the profession in general and not to specific projects.
This collection was donated by the family of Willa Cloys Carmack.
California Association of Landscape Architects (CALA) Records, 1944-1960
Geraldine Knight Scott Collection, 1914-1988
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Women Landscape Architects
Native plants for gardening--California.
Landscape architecture--California.