Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Hansen, Hugh G.
- Abstract:
- This collection is composed primarily of research files compiled for Hansen's study of federal-state relations in the Central Valley, which resulted in his dissertation, The Central Valley Project: Federal or State?(also published by the California State Assembly Interim Committee on Conservation, Planning and Public Works as Volume 13, no. 6, of the Committee's reports). Includes extensive interview notes, correspondence, reports, and detailed annotations of sources consulted.
- Extent:
- 4.08 linear feet (8 boxes)
- Language:
- The collection is in English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], [date if possible]. Hugh G. Hansen papers (WRCA 159). Water Resources Collections and Archives. Special Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection is composed primarily of research files compiled for Hansen's study of federal-state relations in the Central Valley, which resulted in his dissertation, The Central Valley Project: Federal or State?(also published by the California State Assembly Interim Committee on Conservation, Planning and Public Works as Volume 13, no. 6, of the Committee's reports). Includes extensive interview notes, correspondence, reports, and detailed annotations of sources consulted.
Also includes materials on electric power rates (compiled by Hansen as an economist at the Office of Price Stabilizationfor submission to the California Public Utilities Commissionin the "PG & E rate case" of 1951), the irrigation districts movement in California, and the 1960 Census of Irrigation.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Hugh Groves Hansen was born on August 25, 1917 in Chico, California. He earned an A.B. degree from Oberlin College in 1938, a M.P.A. from University of Michigan in 1946, and a Ph. D. in Economics from the University of California, Riverside, in September 1955.
From July 1951 to July 1952, Hansen was employed as an economist in the U.S. Office of Price Stabilizationin San Francisco. The OPS was established in 1951 as part of a price control law intended to restrain inflation during the Korean War. While not empowered by law to regulate public utility rates, the OPS could appear as a "friend of the court" -- or in this case, the California Public Utilities Commission -- in the national interest, which the San Francisco office undertook to do in opposing a rate increase requested by Pacific Gas & Electric Companyin November 1951. Hansen was intending to present his arguments before the PUC, but was unable to do so when the hearing was established on short notice and he was out of San Francisco on another assignment at the time. Another OPS staff member presented Hansen's findings to the Commission, which acknowledged, but rejected, his arguments in their final decision.
In 1952, Hansen obtained a research fellowship grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles to undertake a study of Central Valley water development. In the summer of 1953, he joined the staff of the Bureau of Public Administration at the University of California, Berkeley,as a Public Administration Analyst. His initial assignment was to conduct a brief study of federal-state relations in the Central Valley. The study lasted over two years and resulted in a detailed report submitted to the California State Assembly Interim Committee on Conservation, Planning, and Public Works.The report, Central Valley Project: Federal or State?, also served as Hansen's dissertation.
After receiving his Ph. D., Hansen served as Professor of Economics at the University of North Dakota and the State University of Iowa.
From February 1958 to October 1959, Hansen worked as Chief of the U.S. Census of Irrigation,a division of the U.S. Census of Agriculture,under Ray Hurley.He was primarily responsible for the direction of reorientation of the 1960 Census and for the working out of new concepts for statistical data gathering and tabulation of irrigation water data. The direction of reorientation was toward an emphasis on quantities of water diverted, used for irrigation, and transferred between drainage basins, and a de-emphasis on the previous practice of measuring characteristics of irrigation organizations. The 1960 Census emphasized "acre feet of water flows" rather than the previous emphasis on "acres irrigated."
Hansen died on June 25, 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Hugh G. Hansen, July 1996.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Randal Brandt, WRCA Technical Services Librarian, and Erica Nordmeier, 2001.
Collection number updated February 2019. Legacy collection number was MS 96/7. This change was part of a project in 2018/2019 to update the collection numbers for collections in the Water Resources Collections and Archives.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into 5 series as follows:
- Series 1. Central Valley Project, 1943-1971
- Series 2. Electric Power Rates, 1951-1956
- Series 3. Irrigation District Movement, 1950-1954
- Series 4. Census of Irrigation, 1930-1964
- Series 5. Research Notes, circa 1952-1956
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
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.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], [date if possible]. Hugh G. Hansen papers (WRCA 159). Water Resources Collections and Archives. Special Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
- Location of this collection:
-
University of California, Riverside - Special Collections and University ArchivesPO Box 5900Riverside, CA 92517-5900, US
- Contact:
- (951) 827-3233