About the project

By the early 1970s, the Bay Area was in the midst of great social and cultural change. With plans for the extension of BART into the East Bay, and suburban sprawl threatening Mount Diablo and other open spaces, Save Mount Diablo (SMD) answered a call to action. SMD was founded by Dr. Mary Bowerman and Arthur Bonwell in 1971. It became a nationally accredited land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area comprised of biologists, conservationists, hikers, cyclists, equestrians, bird watchers, artists, and people who just loved to look at and enjoy the mountain. SMD has been preserving lands on and around Mount Diablo and educating the public to the mountain’s natural values since its founding. The organization’s focus on educational programs and protecting Mount Diablo’s connection to its sustaining Diablo Range has grown substantially over the years, due in part to new leadership and the growing severity of the climate crisis. As an organization, Save Mount Diablo is both an exceptional example of local land conservation efforts, as well as representative of national and international environmental activism that extends beyond the Bay Area. This oral history project began in 2021 as SMD approached its 50th anniversary. Most of the interviews were conducted remotely due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

See all interviews

If you are interested in viewing a collection noted as unprocessed or unarranged in UC Library Search, please submit the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form. Collections will be assessed in light of specific requests, and access may be possible in some cases. Generally, however, access to unprocessed collections cannot be provided.

Complete the Access to Restricted Materials form to initiate your request, which will be routed to the appropriate curator for review.

Please note that completion of this form but does not guarantee access to materials. Review of applications may not be completed while the researcher waits, nor can materials always be made available within the researcher’s stated timeframe. It may frequently be necessary to deny access entirely. 

About

The Bancroft Seminar on Interdisciplinary Latina/o History is comprised of a collective of northern California faculty dedicated to the interdisciplinary flourishing of Latina/o historiography—from the traditional subfields of social and political history to literary, intellectual, art, film, and beyond.

Our primary aim is to provide constructive feedback on book manuscripts with the goal of assisting junior faculty to produce cutting-edge work, and we do so in a collegial, amiable environment. The ideal candidate will have time to consider the feedback as they continue to prepare their manuscript for publication, usually about a year.

The Bancroft Seminar is inspired by the well-known Newberry Seminar in Borderlands and Latino/a Studies, but builds on the strength of Bay Area historians in order to both advance the field of Latina/o studies and raise conceptual questions related to historiography. The seminar meets twice a year, and has met since 2014. Since 2014, nine participants have published their books (see below for details).

Applying to the seminar

The Bancroft Library Seminar on Interdisciplinary Latina/o History is accepting proposals for its 2019-20 book manuscript seminar. The seminar meets twice a year and focuses on one manuscript per session. The seminar begins with the candidate providing brief remarks on the project followed by a faculty member serving as a respondent to the manuscript after which discussion is open to everyone. The seminar concludes with a sponsored reception and dinner. Under the auspices of the Ethnic Studies Department, candidates are offered lodging during their visit.

To apply, please email the following information as a single PDF file to raulc@berkeley.edu:

1. A cover page that includes:
   • Name
   • Email address
   • Academic rank
   • Institutional affiliation
   • Where your project is in terms of publication (e.g., Do you have a book contract? When will you submit your manuscript to publishers?)
   • When you would be able to present or any restrictions on when you cannot present.
2. CV
3. One-page proposal outlining the main questions you would like the seminar to consider as we read your manuscript. Please also address your project's disciplinary and interdisciplinary interventions.
4. A one-page manuscript abstract.
5. The entire manuscript (you may turn in a final version six weeks prior to the seminar).

For more information on the seminar, please contact the seminar coordinator Raúl Coronado at raulc@berkeley.edu.

