Description
The William Hammond Hall papers (MS915) consists
of correspondence, technical reports, scrapbooks, and blueprints generated during
his time as the first State Engineer of California (1879-1889), as a supervising
engineer for the U.S. Geological Survey (1889), and as a private civil engineer
designing dams and irrigation projects in California, Utah, Washington and southern
Africa. Correspondence includes letters written to California Governors William
Irwin and George clement Perkins in his capacity as State Engineer, and extensive
correspondence with Frederick Law Olmstead & Co. regarding the Allesandro
(California) town improvement project. Reports include U.S. Geological Survey
materials from the California and Lahontan divisions, as well as reports relating to
the construction of the Santa Ana Canal, the Northern Pacific, Yakima, and Kittitas
Irrigation Co., dams on the Sacramento, Yuba, American, and Feather Rivers, and
irrigation projects in the California Central Valley. Additionally, there are
reports and miscellaneous notes on subjects such as artesian wells, stream gauging,
sewage, and other hydrology topics. Blueprints in the collection date from Hall's
time as a private engineer, and include plans relating to the Santa Ana Canal
project (California), Central Irrigation District projects (California), the
Northern Pacific, Yakima, and Kittitas Irrigation Co. (Washington), and
miscellaneous plans and maps from projects built in southern Africa. The scrapbooks
contain newspaper clippings pertaining to Hall's professional interests, including 3
volumes relating to irrigation and the cultivation of crops, 2 volumes relating to
river and flood control, and clippings relating to Supreme Court decisions
concerning irrigation and water rights.
Background
William Hammond Hall was a California engineer who served as Superintendent and
Engineer of Golden Gate Park (1871-1876), a consultant in the grading and
development of the University of California campus at Berkeley (1872-1873), chief
engineer for the Central and West Side Irrigation Districts (1870s), the first State
Engineer of California (1879-1889), and Supervising Engineer of the Irrigation
Bureau at the United States Geological Survey (1889). Beginning in 1890, he worked
in the private sector as a civil engineer.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the California Historical Society. All
requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted
in writing to the Director of Research Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the California Historical Society as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the
copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.