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Finding Aid to the Anson Stiles Blake Papers, 1882-1959
MS 204
MS 204
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Title: Anson Stiles Blake papers
Date (inclusive): 1882-1959
Collection Number: MS 204
Creator:
Blake, Anson Stiles, 1870-1959
Physical Description:
1.5 boxes(0.75 Linear feet)
Repository:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English.
Abstract: Consists chiefly of typescripts and manuscripts of
Blake's speeches to San Francisco Bay Area social clubs and organizations,
concerning California history and contemporary issues, including labor relations,
the cement and asphalt business, Berkeley, and other topics. Includes papers
relating to his participation with the California Historical Society and the Society
of California Pioneers, and a small amount of personal correspondence, receipts, and
miscellany. Also includes some material on Blake's father, Charles Thompson Blake
and his travelling and business partners, Roger Sherman Baldwin, Charles T.H.
Palmer, and Caspar T. Hopkins, who is represented by a [1932] typed copy of his
autobiography, written in 1888-1889.
CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates:
https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/
Copyright has not been assigned to The North Baker Research Library. All requests
for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing
to the Library Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The
North Baker Research 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.
[Identification of item], Anson Stiles Blake Papers. MS 204, California
Historical Society, North Baker Research Library.
Photographs shelved as MSP 204.
Anson S. Blake Business Records, MS 203 Charles Thompson Blake Letters and
Miscellany, 1849-1865, MS 204A
This entry replaces NUCMC number 75-235.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Blake, Charles Thompson,
1826-1897
Hopkins, Caspar T. (Caspar Thomas),
1826-1893
Businessmen.
California--History.
Industrial relations--California.
Quarries and quarrying--California.
Agriculture--California
Folder 26
American Federation of Labor
Folder 14
Art--San Francisco Bay
Folder 32
Berkeley, California, 1875-1900
Folder 8
Berkeley, California--Transporation--Railroads
Folder 9
Berkeley, University of California
Folder 8
Bidwell, John
Folder 18
Botany
Folder 16
California--Emigration
Folder 17, 18
California--History, 1861-1865
Folder 11
California--Politics and government, 1849-1879
Folder 21
Chapman, Charles E.
Folder 15
Cleland, Robert G.
Folder 15
Collective bargaining
Folder 14, 21
Congress of Industrial Organizations
Folder 14
Conservation
Folder 30
East Bay Municipal Utility District--History
Folder 17
Kensington, California
Folder 22
Labor--California
Folder 29
Labor disputes
Folder 21, 34
Mines and mining
Folder 25
Palmer, Charles T.
Folder 24, 35
Prohibition--California
Folder 27
Race relations
Folder 28
San Francisco--Politics and government, 1846-1848
Folder 31
San Francisco--Social life and customs, 1846-1848
Folder 31
San Francisco Bay
Folder 31, 32
Street-cars--Berkeley, California
Folder 9
Sutter, John A.
Folder 24
Sutter's Fort
Folder 24
Trade-unions
Folder 23, 29
Wine and winemaking
Folder 27
Source unknown.
No additions are expected.
Processed by California Historical Society staff.
Consists chiefly of typescripts and manuscripts of Blake's speeches to San Francisco
Bay Area social clubs and organizations, concerning California history and
contemporary issues, including labor relations, the cement and asphalt business,
Berkeley, and other topics. Includes papers relating to his participation with the
California Historical Society and the Society of California Pioneers, and a small
amount of personal correspondence, receipts, and miscellany. Also includes some
material on Blake's father, Charles Thompson Blake and his travelling and business
partners, Roger Sherman Baldwin, Charles T.H. Palmer, and Caspar T. Hopkins, who is
represented by a [1932] typed copy of his autobiography, written in 1888-1889.
Anson Stiles Blake was born in San Francisco on August 6, 1870. He was the son of
Harriet Stiles Blake and Charles Thompson Blake. His father, C.T. Blake was an early
pioneer to San Francisco, arriving in 1849 from New Haven, Connecticut after a
difficult voyage through Central America. Anson Blake attended Lincoln Grammar
School and Boy's High School in San Francisco before moving with his family to
Berkeley where he attended the University. Upon graduation in 1891 Blake went to
work for the Bay Rock Company in Oakland, moving two years later to the Oakland
Paving Company a macadamizing outfit run by his father and his father's associate
C.T.H. Palmer. In 1899 he became president of that company. In 1894 he married Anita
Day Symmes, a recent U.C. graduate.
Blake's interest in such businesses arose from his father's and grandfather's own
mining and mine-equipment backgrounds. (His grandfather patented the Blake Rock
Crusher in 1858.) In 1904 he helped to form the San Pablo Quarry Company which
supplied materials to the city of San Francisco for its rebuilding after the
earthquake. In 1914 the company, which later became Blake Brother's in Richmond, was
created and this business was in Blake's control until 1954. Rock from this company
helped to keep islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin from flooding in addition to
supplying the bayside rock edges of Treasure Island for the 1939 Fair there.
Throughout his life, however, Blake's interests diversified far beyond those of the
quarrying concern. He took an interest while still at Berkeley in the University
YMCA - Stiles Hall - (donated by his grandmother,) and helped to support it
throughout his life. He was a member of many clubs including the Berkeley City Club,
the Claremont Country Club the Athenian Club and others. He wrote prolifically on a
wide variety of subjects and was a frequent speech-giver. Speech topics covered such
subjects as, Racial Contrasts on the Southwestern Frontier, to the effects of
Prohibition on California grape growers. Usually, though, they dealt with history.
He was president of both the Society of Calif. Pioneers and the Calif. Historical
Society, the latter from 1945-48. He was on the Board of Trustees of CHS from
1924-1959 and was made a fellow in 1958. He did extensive research on his father,
concentrating on the years Charles Blake spent mining in the Sierras during the Gold
Rush. Among Anson Blake's papers are letters written by his father's traveling and
business partners describing their trip to California and the Gold Rush.
In 1953 the California State Legislature bestowed upon him the title of Grand Old Man
of Stiles Hall in honor of his 50 years of service. In 1958 he was awarded an
honorary doctor of laws degree by the University. He died on August 17, 1959, eleven
days after his 89th birthday.