Speakers and manuscripts

Spring 2020

Celeste R. Menchaca, Assistant Professor of History, Texas Christian University
Borderland Sightlines: Vision, Science, and the Production of a Nineteenth-Century U.S.- Mexico Border

The book argues that state officials and scientists used scientific, visual, and bureaucratic methods to manufacture a border into a space to be explored, charted, and brought under control. In it, I investigate how members of the 1850s and 1890s U.S.-Mexico Boundary Commissions, surveying expeditions that determined and marked the international boundary line and examined the Rio Grande between both countries, incorporated observational techniques and technologies to locate, fix, and mark the initial line. While the scientific spatialization of the nation brought the management of nature and people under the purview of the state, it did not operate singularly in the southwest borderlands. Surveying practices collided and/or cooperated with other established ways of seeing. Indigenous, Mexican, and Anglo-European locals commanded the terms of exchange with the Boundary Surveys and inhibited the border-making process by misguiding the commission, obstructing surveyors' scientific sightlines, and/or raiding their supplies. American empire appeared as a sweeping and all-encompassing authority, however the everyday practices of local inhabitants demonstrate an orderly disorder to the enactments of empire.

Fall 2019

Daniel Morales, Assistant Professor of History, James Madison University
The Making of Mexican America: The Dynamics of Transnational Migration 1900-1940

The migration between Mexico and the United States is the largest emigration of people between two states in modern history. Today, thirty-six million Mexican Americans call the United States home, and the twelve million undocumented immigrants in the US stand as the most divisive political issue in American life. How did we get here? How did this social and demographic phenomenon come about? This interdisciplinary and transnational book, The Making of Mexican America: the Dynamics of Transnational Migration, is the first history of the creation of modern US-Mexico migration patterns narrated from multiple geographic and institutional sites, analyzing the interplay between the US and Mexican governments, civic organizations, and migrants on both sides of the border. The book utilizes the largest cohort study of Mexican migration in the early 20th century combined with qualitative research to show how large-scale migration became entrenched in the socio-economic fabric of the United States and Mexico. It offers a comprehensive view of Mexican migration as it was established in early twentieth century and reproduced throughout the century as a social and economic system that reached from Texas borderlands to California and to western agricultural regions and beyond to Midwestern farming and industrial areas. Notably, the migration system continued to be circular in nature even as permanent settlement increased. Migrants in the US were in constant interaction with families, villages, and towns throughout Mexico. I argue that large scale Mexican migration was created and operated through an interconnected transnational migrant economy made up of self-reinforcing local economic logics, information diffusion, and locally based transnational social networks. From central Mexico the book expands across the United States and back to Mexico to show how the migrant economy spread and reacted to political and economic crisis in the 1930s. These dynamics continued through the Bracero Program and set the stage for the rest of the twentieth century.

2018-2019

Christian Paiz, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley
Here Is Where We Meet: A Rank-and-File History of the United Farm Worker Movement in Southern California

Here Is Where We Meet: A Rank-and-File History of the United Farm Worker Movement in Southern California follows the lives of Filipino and Mexican farmworkers during the United Farm Worker Movement in Southern California's Coachella Valley (1960s-1980s). Drawing from Latinx Studies, Asian American Studies and American Labor history, and using original oral histories, Here Is Where We Meet narrates a UFW history that transcends its more famous leadership. It argues that everyday people, and their aspirations, were of utmost historical significance: they initiated and propelled forward the UFW Movement, and helped determined our contemporary fortunes. History, in short, often sits amongst forgotten peoples.

Bernadine Hernández, Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico
(In) Visible Bodies of a New Nation: Civility, Gender and Sexual Economies on the Nineteenth Century Borderlands
Faculty Respondent: Raúl Coronado

The manuscript interrogates and examines nineteenth and early twentieth-century archival court cases, testimonios, narratives, visuals, editorials, and other historical documents to uncover a discourse of violence as tied to economics towards poor Mexican American women on the borderlands that becomes normalized throughout dominant histories, literary narratives, and imaginaries.

