Descriptive Summary
Provenance
Restrictions on Access
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Preferred Citation
Biography
Scope and Content Note
Indexing Terms
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: California
Fairs
Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1856-1997
Date (bulk): (1945-1982 bulk)
Collection number: MS 009
Creator:
Western
Fairs
Association, Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocations and Classification, and Louis S. Merrill, former director of the Western
Fairs
Association
Extent:
94 boxes, one flat file
Languages:
English
Repository:
Special Collections, Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California 93407
Abstract: The Western
Fairs
Association, the California Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocation and Classification, and Louis S. Merrill, former director of the Western
Fairs
Association gave the California
Fairs
Collection, one of the major archival collections on
fairs
and
fairs
management in the Western United States, to Cal Poly in 1982. In addition to extensive material on the management of
fairs
in California, the collection also contains information on
fairs
in other Western states, as well as foreign
fairs
and world
fairs
.
The
Fairs
Collection contains archival and printed material created in three separate offices: Western
Fairs
Association, a non-profit trade association; Division of
Fairs
and Expositions, an agency of the California Department of Food and Agriculture; and the Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocations and Classification, a legislative group comprised of seven senators and seven assembly members. In addition,
material collected through the years by Louis S. Merrill, director of Western
Fairs
Association from 1945-1972, has been added to the collection. An additional gift was made in 1999.
Provenance
Donated by the Western
Fairs
Association in 1982 and 1999, this collection housed in and administered by Special Collections at Cal Poly.
Restrictions on Access
Collection is open to researchers by appointment. For more information on visiting, access policies, and reproduction requests,
please visit our Reference Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/search-and-find/collections-and-archives/reference-services/.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Digital copies are provided to researchers for the purpose of study, research, and personal use only, unless otherwise specified
in writing. Materials that are the property of Cal Poly Special Collections and Archives require written permission prior
to publication. No complete collection may be reproduced.
For print and online publication, please visit our Reproduction Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/support/sca-policies/reproduction/.
Special Collections and Archives reserves the right to review all reproduction requests and to withhold permission if scanning
would endanger the material, would violate copyright law, or would violate institutional restrictions.
Preferred Citation
California
Fairs
Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Biography
Western
Fairs
Association
The beginning of Western
Fairs
Association is usually ascribed to a post-World War I meeting at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco where a livestock circuit
plan was agreed upon to "help the breeders and
fairs
" across the state. Records of Western
Fairs
Association activity begin in 1933, although there are some financial summaries going back to the early 1920s. Annual meetings
began in 1939 but were suspended during World War II.
In 1945 the Association was incorporated, a central office was established, and Louis S. Merrill, former Assistant Manager
of the Fresno District
Fair
, was appointed General Manager.
The following people succeeded Merrill: William Clayton, 1972-1975; Robert R. Stern, 1975-1980; John J. Fitzpatrick, 1981-1983;
and Kim Myrman, 1984-present. Early important staff members include: Rose E. Links, Secretary-Treasurer, 1943-1962; Joe Blenkle,
Program and Service Division, 19 -1978; and Bonnie Scotland Merrill, Secretary, 1952-1973. In 1981 Western
Fairs
Association had 1,215 members including 887
fair
managers and directors, and 328 corporate concessionaires or service members.
Western
Fairs
Association membership categories include:
Active Members: Individual
fairs
organized under provisions of the state
Associate Members:
Fairs
organized and located outside of California
Service Members: Business individuals or organizations which provide supplies, services and/or entertainment for
fairs
Affiliate Members: Horse breeding associations, community
fairs
, privately owned
fairs
, rodeos, etc.
Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocation and Classification
This committee was established in 1959 by an amendment to Section 92.7 of the State Agricultural Code. At that time, it replaced
a
fairs
classification committee that had been created in 1955 and whose membership was made up of elected
fair
officials and representatives of the division of
Fairs
and Exposition and the Department of Finance. Since 1959, it has been composed of seven senators and seven members of the
assembly. Its first chair was Senator Edwin J. Regan, 1959-1973, followed by Assembly Member Pauline L. Davis, 1973-1977.
Brian L. Davie has served as chief consultant since 1971.
The Committee has been given the authority by law to "investigate, study and analyze any and all facts relating to the operation
and financing of (state-supported)
fairs
." It holds hearings regularly throughout the state and issues reports.
Division of
Fairs
and Exposition
Established under the Department of Agriculture, this Division was transferred to the Department of Finance in the 1930s.
In 1965, it became an agency of the Department of Food and Agriculture. The Division is responsible for the preparation of
the annual Master Premium List, a manual prescribed by law "to assist in administering the offering and payment of awards"
for each category of competition at state-supported
fairs
, from beef cattle to vegetables to domestic science.
A.E. Snider, Thomas E. Blair, Ray Harrington, George J. Gomes, and John Fitzpatrick have provided leadership of the Division
through the years. Harrington is best remembered as the person who did the research on the Horse Racing Act of 1933, which
made the present system of
fairs
possible.
