The personal and organizational correspondence, working papers, notebooks, and manuscripts of John P. Buwalda (1886-1954) form the the bulk of the collection known as the John P. and Imra Wann Buwalda Papers in the Archives of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The writings of Imra Wann Buwalda, wife of John P. Buwalda, on the history of Caltech, the subject of earthquakes, and miscellaneous family and professional papers connected to her work as a policewoman form a subgroup of this collection. John P. Buwalda was a structural geologist who became the first chairman of Caltech's new Geology Division in 1925.

John Peter Buwalda was born December 16, 1886, in Zeeland, Michigan, a town settled by Dutch immigrants, to which group his parents belonged. In 1897 the family moved to Yakima, Washington, where Buwalda graduated from high school in 1905. He began his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, but after some time off from school, during which he worked in the Coeur d'Alene mines of Idaho and surveyed for the Northern Pacific Railway in the Cascade Mountains, he enrolled as a geology major at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1909. He received his BS with honors in 1912. His mentors were John C. Merriam (paleontology) and Andrew C. Lawson (geology). In 1915 he completed his doctorate and began an instructorship at Berkeley. In 1917 he married a Berkeley graduate, Imra Wann, and took up a teaching position at Yale, where he remained until 1921--with a year off (1918-1919) to work for the US Geological Survey in Washington. In 1921 he returned to Berkeley as professor of geology and also held the post of Dean of Summer Sessions.

8 linear feet

Copyright may not have been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Caltech Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and, unless explicitly stated otherwise, is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access.