2017-2018

Jessica Ordáz, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder
The Rise of Immigration Detention: Forced Labor, Migrant Politics, and Punishment in California's Imperial Valley, 1939-2014
Faculty Respondent: Marla Ramírez, SFSU

Published as: Shadow of El Centro : A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) UCB copy: JV6926.E43 O73 2021 Other institutions: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1191457490 Purchase: UNC Press

Natalie Mendoza, Post-Doctoral Associate, University of Colorado, Boulder
The Good Neighbor Comes Home: The State, Mexicans and Mexican Americans, and Regional Consciousness in the US Southwest during World War II
Faculty Respondent: Brian DeLay, UC Berkeley

Publication forthcoming, working title: The Good Neighbor at Home: Mexican American Identity and Civil Rights during World War II

2016-2017

Ana Raquel Minian, Associate Professor, Stanford University
Undocumented Lives: Mexican Migration to the United States
Faculty Respondent: Lorena Oropeza, UC Davis

Published as: Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration (Harvard UP, 2018) UCB copy: E184.M5 M5496 2018 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1030304412 Purchase: Harvard University Press

Genevieve Carpio, Assistant Professor, UCLA
Collisions at the Crossroads: Contesting Race and Mobility in the Making of California
Faculty Respondent: Grace Peña Delgado, UCSC

Published as: Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race (UC Press, 2019) UCB copy: HB1985.C2 C37 2019 Other institutions: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1060178815 Purchase: UC Press

2015-2016

Catherine Christensen, Assistant Professor, Palomar College
Mujeres Públicas: Euro-American Prostitutes and Reformers at the California-Mexico Border, 1900-1930
Faculty Respondent: Grace Peña Delgado, UCSC

Rosina Lozano, Associate Professor, Princeton University
An American Language: Spanish Language Politics in the United States

Published as: An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States (UC Press, 2018) UCB copy: PC4826 .L69 2018 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1008763469 Purchase: UC Press

Robert F. Castro, Associate Professor, CSU Fullerton
Alien Bodies: Race, Liberty & American State-Building in the U.S. West (1848-1868)
Faculty Respondent: Beth Haas, UC Santa Cruz

Mónica Martínez, Assistant Professor, Brown University
Inherited Loss' Reckoning with State Sanctioned Violence on the Texas-Mexico Border, 1910-Present
Faculty Respondent: Brian DeLay, UC Berkeley

Published as: The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas (Harvard UP, 2018) UCB copy: F395.M5 M375 2018 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1020313014 Purchase: Harvard University Press Digital exhibit: Refusing to Forget

2014-2015

Tim Z. Hernández, Assistant Professor, UTEP
All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon

Published as: All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon (U of Arizona Press, 2017) UCB copy: TL553.525.C2 H47 2017 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1002119030 Purchase: University of Arizona Press

Chris Zepeda-Millán, Associate Professor, UCLA 
Dignity's Revolt: Threat, Identity, and Immigrant Mass Mobilization

Published as: Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism (Cambridge UP, 2017) UCB copy: JK 1764 .Z47 2017 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1077734368 Purchase: Cambridge University Press

Melisa Galván, Assistant Professor, CSU Northridge
From Contraband Capital to Border City: Matamoros, 1746-1848 (PhD Dissertation, UC Berkeley)

Lilia Soto, Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming
(Im) Personal Knowledge of Migration: Imagination and Geographies in the Making of Migrants

Published as: Girlhood in the Borderlands: Mexican Teens Caught in the Crossroads of Migration (NYU Press, 2018) UCB copy: HQ799.M6 S68 2018 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1040072381 Purchase: NYU Press

2013-2014

Lori Flores, Assistant Professor of History at SUNY Stony Brook
Fields of Division: Latino Struggles for Rights in the Heart of Agricultural California

Published as: Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016) UCB copy: HD6515.A29 F56 2016 Other institutions: https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1064523663 Purchase: Yale University Press

Tatiana Reinoza, Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College
Latino Print Cultures in the U.S., 1970-2008 (PhD Dissertation, UT Austin)
https://www.tatianareinozaphd.com/

A History of donor support

For more than a century, dedicated donors have made The Bancroft Library more than it could ever have been if its only support had come from the state.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Phoebe Apperson Hearst funded an archaeological expedition to Egypt that brought back the collection of texts now housed in Bancroft’s Center for the Tebtunis Papyri.  These precious fragments provide rare day-to-day information about life in Fayum Egypt. Many of them were preserved as the wrappings of mummified crocodiles.

