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Walter Eugene Packard family papers, 1819-1973 (bulk 1907-1966).
BANC FILM 2620 microfilm reel 1; BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 16; BANC MSS 67/81 c oversize box 3; BANC MSS 67/81 c carton
1; ...
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Collection Overview
Title:
Walter Eugene Packard family papers, 1819-1973 (bulk 1907-1966)Walter Eugene Packard papers
Creator/Contributor:
Packard, Walter E. (Walter Eugene), 1884-1966, creator, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Packard, Emma Lou Leonard, 1884-1880, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Packard, Theophilus, 1802-1885, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Packard, S. W. (Samuel Ware), 1847-1937, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-1998, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Heise, Ellen Harris, 1848-1938, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957, correspondent.Creator/Contributor:
Online Archive of CaliforniaAbstract:
The collection is organized into nine series: Correspondence; Projects; Projects, post-retirement; Writings, manuscripts;
Writings, printed; Newspaper clippings and press; Personalia; Emma Lou (Leonard) Packard papers; and Other family papers.
The correspondence includes both outgoing and incoming letters. Outgoing correspondence is arranged chronologically and incoming
correspondence is arranged alphabetically (with a list of correspondents at the end of the finding aid). Project files include
chronologically arranged materials from Packard's work on a range of projects in places such as California's Imperial Valley
from 1909-1917; California's Central Valley; Mexico; Greece; Puerto Rico; and Venezuela. Among these files are significant
materials documenting Packard's work for the Resettlement Administration's Rural Division and the Farm Security Administration
during the Great Depression; Packard's work on the Central Valley Project during the early 1940s; and some files on the question
of settling Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Baja California (circa 1939). Materials relating to Packard's projects can
also be found in the manuscripts and printed writings in the collection (which are arranged alphabetically by title). Photographs
have been transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library, though some still images remain in the collection,
including those contained in Walter Eugene's scrapbook of his life at Iowa State College.
The collection also includes materials created by relations of Walter Eugene Packard, including his wife, his father and grandfather,
his daughter, and others. One series in the collection contains the correspondence, school and university materials, diaries
(including one entitled Dairying on the Delhi State Land Settlement and one documenting the Packard's tour of Southern Resettlement
Projects in the mid-1930s). Also included in the collection are a few files of materials documenting the work of Walter Eugene
Packard's father, Samuel Ware Packard, a prominent Chicago attorney and father of Walter Eugene Packard (see Series content
note for details). A small number of items in the collection document the work of Walter Eugene Packard's daughter, Emmy Lou
Packard, Bay Area artist and social activist (see Series content note for details). The earliest materials in the collection
were created by Walter Eugene Packard's grandfather, Theophilus Packard, who was a Calvinist minister, mainly in Illinois,
and husband of Elizabeth Parsons Ware. These materials include an account book of "every college expense" kept by Theophilus
Packard during his years at Amherst College and the Princeton Theological Seminary (1819-1824). as well as the Autobiography
and Diary of Theophilus Packard. The autobiography (100 pages) appears to have been written over a period of time and covers
his life from his childhood until 1872. The diary (82 pages), bound with the autobiography, starts in January of 1829 and
goes through 1872. Entries are monthly between 1828 and 1933 and then become more irregular. Included in the autobiography
are Theophilus Packard's memories about the process of having his wife involuntarily admitted to an Illinois insane asylum.
Date:
1907 (issued)Subject:
n-us--- -- nwpr--- -- e-gr--- -- n-mx--- -- n-us-caPackard, Walter E. (Walter Eugene) -- 1884-1966 -- Archives
Packard, Emma Lou Leonard -- 1884-1980 -- Archives
Packard, Emmy Lou -- 1914-1998 -- Archives
Rivera, Diego -- 1886-1957 -- Correspondence
Packard family
Leonard family
United States. -- Agricultural Adjustment Administration.
United States. -- Farm Security Administration.
United States. -- Resettlement Administration.
United States. -- American Mission for Aid to Greece.
Mexico. -- Comisión de Irrigación.
Central Valley Project (Calif.)
Delhi State Land Settlement.
University of California (1868-1952). -- College of Agriculture.
Iowa State College -- Photographs
Reclamation of land
Irrigation
Public utilities -- California
Land use -- Puerto Rico
Mexico -- History -- 1910-1946
Imperial Valley (Calif. and Mexico)
Note:
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
Account book 1819-1824 and diary of Theophilus Packard: Also available on microfilm with call no. BANC FILM 2620.
Walter Eugene Packard family papers, BANC MSS 67/81 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Gift; of Mr. Walter Eugene Packard and Mrs. Emma Lou Packard; 1966.
Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (1967.009--PIC and BANC PIC 1964.075--PIC).
Copies of letters to Sophia Maria (Smith) Leonard from Richard Realf removed to the Richard Realf papers (BANC MSS 80/139
z).
Walter Eugene Packard was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1884, the son of Clara Adelaide (Fish) and Samuel Ware Packard. After
high school he attended Iowa State College at Ames, graduating in 1907 with the degree of Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture.
In 1909, he received his M.S. degree from the University of California at Berkeley and married Emma Lou Leonard, also a 1907
graduate of Iowa State College. Their first home was in El Centro where Packard worked for the University of California College
of Agriculture to establish and then supervise the Imperial Valley Experimental Farm. In 1917 he moved to Berkeley as Assistant
State Leader of Farm Advisors. He was granted leave of absence from April to July, 1919 to serve in the Army Education Corps
as consultant to returning soldiers interested in obtaining land. While still on leave he both studied and taught economics
at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Shortly after returning to Berkeley, Packard accepted the position of
superintendent of the Delhi State Land Settlement, a University of California sponsored project. He resigned in 1924 and became
a private consultant. From 1926 -1929 he worked for the Mexican government as Jefe del Departamento Agronómico de la Comisión
Nacional de Irrigación, making reconnaissance studies of potential irrigation projects. Returning to California he spent the
next several years engaged in consulting work including a study of potential benefits of the proposed Central Valley Project
and the feasibility of the Columbia River Basin Project. From 1933 to 1938 Packard worked with the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration and then the Rural Resettlement Administration becoming Regional Director and finally National Director. Consulting
work from 1939 to 1945 included a study of Linn County, Oregon for the Farm Security Administration and a report on the Central
Valley Project for the Haynes Foundation. In 1945 he became land consultant to Rexford Guy Tugwell, Governor of Puerto Rico,
and in 1948 went to Greece, first as irrigation specialist for the American Mission for Aid to Greece and then as chief of
land reclamation for the Economic Cooperation Administration. The Packards returned to their Berkeley home in 1954 when Mr.
Packard retired. Until shortly before his death in 1966 Mr. Packard remained actively involved in numerous organizations and
projects concerned with public power, conservation, world peace, improved conditions for the farm laborer, and other social
and economic problems.
In English with some Greek and Spanish.
Finding aid available in the library and online.
Type:
Manuscripts for publication.Diaries.
Photographs.
Scrapbooks.
Physical Description:
print
25 (16 4
1 negative (BNEG Box 818:11) and positive.
Language:
English
Identifier:
BANC FILM 2620 microfilm reel 1
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 16
BANC MSS 67/81 c oversize box 3
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 1
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 2
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 3
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 4
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 5
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 6
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 7
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 8
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 9
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 10
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 11
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 12
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 13
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 14
BANC MSS 67/81 c carton 15
BANC MSS 67/81 c oversize box 1
BANC MSS 67/81 c oversize box 2
BANC MSS 67/81 c oversize box 4
BANC MSS 67/81 c
BANC FILM 2620
BANC MSS 67/81 c
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.