Preliminary Guide to the Thomas Driscoll Collection
Processed by David C. Tambo
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/
© 2002
Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Preliminary Guide to the Thomas Driscoll Collection, 1836-1953
Collection number: Bernath Mss 7
Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara
Contact Information:
- Department of Special Collections
- Davidson Library
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Santa Barbara, CA 93106
- Phone: (805) 893-3062
- Fax: (805) 893-5749
- Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
- URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/
- Processed by:
- David C. Tambo
- Date Completed:
- 11 September 2002
- Latest revision:
- April 15, 2013
- Encoded by:
- David C. Gartrell, A. Demeter
© 2002 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Thomas Driscoll Collection
Dates: 1836-1953
Bulk Dates: 1890-1918
Collection Number: Bernath Mss 7
Creator:
Driscoll, Thomas
Extent:
ca. 3 linear feet
(1 document box, 1 records container, 2 oversize boxes, and 1 map cabinet drawer)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Physical Location: Del Norte (boxes 1-2, 4); Annex 2 (box 3); Del Sur (Map Cabinet 20/4).
Abstract: Driscoll served as a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army's 91st Division during and after World War I. Collection includes photographs,
pamphlets, intelligence reports, newspaper clippings, and correspondence. Also includes Theodore Roosevelt correspondence,
Gen. Sheridan letter, and some nineteenth century photographs of Brazil.
Language:
English.
Access Restrictions
None. Collection is partially stored off-site; advance notice required for retrieval.
Publication Rights
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
Thomas Driscoll Collection. Bernath Mss 7. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Acquisition Information
Donation from Mrs. Thomas Driscoll, ca. 1968-1970.
Biography
Much of the following information is drawn from the June 1972 issue of
Soundings, a UCSB Libraries publication.
Alice Lawrason Bacon [Mrs. Thomas Driscoll] was born on Nov. 19, 1885, in Washington, D.C. She was the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Albert W. Bacon. A. W. Bacon was Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. As a young man he fought for the Union in the Civil War,
serving on Farragut's flagship. Later he became a career officer in the Navy, stationed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1873,
then Nice, France, and Mare Island in San Francisco Bay.
During the Spanish-American War, as his last sea duty, A. W. served on Admiral Dewey's flagship in the Pacific. At that time
Mrs. Bacon and Alice returned to Washington, D.C. and Alice renewed her friendship with the Theodore Roosevelt family. She
had met Roosevelt earlier when he was a young Congressman. A. W. had visited Santa Barbara with the fleet in 1898 and decided
he would like to settle there after he retired. In 1901 the family moved to Santa Barbara.
Thomas Driscoll was from San Francisco. He and Alice Bacon met at a Santa Barbara polo match and were married at the Santa
Barbara Mission in 1905. They moved to San Francisco, were caught in the 1906 earthquake, and then moved to Burlingame. Thomas
served in World War I as Lt. Colonel and Division Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army's 91st Division. After the war he
was involved in business, but died suddenly in 1937 while playing tennis. Alice stayed in San Francisco for a while, then
moved back to Santa Barbara where she remained for most of the rest of her life. She died in Dec. 1985.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains correspondence, documents (including intelligence reports), maps, pamphlets, photographs, posters
and related WWI material of Thomas Driscoll. Also included are non-WWI materials such as correspondence from Theodore Roosevelt,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge; 19th century photographs of Philip H. Sheridan (Civil War General), Brazil and
Brazilian royalty; and early 20th century picture postcards, some of Santa Barbara.
Mrs. Driscoll also gave her library to UCSB. Included were inscribed first editions, Santa Barbara history, Californiana,
literature, and religion. A number of these are located in Special Collections, have been cataloged separately, and can be
searched in Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog.
Separations
The following newspapers have been transferred to UCSB Special Collections newspaper area:
New England Spectator -- Apr. 27, 1836
Santa Barbara Daily News, - Dec. 2, 1922
Related Materials
See: List of World War I materials in UCSB Special Collections.
See also: Mrs. Thomas Driscoll Oral History (OH 34).