Only a few years later, Hubert Howe Bancroft himself contributed $100,000 to help enable the University to buy his fabulous collection of books, manuscripts, maps, and transcribed interviews with original settlers of the American West, which form the core collection of the institution that bears his name today.

In 1956, University Regent James Moffitt donated his book collection and set up an endowment in memory of his wife to maintain and build the collection. As a result Bancroft has a significant collection of works by the Roman poet Horace, one of Moffitt's passions.

Samuel L. Clemens's daughter, Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch Samossoud, generously donated his private papers in 1949 to form the massive core of the world-renowned Mark Twain Papers and Project.

In 1972, Robert Bransten (of the B in MJB Coffee) donated his collection of 81 rare books on the history of coffee and tea and an endowment to maintain the collection, which now numbers nearly 400 titles. Thanks to his generosity, Bancroft's collection about coffee is among the best and most heavily used.

One of the great donors to Bancroft as the 20th century drew to a close was Jean Factor Stone, widow of novelist Irving Stone.  She donated not only her husband's manuscripts and correspondence, but also his research library and nearly 500 editions and translations of his books. The seminar room that she funded to house these materials is one of Bancroft’s most sought-after teaching spaces. Mrs. Stone, who was a terrific fundraiser, encouraged others to donate by telling them, “The Bancroft Library is offering you a little bit of eternity.”

Contributions to Bancroft support the acquisition, preservation, display, and study of priceless and irreplaceable pieces of our heritage.

Types of financial gifts

Gifts come in many forms: archives, books, scrapbooks, cash, stocks, and estate planning. The Bancroft Library staff is happy to provide information about various ways of making gifts:

• Donation to enable a purchase
• Donation of personal books, paintings, family papers
• Establishment of a fund, named by the donor to help create, expand, process, or support research on a collection

Endowments

In a very real sense, endowments are the gifts that keep on giving. The University has exercised laudable stewardship of its endowment funds.  Endowments can fund acquisition and restoration of collections, improvements and upkeep of the building, library fellowships and prizes, staff positions, and general support. The James D. Hart Directorship of The Bancroft Library is an endowment from Norman Strouse.

Current projects

Gifts for current projects let donors see their contributions at work, meeting Bancroft’s immediate needs. Recent Gilbert Foundation grants have funded the processing of remarkable archival collections that are now open for the first time to researchers. A challenge gift from the Anglo-California Foundation recently prompted more than two dozen other donors to join forces to begin an endowment for the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri. Current-use gifts also support a number of annual Study Awards for students working with Bancroft collections.

A guide to donating collections

The Bancroft Library is dedicated to the preservation of collections of written, visual, audio, and electronic records that are related to California, the American West, Mexico, and Latin America. These records include diaries, letters, scrapbooks and other documents of many types; paintings, posters, and plans; as well as documentation of recent times such as photographs, film, and computer hard drives.

What to preserve

Archival records generally fall into two main groups: records of private individuals and the records of organizations.

The former includes correspondence, legal and financial documents, diaries, scrapbooks, and an array of memorabilia. Such records may span several generations. Many people underestimate the importance of the records that may be stored in their attics or basements. Lives both extraordinary and common help historians to piece together the past. 

The records of organizations—such as businesses, churches, clubs, and professional organizations—usually include correspondence, reports, minutes, financial and legal papers, printed material, and other documentation. 

Privacy and copyright

• The Bancroft Library prefers to receive donations as gifts in which, at a minimum, property rights are transferred to the Regents of the University of California.
• Researchers using records often wish to quote in their publications from materials they have examined at Bancroft. We ask donors to include copyright in their gifts in order to save researchers the difficulty of identifying, locating, and securing from numerous copyright holders permission to quote, as well as to save donors the need to answer such requests. Copyright should be discussed with the Curator during negotiation of the gift.
• Sensitive material in a collection should be discussed with a Bancroft Curator during the negotiation of the gift. Although Bancroft strives to make all records open to the public, it will agree to close a portion of a collection for a finite period in order to protect the privacy of a donor and third-party confidences.

