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Packard (Walter Eugene) Papers
BANC MSS 67/81 c
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Walter Eugene Packard papers
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 67/81 c
Physical Description:
25 linear feet
(16 cartons, 4 oversize boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1819-1973
Date (bulk): 1907-1966
Language of Material: English
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
No additions are expected.
The Walter Eugene Packard papers were gifted to The Bancroft Library by Mr. Walter Eugene Packard in 1966 shortly before his
death, with additions from Mrs. Emma Packard thereafter.
Theophilus Packard's Account book and diary (from oversize box 3) are also available on microfilm (BANC FILM 2620).
Walter Eugene Packard was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1884, the son of Clara Adelaide (Fish) and Samuel Ware Packard. After
high school he attended Iowa State College at Ames, graduating in 1907 with the degree of Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture.
In 1909 he received his M.S. degree from the University of California at Berkeley and married Emma Lou Leonard, also a 1907
graduate of Iowa State College. Their first home was in El Centro where Packard worked for the University of California College
of Agriculture to establish and then supervise the Imperial Valley Experimental Farm. In 1917 he moved to Berkeley as Assistant
State Leader of Farm Advisors. He was granted leave of absence from April to July, 1919 to serve in the Army Education Corps
as consultant to returning soldiers interested in obtaining land. While still on leave he both studied and taught economics
at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Shortly after returning to Berkeley, Packard accepted the position of
superintendent of the Delhi State Land Settlement, a University of California sponsored project. He resigned in 1924 and became
a private consultant. From 1926 -1929 he worked for the Mexican government as Jefe del Departamento Agronómico de 1a Comisión
Nacional de Irrigación, making reconnaissance studies of potential irrigation projects. Returning to California he spent the
next several years engaged in consulting work including a study of potential benefits of the proposed Central Valley Project
and the feasibility of the Columbia River Basin Project. From 1933 to 1938 Packard worked with the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration and then the Rural Resettlement Administration becoming Regional Director and finally National Director. Consulting
work from 1939 to 1945 included a study of Linn County, Oregon for the Farm Security Administration and a report on the Central
Valley Project for the Haynes Foundation. In 1945 he became land consultant to Rexford Guy Tugwell, Governor of Puerto Rico,
and in 1948 went to Greece, first as irrigation specialist for the American Mission for Aid to Greece and then as chief of
land reclamation for the Economic Cooperation Administration. The Packards returned to their Berkeley home in 1954 when Mr.
Packard retired. Until shortly before his death in 1966 Mr. Packard remained actively involved in numerous organizations and
projects concerned with public power, conservation, world peace, improved conditions for the farm laborer, and other social
and economic problems.
[Identification of item], Walter Eugene Packard papers, BANC MSS 67/81 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Initial processing in 1967; additional processing by Lara Michels in March 2104.
The collection is organized into nine series: Correspondence; Projects; Projects, post-retirement; Writings, manuscripts;
Writings, printed; Newspaper clippings and press; Personalia; Emma Lou (Leonard) Packard papers; and Other family papers.
The correspondence includes both outgoing and incoming letters. Outgoing correspondence is arranged chronologically and incoming
correspondence is arranged alphabetically (with a list of correspondents at the end of the finding aid). Project files include
chronologically arranged materials from Packard's work on a range of projects in places such as California's Imperial Valley
from 1909-1917; California's Central Valley; Mexico; Greece; Puerto Rico; and Venezuela. Among these files are significant
materials documenting Packard's work for the Resettlement Administration's Rural Division and the Farm Security Administration
during the Great Depression; Packard's work on the Central Valley Project during the early 1940s; and some files on the question
of settling Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Baja California (approximately 1939). Materials relating to Packard's projects
can also be found in the manuscripts and printed writings in the collection (which are arranged alphabetically by title).
The collection also includes materials created by relations of Walter Eugene Packard, including his wife, his father and
grandfather, his daughter, and others. One series in the collection contains the correspondence, school and university materials,
diaries (including one entitled
Dairying on the Delhi State Land Settlement and one documenting the Packard's tour of Southern Resettlement Projects in the mid-1930s). Also included in the collection
are a few files of materials documenting the work of Walter Eugene Packard's father, Samuel Ware Packard, a prominent Chicago
attorney and father of Walter Eugene Packard (see Series content note for details). A small number of items in the collection
document the work of Walter Eugene Packard's daughter, Emmy Lou Packard, Bay Area artist and social activist (see Series content
note for details). The earliest materials in the collection were created by Walter Eugene Packard's grandfather, Theophilus
Packard, who was a Calvinist minister, mainly in Illinois, and husband of Elizabeth Parsons Ware. These materials include
an account book of "every college expense" kept by Theophilus Packard during his years at Amherst College and the Princeton
Theological Seminary (1819-1824). as well as the Autobiography and Diary of Theophilus Packard. The autobiography (100 pages)
appears to have been written over a period of time and covers his life from his childhood until 1872. The diary (82 pages),
bound with the autobiography, starts in January of 1829 and goes through 1872. Entries are monthly between 1828 and 1933 and
then become more irregular. Included in the autobiography are Theophilus Packard's memories about the process of having his
wife involuntarily admitted to an Illinois insane asylum.
-
Photographs transferred to Bancroft Pictorial Collections. (Photographic materials classified as
Identifier/Call Number: 1967.009--PIC.Others transferred toIdentifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1964.075--PIC
-
Copies of letters to Sophia Maria (Smith) Leonard from Richard Realf removed to the Richard Realf Papers
Identifier/Call Number: (BANC MSS 80/139 z)
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library 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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Packard, Walter E. (Walter Eugene), 1884-1966--Archives
Packard, Emma Lou Leonard, 1884-
Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
Packard family
Leonard family
Packard, Emma Lou Leonard,1884-, creator
Packard, Theophilus, 1802-1885, creator
Packard, S. W. (Samuel Ware), 1847-1937, creator
Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-, creator
Heise, Ellen Harris, 1848-1938, creator
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957, correspondent
United States. Agricultural Adjustment Administration
United States. Farm Security Administration
United States. Resettlement Administration
United States. American Mission for Aid to Greece
Mexico. Comisión de Irrigación
Central Valley Project (Calif.)
Delhi State Land Settlement
University of California (1868-1952). College of Agriculture.
Iowa State College--Photographs
Online Archive of California
Reclamation of land
Irrigation
Public utilities--California
Land use--Puerto Rico
Mexico--History--1910-1946
Imperial Valley (Calif. and Mexico)
Manuscripts for publication
Diaries
Photographs
Scrapbooks