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Guide to the Alfred P. Swineford Papers
Wyles Mss 14  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Related Material

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Alfred P. Swineford Papers,
    Date (inclusive): ca. 1885-1890s
    Collection Number: Wyles Mss 14
    Creator: Swineford, Alfred P.
    Extent: .2 linear feet (1 half-size document box)
    Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
    Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access Restrictions

    None.

    Publication Rights

    No further reproduction of items in the collection without written permission of donor or heirs. Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

    Preferred Citation

    Alfred P. Swineford Papers. Wyles Mss 14. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Mrs. June Main, 1974.

    Biography

    The following information is drawn from a biographical sketch contained in the collection:
    Alfred P. Swineford was born in Ashland, Ohio, on September 14, 1834. He learned the printer's trade as a young man, and worked at his trade for a number of years in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and with the Chicago Times. He moved to Marquette, Michigan in 1867 and established the Mining Journal, which he edited until 1884.
    Swineford was active in politics, serving in the Michigan House of Representatives and also serving as Commissioner of Mineral Statistics for the state of Michigan. He was chosen as a Michigan delegate to the national Democratic conventions in 1872 and 1884, and was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor of Michigan.
    In March 1885 Swineford was appointed Governor of Alaska by President Grover Cleveland. He arrived at his post in Sitka, Alaska in September 1885 and resigned the position in March 1889.
    He later held other public offices and in 1898 wrote the book, Alaska, Its History, Climate and Natural Resources. He died in Juneau, Alaska, October 26, 1909.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection contains a biographical sketch of Alfred P. Swineford, copies of correspondence from him to his daughter, Nelly Flower Stafford (Mrs. E. O. Stafford), a manuscript entitled "A Cruise of Ten Thousand Miles in Alaskan Waters," and a description of Ketchikan. The often lengthy letters describe in detail Swineford's impressions of Alaska and its inhabitants in the era immediately preceding the Gold Rush there.
    The copies were given to the UCSB Libraries in 1974 by Mrs. June Main, a UCSB employee, married to one of the descendants of Nelly Flower Stafford. The original manuscripts were retained by the family.

    Related Material

    A larger Alfred Swineford Collection, at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, contains another set of the copies as well as other materials relating to Swineford's time in Alaska.