Tax deductions

It may be possible for the donors of some materials to claim a tax deduction for the value of their gifts. Here are some initial guidelines:

• The value of materials donated by their creators is not currently tax deductible, although such deductions may be made by their heirs or estates.
• Those who wish to use the value, if any, of their materials as a tax deduction should discuss the matter with the Curator and their tax advisor at the time of the negotiation of the gift.
• An appraisal of the value by an independent appraiser would be required for tax purposes. This issue should also be discussed with the Curator.

Whom do I contact?

If you are interested in donating collections to The Bancroft Library, initial contact should be made with:

Steven Black, 510-642-1320

Amelia Grounds, 510-642-8171

If you are interested in planning a current or future gift to The Bancroft Library, initial contact should be made with:

Elizabeth Friedman Branoff, efbranoff@berkeley.edu

About the policy

The Bancroft Library supports research, teaching, scholarship, and creative endeavors involving the use of materials from our collections. We provide a variety of duplication and permission services to meet the needs of our researchers and loan to cultural institutions for exhibitions. Please see our Duplication Services page for more information.

For questions about orders, charges, or general customer service, please use one of these methods to contact us:
510-642-3781 (Administrative Office)
banc-aeon@berkeley.edu

Delivery policy

Bancroft digital duplication requests are delivered via download only. Paper photocopies are delivered via pick-up or U.S. mail.

Cancellation policy

Researchers may cancel their requests for duplication and/or permission until payment has been received by The Bancroft Library. Once payment has been received, Bancroft staff process the request, including sending the material out to vendors to be digitized. A refund may be issued only in the event of a technical problem with the completed order (for example, corrupted digital file or torn photocopies). We regret that we cannot issue refunds if researchers decide that they no longer want or need the service. Please allow a minimum of 45 business days to complete all digital orders and permission requests.

How the Library and UC Berkeley protect your personal information

• Library privacy policies
• Berkeley Information Security and Policy
• Minimum Security Standards for Electronic Information (MSSEI)

Receipts 

Please retain a copy of your transaction receipt, which will help us investigate and analyze any problems with a transaction, and expedite a resolution.

General handling

• Keep your hands clean and dry.
• Place materials on the table. Do not put materials on the floor, on a chair, or on your lap.
• Avoid leaning on materials or piling them up.
• Do not bend, fold, or flatten materials. This is particularly important for maps and other oversize items.
• Notify library staff if you see any evidence of insects or rodents, mildew, damp, unusual dirt, or deterioration.
• Do not attempt to repair material yourself. If you see damage, please ask the Circulation or Reference Desk to send you an email with the link to the “Researcher Comment” form.
• Bancroft staff reserves the right to advise proper use of materials at any time.
• Due to preservation concerns, archival audiovisual materials must be digitized prior to use. Please consult with Bancroft staff about your options.

Handling containers (boxes and cartons)

• Watch this quick video for general guidelines on handling containers.
• Be sure that containers are sitting straight on their bottom sides. Avoid tipping, jostling, dropping, or positioning containers on their end. All material must remain fully on the table at all times.
• Do not use weakened or torn hand holes on containers.
• Support folders with hands at both sides when removing them from the container to prevent the contents from spilling out. Do not place full folders on end.
• Return one item at a time. Library staff will assist in delivering and returning all oversize items.
• Align sheets within folders so that ends are not protruding beyond the protection of the folder.
• Flat boxes should always be carried and used flat.