Box 1: 1
American Battle Monuments Commission,
1929
Box 1: 2
Coolidge, Calvin - 1 carbon copy letter (TL) from the President to Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce,
[1927]
Box 1: 3
Roosevelt, Edith Kermit - 1 letter (ALS) to Mrs. Albert W. Bacon of Santa Barbara, 1904 and 1 letter (ALS) to Clifford Richardson,
1924
Box 1: 4
[Roosevelt, Franklin D.] - 1 letter (TLS) from Louis McH. Howe, Secretary to the President, to J. H. Frank Smokey,
1934
Box 1: 5
Roosevelt, Franklin D. - 1 letter (TLS) from the President to R. W. Emerson, Executive Secretary, National Clean Up and Paint
Up Campaign Bureau,
1936
Box 1: 6
Roosevelt, Theodore - 8 letters, ALS and TLS, from Roosevelt to Thomas Driscoll, and to Teresa and Clifford Richardson,
1901-1916
Box 1: 7
Rothschild, Alonzo - 1 letter (ALS) to John G. Kelley of Santa Barbara,
1910
Box 1: 8
Miscellany - includes 1 envelope from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Mrs. Thomas Driscoll (no letter accompanying it), date unclear
Series 2.
Documents -- WWI
Box 1: 9
[Includes intelligence reports and a typescript copy of a talk entitled "Personal Notes," re organization and work of the
intelligence department, as well as personal involvement and observations],
ca. 1915-1919
Series 3.
Pamphlets -- WWI
Box 1: 10
An Atlas of the World War,
ca. 1917-1918
Box 1: 10
Battlefields of France,
ca. 1919
Box 1: 10
Best War Time Recipes,
1917
Box 1: 10
British and German Ideals: The Meaning of the War,
ca. 1915
Box 1: 10
California House for Disabled Belgian Soldiers,
1916
Box 1: 10
Butler, Nicholas Murray -
The Preparedness of America,
1914
Box 1: 10
Carson, Edward -
The War on German Submarines,
1917
Box 1: 11
How Long Will It Last?
1916
Box 1: 11
Official Bulletin Issued by the San Francisco County Women's Committee of the Council of National and State Defense,
ca. 1918
Box 1: 11
Revelations by an Ex-Director of Krupp's,
ca. 1917
Box 1: 11
The Case of Belgium,
ca. 1914
Box 1: 11
The Great War: The Nation's Need...Everybody's Duty,
1915
Box 1: 11
United States Food Administration Home Card,
1918
Box 1: 11
Why the War Must Go On,
1917
Box 1: 11
Church, Samuel Harden -
The American Verdict on the War...,
1915
Box 1: 11
Henshaw, F. W. -
The Cause and Meaning of This War,
1917
Box 1: 11
Marshall, Edward -
The United States of Europe: An Interview with Nicholas Murray Butler,
1914
Box 1: 11
Parfit, Canon -
Mesopotamia: The Key to the Future,
1917
Box 1: 12
Miscellany (includes some single leaf items),
ca. 1917-1918
Box 1: 13
Driscoll, Thomas - WWI, in uniform
Box 1: 14
Brazilian Royalty - latter 19th century
Box 1: 16
Sheridan, Philip H. (Civil War General),
1868
Box 1: 18
Bohemian Club (programs),
1905,
1953
Box 1: 19
"California in Front Line on the Argonne" - photocopy of article by Driscoll for Santa Barbara
Morning Press,
Dec. 15, 1918
Box 1: 20
Centennial Program - New Haven, Conn.,
1876
Box 1: 21
"An Hotel Goes to War" (London's Grosvenor House during WWII)
Box 1: 22
Newspaper Clippings (re awarding Distinguished Service Medal to Thomas Driscoll),
ca. 1923
Box 1: 23
San Francisco/Oakland Theatre (playbills and programs, many pasted in a notebook),
ca. 1890s
Series 6.
Picture Postcards
Subseries 1.
With Messages
Box 2: 1
Cards from various correspondents to Mrs. A. W. Baconca,
1909-1918
Subseries 2.
Without Messages,
ca. 1910s
Box 2: 2-3
Europe (many from Germany)
Box 2: 3
Miscellany - including some of Japanese prints
Box 3
Bacon, Albert W. - documents (including presidential appointments, honors, and letters of introduction re Diplomatic and Consular
Offices of the United States),
ca. 1870-1890s
Box 4
Photographs - Brazil (mainly scenes from different parts of the country),
ca. 1860s
Box 20: 4
Maps - WWI (France and Belgium - printed, with some handwritten information added)
Box 20: 4
Posters - WWI (Belgium - official German notices and propaganda, in German, French, and Flemish, given to Thomas Driscoll
by the nuns of Audenaerde)
