Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Charles Derleth papers
WRCA 035
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Charles Derleth papers
Date (inclusive): 1865-1952
Collection Number: WRCA 035
Creator:
Derleth, Charles
Extent:
13.69 linear feet
(24 boxes)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: The collection consists of correspondence, engineering reports, blueprints, photographs, notes, and news clippings relating
to Derleth's work as a consulting engineering on the Golden Gate Bridge, Carquinez Bridge, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge,
a proposed Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Antioch Bridge, U.S. Engineer Foundation's Committee on Arch Dam Investigation, Spring
Valley Water Company, and others. Also includes materials on masonry structures (chiefly dams), the Hetch Hetchy Project,
Lake Spaulding Dam, and other bridges and dams in California and elsewhere.
Languages: The collection is in English.
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the University of California, Riverside Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives.
Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission
of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable
rights holder is also required. Responsibility for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[identification of item], [date if possible]. Charles Derleth papers (WRCA 035). Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Special Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Provenance unknown.
Processed by Water Resources Collections and Archives staff, 2001.
Collection number updated January 2019. Legacy collection number was DERLETH. This change was part of a project in 2018/2019
to update the collection numbers for collections in the Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Charles Derleth, Jr., was born on October 2, 1874, in New York. He received a bachelor of science degree at the City College
of New York in 1894 and civil engineering degree at Columbia University in 1896. He served as Instructor and Lecturer at Columbia
from 1896 to 1901. He moved westward in 1901 to become Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado. In 1903
Derleth accepted appointment as Associate Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In
1907 he became Professor and Dean of the College of Civil Engineering, and in 1930, when the Colleges of Civil, Mechanical,
and Electrical Engineering were combined, he was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering. He served in this capacity
until 1942.
The hallmark of Derleth's career as a civil engineer is undoubtedly his work on San Francisco Bay bridges. He was Chief Engineer
for the Carquinez Strait Highway Bridge, which, at the time it was built in 1927, was the longest cantilever bridge west of
the Mississippi. He was a member of the Board of Consulting Engineers for both the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland
Bay Bridge. He also visited, usually in the company of the Chief Engineer, nearly every major bridge construction site in
northern California.
In addition, Derleth played a pivotal role in the design and construction of some of the best-known buildings, bridges, foundations,
dams, highways, and tunnels in northern California. He was in charge of engineering work for the San Francisco Bureau of Architecture
and was Consulting Engineer for Alameda County on numerous municipal structures, including the 1915 Panama Pacific International
Exposition, the San Francisco Civic Center and Auditorium (which he also designed), Grace Cathedral, and the Native Sons Hall
in San Francisco, First National Bank of Berkeley, and Contra Costa County Hospital. Derleth also served as Chief Consulting
Engineer on the Oakland-Alameda Estuary Tunnel (now called the George A. Posey Tube) and as Consulting Engineer to the University
of California, designing and constructing California Hall, Wheeler Hall, Doe Library, Gilman Hall, LeConte Hall, the Campanile,
and other structures on the Berkeley campus. In 1930 Derleth received an honorary degree from the University of California
in recognition of his service.
Charles Derleth died on June 13, 1956.
The collection consists of correspondence, engineering reports, blueprints, photographs, notes, and news clippings relating
to Derleth's work as a consulting engineering on the Golden Gate Bridge, Carquinez Bridge, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge,
a proposed Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Antioch Bridge, U.S. Engineer Foundation's Committee on Arch Dam Investigation, Spring
Valley Water Company, and others. Also includes materials on masonry structures (chiefly dams), the Hetch Hetchy Project,
Lake Spaulding Dam, and other bridges and dams in California and elsewhere.
Charles Derleth Papers, ca. 1886-1965. BANC MSS 91/116 c, The Bancroft Library
Charles Derleth Papers, ca. 1900-1938. BANC MSS C-B 717, The Bancroft Library
Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire from the Charles Derleth Papers, 1868-1908 (bulk 1906-1908).BANC PIC 1958.021--fALB, The Bancroft Library
The collection is arranged into ten series as follows:
Series 1. Golden Gate Bridge, 1918-1952
Series 2. Carquinez Bridge, 1920-1937
Series 3. San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 1916-1937
Series 4. Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, 1925-1937
Series 5. Masonry Structures, 1914-1938
Series 6. Arch Dam Investigation, 1914-1933
Series 7. Spring Valley Water Company, 1865-1930
Series 8. Antioch-Sherman Island Bridge, 1922-1930
Series 9. Miscellaneous, 1903-1934
Series 10. Oversize Materials, 1924-1936
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Engineering Foundation (U.S.). Committee on Arch Dam
Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-1940 : San Francisco, Calif.)
Spring Valley Water Company (San Francisco, Calif.)
University of California, Berkeley. College of Engineering
Antioch Bridge (Calif.)
Arch dams -- Design and construction
Bonneville Dam (Or. and Wash.)
Bridges -- California -- San Francisco Bay -- Design and construction
Calaveras Dam (Calif.)
Carquinez Bridge (Calif.)
Dams -- California -- Design and construction
Earth dams -- Design and construction
Eleanor Dam (Calif.)
Exchequer Dam (Calif.)
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (Calif.)
Lake Hodges Dam (Calif.)
Lake Spaulding Dam (Calif.)
O'Shaughnessy Dam (Calif.)
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (Calif.)
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland and San Francisco, Calif.)
Stevenson Creek Test Dam (Calif.)
Correspondence
Photographs
Reports