Handling bound volumes

• Watch this quick video for general guidelines on handling volumes.
• Use only paper as a bookmark.
• Never force open a book with a tight binding. Do not stack opened books or place them face down.
• Avoid touching the surface of ink, paint, or gold leaf; especially on vellum, ink can chip or be rubbed off.
• Turn pages at their outer edges.
• If you encounter unopened/uncut pages (where the folds in the gatherings are still connected, preventing the turning of single pages), please alert the Reference Desk. The Reference Desk will either assist or alert the Curator of Rare Books.
• Be aware of the condition of the books you are handling. Even new-looking books may be at risk: for example, perfect-bound books with pages that are simply glued into the spine and that can easily pop out when not handled with care.

Handling pictorial materials

• Watch this quick video for general guidelines on handling negatives.
• Use gloves when handling negatives, transparencies, and all unprotected pictorial material.
• Hold a print, drawing, or photograph, even when mounted, at its sides with both hands.
• Touch only the edges of photoprints, never the image itself.
• Keep pictorial materials flat; do not flex them.
• Limit movement, shifting, and stacking of images within folders or containers. Carry boxes by supporting them at the bottom.
• Use care in handling binders of photos: Images may be unsecured or too close to the binding hardware, and cardboard-mounted photographs may be in danger of flexing.
• Please note: Pictorial staff must assist in the handling of at-risk or restricted pictorial material.

About finding aids

Finding aids are inventories, registers, indexes, or guides to archival collections. Finding aids provide detailed descriptions of collections, their intellectual organization, and individual items or groups of items in collections.

Because these collections are often voluminous and contain unique materials, finding aids are generally available to help researchers to determine the contents of archival collections. They often include biographical or historical notes about the creator, scope and content notes about what is in a collection, and container listings. When digitized material from archival collections is available, it is linked within the finding aid listing, or you can search the same archival digital collections directly in Calisphere.

The Bancroft Library’s finding aids

The Bancroft Library’s finding aids are part of the Online Archive of California (OAC). If an online version of the finding aid exists, you will see a link to it in the links section of the UC Library Search catalog record. Print copies of finding aids are also kept in the Heller Reading Room.

The Bancroft Library has integrated Aeon into our online finding aids on the OAC. We highly recommend searching for and paging our materials through this system to ensure accuracy and efficiency. If you wish to request specific boxes or containers in a manuscript collection, click the "Request items" link at the top of the guide to initiate your request. You will be prompted to login to Aeon, where you can specify containers, folders, or items, and then submit your request. For more information, please see this Aeon guide. 

View Bancroft Library finding aids.

View University Archives finding aids.

Guide to using primary sources

For a detailed description on how to use primary source materials and their associated finding aids, please consult the Library Research Using Primary Sources guide.

ArchiveGrid

Bancroft finding aids, as well as finding aids from other archival repositories around the country, are available in a union database known as ArchiveGrid.

About the project 

Between the years 2004 and 2009, the United States Forest Service Region 5 retirees’ oral history committee, with financial and logistical support from the Regional Forester, conducted interviews with Forest Service retirees. The resulting oral histories addressed key themes — Forest Careers, Community, Timber Management, Changing Workforce, Fire Control, and Public Relations — that have helped shape the region’s and nation’s Forest Service in the latter half of the 20th century. Completion of the project was overseen by the oral history committee who in turn utilized members of the region’s past workforce as interviewers to conduct and record over 150 oral interviews. Completed interviews were then professionally transcribed and lightly edited. As a means to provide accessibility to the interviews, the committee entered into a collaborative agreement with the University of California, Berkeley’s Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) to publish two volumes of edited oral history from the project — The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories from the National Forests In California (2005) and The Unmarked Trail: Managing National Forests in a Turbulent Era (2009). Under the agreement, ROHO Associate Director Victor W. Geraci, Ph.D., selected interview segments, lightly edited them, and provided advice on the historical narrative to help contextualize the interview clips based upon the selected themes. The resulting manuscript narratives reflect the individual and collective memory of how the Service navigated dramatic policy, personnel, scientific, legal, legislative, and budgetary changes to arrive at a modern version of Gifford Pinchot’s maxim of “wise use.”  The agreement also provided for the webpage mounting of many of the complete interviewee transcripts.