The division deals with the administration of state-supported
fairs
, except the California State
Fair
, now called CAL EXPO, which in the early 1960s was moved to the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Sources
Fair
Dealer
, June/July 1972
Scope and Content Note
In September of 1984, archival consultants Lynn A. Bonfield and Karen R. Lewis were hired to process the collection and prepare
a descriptive guide according to archival standards. Bonfield and Lewis appraised, arranged, and described the 108 records
transfer boxes of archival and manuscript material, publications, photographs, audio recordings, films, and artifacts. By
eliminating duplicates and material not directly related to
fairs
as well as by transferring complete sets of serials and examples of fine printing about the various world
fairs
to the book stacks in Special Collections, the collection was reduced to 88 boxes (129 linear feet) and one flat file. An
additional gift in 1999 brought the collection to 95 boxes total.
When the material was originally gathered by Western
Fairs
Association, no notice was given to provenance of the records so it was unclear from which office a folder originated. As
well, records had not been kept in the order in which the creating office filed them. Before preparing this descriptive guide,
the archival consultants attempted to determine the office of origin of the records and to recreate the filing system within
each of these offices.
Particularly difficult was the material donated by Louis S. Merrill, which was not designated as such. Merrill material dating
before 1973 has been incorporated into Western
Fairs
Association files since for the most part it was created in his role as head of that organization.
It is expected that the users of the collection will include students in the
fair
management course at Cal Poly as well as staff members of the agencies promoting
fairs
and
fair
personnel. Subjects which are strong in the collection include: history of
fairs
in California and the West, the California legislative process, changes in emphasis of
fairs
on agriculture and technology, horse racing and betting, promotion of vocational education through
fairs
, the placement of
fair
management courses within the university system, the use of public relations and marketing in administering a state-wide
trade association, the history of concessions and entertainment, changes in public opinion toward the treatment of animals,
fair
-site ecology, and youth activities like 4H. This list identifies some of the obvious research areas; many more exist.
The
Fairs
Collection is divided into eight series:
Western
Fairs
Association
Division of
Fairs
and Expositions
Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocation and Classification
Printed Materials
Visual Media
Audio Media
Artifacts
Additional Donations
The archives of the Western
Fairs
Association is housed in 33 boxes with the most extensive portion being subseries 1, Office Files, 1940-1982, containing
directors' files, financial records, subject folders and correspondence. Subseries 5, Mailings, 1945-1966, contains a copy
of every mass mailing from the Western
Fairs
Association central office including press releases, memos and announcements. Copies of all Assembly and Senate bills relating
to
fairs
are found in subseries 06, which includes correspondence and position papers as well. There are four boxes for the Division
of
Fairs
and Expositions, mainly office files and copies of the annual Master Premium List from 1938 through 1980.
Thirteen boxes contain material from the Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocation and Classification including hearing transcripts from 1954-1982. There are nine boxes of printed material including
serials and publications from the International Association of
Fairs
and Expositions, the Canadian
fair
associations, and reports from California executive and legislative agencies. Printed materials relating to horse racing,
Cal Expo and vocational education have been grouped together in each subject.
Twenty-two boxes contain visual media material, mainly prints and slides relating to California
fairs
. There are three boxes each of audio media and material culture. The audio media are mainly recordings of hearings of the
Joint Committee and annual meetings of Western
Fairs
Association. Items in the material culture files include posters, bumper stickers, buttons, ribbons and other memorabilia.
An oral history interview with Louis S. Merrill was completed in the fall of 1985. The transcripts of these interviews are
also housed in Special Collections at Cal Poly.
Where possible, the provenance, or original organization, of the papers has been preserved. However, in order to simplify
access to the collection for researchers, some materials in specific formats and topics were reorganized and refoldered to
more accurately reflect their contents.
The Western
Fairs
Association partially funded the arrangement and description of this collection.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Merrill, Louis Strong -- Correspondence.
Western
Fairs
Association.
Western
Fairs
Association -- Correspondence.
California. Division of
Fairs
and Expositions.
California. Legislature. Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocation and Classification.
California State
Fair
and Exposition.
Agricultural exhibitions -- California.
Agricultural exhibitions -- Economic aspects -- California.
Agricultural exhibitions -- California -- Finance.
Fairs
-- California.
Fairs
-- West (U.S.)
Exhibitions.
Agricultural education -- California.
Agriculture -- Study and teaching -- California.
Horses -- Breeding -- California.
Horse racing -- California.
Printed ephemera -- California.
Merrill, Louis Strong.
McPhee, Julian A.
California. Division of
Fairs
and Expositions.
California. Legislature. Joint Committee on
Fairs
Allocation and Classification.
Genre and Forms of Materials
Printed material
Visual materials
Audio materials
Related Material
Materials Cataloged Separately
The following titles have been cataloged with MARC records and transferred into the book stacks of Special Collections:
Amusement Business. New York: BPI, 1961-
Forster, G.W., and Marc C. Leager.
Elements of Agricultural Economics. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950.
Golden, Hal, and Kitty Hanson.
The Techniques of Working with the Working Press. Dobbs Ferry [N.Y.]: Oceana, 1962.
Security Pacific National Bank.
The Financial and Economic Impact of the California
Fair
Industry
. 1975. Los Angeles: Dept. of Economic Research, Security Pacific National Bank, 1982. [Sponsored by the Western
Fairs
Assoc.]