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Inventory of the California Centennials Commission Records
F3575  
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Table of contents What's This?

Arrangement and Description

Folder F3575:1-76

I. Administration

Scope and Content Note

There are four sections of the administration file series. The first part, Routine Business, consists primarily of correspondence, inter-office communications and forms dealing with general administrative matters such as plans for future meetings by the advisory committee, expense files for the executive secretary, communications with the Los Angeles office, and relations with the Finance Department.
A second section of the Administration file series was originally labeled Miscellaneous presumably by its office of origin, the California Centennials Commission. This file group is apparently disparate and assorted but its folders contain material of an admistrative type. Accordingly this separate file series was combined with the Administration file series. Four further sub-series (or file groups) may be discerned. Two of the four, the Legal an Financial, have considerable overlap. The four subgroups appear to be: (1)Legal, (2) financial, (3) Routine Business and (4) Publicity.
In order to clarify such an assortment of miscellaneous administrative categories, the four groups are included below in columnar form, each having its respected folders listed beneath its heading:

Legal

  • Attorney General
  • Legal Matters regarding Commission
  • Legislature

Financial

  • Auditor
  • Publicity Account
  • Bids
  • Bill of Lading and Receipts
  • Budget Material
  • Invoices, Claims, Receipts
  • Department of Finance
  • Purchase Orders
  • Universal Scenic
  • Studio Rejection

Routine Business and Governor

  • Accident Report
  • State Cars
  • Commission Mtgs.
  • Mailing and Name
  • Lists
  • Newsletter
  • Governor Warren-correspondence
  • Governor's Annual Reports, 1947-50
  • Windup Activities

Publicity

  • Allen's clipping
  • Chic. Fair 1950
  • Cal. Maritime
  • Academy
  • Goodwill Cruise
  • Oregon
  • Account, General and Contracts
  • Sesquicentennial-Federal
  • Statehood Stamp
  • Virginia
  • Wisconsin State
  • Centennial Committee
Additional materials concerning publicity are located among the folders labeled Promotional Material. The Miscellaneious division of the Administrative folders contains such record types as correspondence, receipts and reports.
The fourth section of the Administration record series consists of individual Personnel folders of California Centernials Commission employees. The first half of this series bears employees names on the folders, the second bears titles of positions. Each subgroup is alphabetically arranged.
Folder F3575:77-192.

II. Contracts

Scope and Content Note

These are contracts between the commission and various organizations or companies which are national, statewide, or local. The contracts provide for agreement on purchases of goods and services in connection with California Centennial activities.
Each folder is titled by individual contractor and contains agreements, remittances and related correspondence. In addition, some folders also contain one or several items of the following types: purchase orders, invoices, schedules, blueprints, and flyers. The kind of items contained in each folder depends upon the type of goods and/or services supplied by the contractor.
The contracting parties to these contract agreements are George Heinz, Executive Secretary, agent for the California Centennials Commission as contractor, and the given company or organization's agent as contractor. Typical contractees are private business firms, Chambers of Commerce, City Governments, School Districts, departments of the State Government and Centennial Commissions of various cities and counties of California.
Folder F3575: 193-323.

III. Past Events

Scope and Content Note

Program and related materials for local or community celebrations as well as statewide events are contained within the folders of this file group. These items consist of scripts, programs and brochures for events such as pageants, musicals and dramatic presentations. Related memoranda and correspondence are included - scattered here and there. Folders are arranged alphabetically within each of the file groups, namely (1) General (2) Floats (3) Monuments and Markers (4) Caravan and (5) Statehood.
Many exhibit items such as guest buttons and photographs are located throughout this file series or in the vault. A few sample General file group folders are titled Calaveras Fair and Jumping Frog, California's Golden Beginning, (a cinecolor film,) and Library of Congress [State-wide] Exhibit.
The Floats file group contains primarily correspondence. It also contains material in illustration of, and often enclosed within, the correspondence. Examples of such material are reports, bids, city maps, telegrams, advertising flyers, plans for floats and pageants, itemized bills for work performed, newspaper clippings, photographs, freight receipts, professional cards, name lists, and a few oddities. The latter are: A California license plate for a float, 2 cardboard photo-printing plates, and a Presidential Inaugural Parade General Order Number 1 for 20 January 1949.
The Monuments and Markers file group contains items relating to historical monuments, markers and plaques. These folders contain correspondence, plans, blueprints, photographs and commercial flyers. Such materials deal with descriptions of historic sites, arrangements for the physical preparation of the bronze plaques or markers, and the setting of dates for ceremonies of commemoration. The markers, plaques and monuments are joint C.C.C. - local community efforts and or appropriately so acknowledged on the final products.
Caravan. This sub-file group of Past Events series includes correspondence, specifications for exhibits, work estimates, equipment lists relating to contracts, lists of exhibits, descriptive promotional literature and a series of Daily Reports numbered 1 - 500 by C. C.C. observers of crowd reception to Caravan stops in various California localities. Oversized boxes contains three 17" × 12" Official Guest Registers, signed by visitors to the Historic Caravan at various stops along the Caravan's Route and two oversized folders labeled Administration - Miscellaneous: Budgets... and Administration - Miscellaneous: Budget Alotments and Budgets.
Statehood. This file group of Past Events series consists of the folders containing material from 1950 only, the year of the CCC Commemortion of California's attainment of statehood. 1948 was the year commemorating California's Constitution while 1949 was the Gold Rush Centennial year. In like manner 1950 recalled California's statehood. This file consists of materials similar to those in Past Events. General such as bills, brochures, correspondence, bids, purchase arrangements. It relates to events and administration of those events which relate specifically to statehood, e.g., San Francisco pageant with its floats, plays, costumes,. and general preparations.
Folder F3575:324-401.

IV. Southern California Division

Scope and Content Note

Two great groups of files are found in the Southern California Division group. One is the Administrative; the other is the Personnel group of folders.
The administrative sub-group is further broken down alphabetically into Art Centennial, First Annual Report, Centennial Film, Centennial Float, Expenses, Postage Stamp and San Diego Celebrations. Like the first three record series discussed above, which pertain to the statewide coordinating office situated at San Francisco, the Southern administration file group contains correspondence; memos, exhibit items, pictorial records and contracts.
The Personnel file group contains folders arranged according to employees names but unlike the Personnel group in series I, these folders omit any folders arranged according to positions. Preceding the employees folders of the Personnel file group are folders marked Administration. These pertain to centralized personnel matters (forms, rules, applications) and are not included in the initial Administration file group of the Southern California Division.
Folder F3575:402-37

V. Supplemental Materials.

Scope and Content Note

These blueprints and scripts and promotional literature, have been transferred to this section because of their unique purposes and in the case of the blueprints, their acidity. The Promotional Literature Series, however, although found scattered throughout virtually all the files, was originally separated from the rest of the files.
The materials of the Promotional Listerature files series are arranged alphabetically by county, from Alameda to Stanislaus with such additional groups as C.C.C. Statewide Materials, and other state's Centennials (5 folders). These materials are the most unique in type of all the C.C.C. records. They contain programs, maps, special newspaper editions covering Centennial event, souvenir brochures, large posters and other oddities.