See all interviews

Project resources

Publications

The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories from the National Forests In California (2005)

In preparation for the Forest Service’s 100th anniversary, Region Five retirees, with financial and logistical support from the Regional Forester, established an oral history committee to interview over 50 retirees and publish the edited portions of the interviews as part of a collaborative agreement with the University of California, Berkeley’s Regional Oral History Office (ROHO). Victor W. Geraci, Ph.D., ROHO Associate Director, then selected interview segments and lightly edited them for publication and prepared contextual narrative. 

The selected interview clips provide the narrative for the common recurring themes that reflected how past employees remembered their service to the forest and the struggles they faced in the course of their careers. In the first part, “The Lure of the Forest,” we listen to stories that detail why both men and women joined the Forest Service and what motivated young people to dedicate their lives to stewardship of our forest resources. Part two, “Called to Service,” lays out how these Forest Service veterans recall multitasking, job mobility, promotion, and the transition from jack-of-all-trades positions to a more specialized profession. In part three, “Managing Multi-Headed Dragons,” participants speak about their experiences and philosophy of protection and conservation of our forest resources from fire. Their story continues in part four, “The Forest Community: Everyday Life In the Service,” as “old-timers” describe their social history and their sense of the loss of a forest community. In part five, “Memorable Events and People — Remembering the Good Times,” the narrative briefly turns to the heartwarming stories that naturally radiate from oral histories. 

The Unmarked Trail: Managing National Forests in a Turbulent Era (2009)

As a continuation of the 2004 oral history project, the USDA Forest Service Region 5 retirees’ oral history committee, with financial and logistical support from the Regional Forester, conducted interviews for publication of a second volume of edited interviews. The committee extended its collaborative agreement with the University of California, Berkeley’s Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) and again Victor W. Geraci, Ph.D., ROHO Associate Director, selected interview segments, lightly edited them for publication, and researched and suggested contextual narrative.

In the first section, “Timber,” foresters reflect upon the shift from an era when timber was king and necessary for the benefit of the national economy to an era driven by an environmental focus that resulted in reduced budgets and new legal and legislative restrictions. The second section of the book, “Changing Workforce,” showcases narrative stories that reflect upon the changing employment demographics as specialization of job descriptions, civil rights concerns, affirmative action, and a consent decree ushered in new professions, people of color, and women to the Service. Section three, “Firescope,” concentrates on the development of Region 5's cutting-edge approach to increase effectiveness of firefighting policies and procedures. The resulting Firescope program became a model for local, state, national, and international approaches to all large-scale human disasters. In the final section, “Communications,” narrators describe how the Forest Service utilized Public Relations to protect the Service’s public image in an era of challenges by environmentalists who portrayed the Service as destroyers of the very natural resources that they were sworn to protect.

Bibliography

Beck, Leigh. An Interview with Leigh Beck. Edited by Jacqueline S. Reiner. Durham N.C: Forest History Society, 2002.

Bergen, Geri Vanderveer. An Interview with Geri Vanderveer Bergen. Edited by Jacqueline S. Reiner. Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 2001.

Black, S. Rexford. “Private and State Forestry in California: 1917-1960.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office, 1968.

Bleiker, Hans and Anne-Marie. Bleiker’s Art of Consent Building: The Art and Science of Getting Your Mission Accomplished…Especially When That Mission is Difficult and Controversial. 

Cermak, Robert W. Fire In the Forest: A History of Forest Fire Control On the National Forests In California, 1898-1956. USDA FS publication R5-FR-003; California, 2005.

Chase, Richard A. “FIRESCOPE: A New Concept in Multiagency Fire Suppression Coordination.” Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station General Technical Report PSW-40, 1980.

Clepper, Henry Edward. Professional Forestry in the United States. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.

Connaughton, Charles A. “National Forests Lands of many Uses: Regional Forrester’s Report 1961. San Francisco: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service California Region, 1961.

