Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Robert Bradford Marshall Papers,
- Dates:
- 1898-1949
- Creators:
- Marshall, Robert Bradford, 1867-1949
- Abstract:
- Correspondence, notes, manuscripts of his writings, speeches, memoranda, clippings and scrapbooks, mainly relating to the Marshall Plan for water development, conservation, Hetch-Hetchy, roads, Yosemite National Park and other parks. Family correspondence and personal papers also included.
- Extent:
- Number of containers: 23 boxes, 4 scrapbooks, 1 portfolio, 1 volume Linear feet: 12
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Robert Bradford Marshall papers, BANC MSS C-B 511, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection, given to the Bancroft Library in 1953 by Virginia Mann Marshall, consists of 23 boxes, 4 scrapbooks, 1 portfolio, 1 volume and maps.
Marshall's letters and writings show him as an enthusiastic supporter of state and national parks, intensely interested in all phases of conservation, acutely aware of natural beauty, a crusader for public good, and an ardent geographer. He was a man with vision and foresight -his Marshall Plan of 1919-1920 came to be the basis of the Central Valley Project of the 1930's. He constantly fought for his plan and for flood control of the Mississippi River.
Letters to Marshall, from such conservationists as William Edward Colby, John Muir, John Frederic Badh, John Nesbet Le Conte and James Grafton Rogers, form an important part of the collection. Much of the correspondence from Hiram Martin Chittenden, Frank Bond, H. C. Benson and the U.S. Department of the Interior relates to the early history of Yosemite as a National Park. Letters from Charles Averil Barlow and Ed Fletcher, though chiefly concerned with private financial business, also reflect the early workings of California water projects. Letters from the California Council for Protection of Roadside Beauty show Marshall's interest in the beauty of highways and his battle against unsightly highway signs. Photocopies of letters from Rudolph Spreckels, letters from Annette (Abbott) Adams, Carter and Barrett, and Paul A. McCarthy deal with Marshall's suit against Spreckels. Many letters relate to national and state parks, the Marshall Plan, conservation, maps, and some pertain to routine business matters such as insurance, retirement, property in Virginia, etc. Letters to and from his family demonstrate an unusually devoted and harmonious domestic life.
Part I contains general correspondence from Marshall, mostly typed copies, arranged chronologically, from 1898-1948; letters to Marshall, arranged alphabetically, A-Z; Marshall's writings, including notes, drafts and manuscripts; memoranda from and to Marshall; and assorted material related to his work.
Part II consists mainly of letters from Marshall to his fiancee, Myra Crow, and to his wife, a few letters to his children and sister-in-law; letters from Mrs. Marshall to her husband, 1898-1948; letters from daughters Evelyn and Virginia to parents; from Evelyn (Crow) Simmons, to Mrs. Marshall; letters of condolence, tributes to R. B. Marshall, and miscellaneous personal papers.
Material removed from the collection consists in: maps -approximately 300, quadrangles and miscellaneous with no annotations and no specific relationship to papers, dispersed, with source noted on each; maps, approximately 175, manuscripts and printed with manuscript notations, kept as unit; 7 photographs (Myra C. Marshall, C. C. Young and Newton B. Drury) to portrait collection; and 17 printed items, mainly pertaining to national parks and water conservation, for separate cataloguing.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Robert Bradford Marshall, geographer and father of the Marshall Plan for irrigation and water conservation of the Central Valley in California, was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1867. He entered the U.S. Geological Survey as a geographer in 1889, became Geographer of the Pacific Division in 1907 and was appointed Chief Geographer of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1910. This position he held until 1915 when he was appointed Superintendent of Parks. He resumed the position of Chief Geographer in 1917. In 1919 he resigned his government post to devote himself fully to developing and publicizing his Marshall Plan of irrigation and water control of the Central Valley of California. Due in part to his extensive and intensive schedule of speeches, he developed a severe throat irritation requiring the removal of his larynx in 1927. He thereby lost power of speech and was able to converse only with the aid of an artificial larynx. In 1928 he was appointed State Landscape Engineer in the California Division of Public Works where his duties related to highway beautification and safety. At this time he also did considerable research for the California State Planning Board concerning California and her natural resources. He retired at the age of 70 in 1937 and died in 1949 after several years of ill health, shortly before the completion of one of his dreams, the Shasta Dam.
He married Myra Crow of California in 1896, and had two daughters, Evelyn Bradford Marshall (Mrs. Philip Maddox) and Virginia Mann Marshall.
- Physical location:
- For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 1997
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid derived from paper by means of scanning and OCR; OCR file edited for typographical errors before encoding; finding aid encoded by Xiuzhi Zhou. Date of source: Unknown.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
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.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Robert Bradford Marshall papers, BANC MSS C-B 511, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
- Location of this collection:
-
University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft LibraryBerkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
- Contact:
- 510-642-6481