Collection Guide
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Collection Title:
Collection Number:
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Walter S. Johnson papers, 1910-2009.
BANC MSS 90/26 c oversize folder 1; BANC MSS 90/26 c oversize folder 2; BANC MSS 90/26 c carton 1; BANC MSS 90/26 c oversize
box 1; ...
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Collection Overview
Title:
Walter S. Johnson papers, 1910-2009Walter Samuel Johnson papers
Walter S. Johnson collection on the Palace of Fine Arts, 1914-1981
Walter S. Johnson papers concerning the Palace of Fine Arts
Creator/Contributor:
Johnson, Walter Samuel, 1884-1978, creatorAbstract:
The bulk of the collection pertains to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and Johnson's work to save the building. Also
included are professional papers documenting Johnson's career with American Forest Products Company and the Friden Calculating
Maching Company as well as personal papers documenting the history of the Johnson family.
Date:
1910 (issued)Subject:
n-us-caJohnson, Walter Samuel -- 1884-1978 -- Archives
Friden, Carl Mauritz -- 1891-1945
Walter S. Johnson Foundation.
Palace of Fine Arts (San Francisco, Calif.)
Friden (Firm)
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
Historic buildings -- Conservation and restoration -- California -- San Francisco
Exhibition buildings -- Conservation and restoration -- California -- San Francisco
Note:
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
Collection processed at the folder level in 2013.
Walter S. Johnson papers, BANC MSS 90/26 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Gift of the Walter S. Johnson Foundation; 1989; 2011; 2013.
In English.
Walter S. Johnson was born in East Saginaw, Michigan in 1884. He moved West while still a youngster, ultimately settling in
San Francisco, and graduated from the University of California law school in 1914. After working briefly as an attorney and
serving in World War I, Mr. Johnson became a partner in, and later the president of, Tarter, Webster & Johnson, a wholesale
lumber firm. In 1927, he founded the American Box Corporation, which later became the American Forest Products Corporation,
and served as its president for more than forty years. Mr. Johnson also helped create Friden Calculating Machine Company in
1933 and was elected president in 1945 on the death of its founder. He remained active in the management of both companies
until well into his eighties. Mr. Johnson died in 1978. Walter Johnson received considerable public notice in 1959 with his
lead gift to the city of San Francisco for the reconstruction of the Palace of Fine Arts. The building, designed by Bernard
Maybeck and originally constructed in 1915 for the Panama Pacific Exposition, had captured Mr. Johnson's fancy when he visited
the Exposition as a young man.
Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 2012.103).
Type:
Blueprints.Physical Description:
print
1 carton, 1 oversize box, 2 oversize folders (2 linear feet)
Language:
English
Identifier:
BANC MSS 90/26 c oversize folder 1
BANC MSS 90/26 c oversize folder 2
BANC MSS 90/26 c carton 1
BANC MSS 90/26 c oversize box 1
BANC MSS 90/26 c
BANC MSS 90/26 c
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.