Cox, Thomas R., Robert S. Maxwell, and Phillip Drennon Thomas. This Well-Wooded Land: Americans and Their Forests from Colonial Times to the Present. University of Nebraska Press, 1985.

Davies, Gilbert W. Memories from the Land of Siskiyou: Past Lives and Times in Siskiyou County. History Ink Books, 1993.

________. Memorable Forest Fires: Stories. History Ink Books, 1995.

________. The Forest Ranger Who Could: Pioneer Custodians of the United States Forest Service 1905-1912. History Ink Books, 2003.

Davies, Gilbert W., and Florice M. Frank. Stories of the Klamath National Forest: The First 50 Years : 1905-1955. History Ink Books, 1992.

Davis, James B. and Robert L Irwin. “FOCUS: A Computerized Approach To Fire Management Planning,” Journal of Forestry. 74:9 September 1976, 615 – 618.

Fedkin, John. Managing Multiple Uses In National Forests, 1905-1995: A 90-year Learning Experience and It Isn’t Finished Yet. USDA Forest Service, 1999.

Fried, Jeremy S., J. Keith Gilless and James Spero. “Analyzing Initial Attack on Wildland Fires Using Stochastic Simulation,” International Journal of Wildland Fire 15: 2006, 137146.

Frome, M. The Forest Service, 2nd Ed., Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984.

Garfield, James. Peak Performers: The New Heroes of American Business. New York:  Avon Books, 1987.

Geraci, Victor W., editor. The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories from the National Forests In California. USDA FS publication R5-FR-005, 2005.

Godfrey, Anthony. The Ever-Changing View: A History of the National Forests In California. USDA FS publication R5-FR-004, 2005.

Graham, Otis L., Jr. Limited Bounty: The US Since WWII. McGraw-Hill,1995.

________, Jr. Environmental Politics and Policy 1960s to 1990s (Issues in Policy History, 9). Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.

Gray, Bob. Forest, Fires, and Wild Things. Naturegraph Publishers, 1997.

Holmes, Beverly C. An Interview with Beverly C. Holmes. Edited by Carol C. Severance. Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 2002.

Johnson, Clara. An Interview with Clara Johnson. Edited by Jacqueline S. Reiner. Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 2002.

Kaufmann, Herbert. The Forest Ranger. Johns Hopkins Press, 1960, 1967. 

Kelley, Evan W. “The Making of A Regional Forester.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office, 1974.

Kotok, Edward I. “The U.S. Forest Service: Research, State Forestry, and FAO.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office, 1975.

Kruger, Myron E. “Forestry and Technology in Northern California; 1925-1965.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office and the Forest History Society, 1968.

Lewis, James G. “The Applicant Is No Gentleman: Women in the Forest Service.” Journal of Forestry. July/August, 2005, 259-263.

________. The Forest Service and the Greatest Good: A Centennial History. Forest History Society, Durham, NC.

Li Master, Dennis C. Decade of Change: The Remaking of Forest Service Statutory Authority During the 1970s. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Miller, Char and Rebecca Staebler. The Greatest Good: 100 Years of Forestry in  America. Society of American Foresters, 1999.

Mees, Romain. “An Algorithm To Help Design Fire Simulation and Other Data Base Work,” USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-9/1974.

Pinchot, Gifford. Breaking New Ground, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1947.

Kelley, Evan W. “The Making of A Regional Forester.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office, 1974.

Kotok, Edward I. “The U.S. Forest Service: Research, State Forestry, and FAO.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office, 1975.

Kruger, Myron E. “Forestry and Technology in Northern California; 1925-1965.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office and the Forest History Society, 1968.

Lewis, James G. “The Applicant Is No Gentleman: Women in the Forest Service.” Journal of Forestry. July/August, 2005, 259-263.

________. The Forest Service and the Greatest Good: A Centennial History. Forest History Society, Durham, NC.

Li Master, Dennis C. Decade of Change: The Remaking of Forest Service Statutory Authority During the 1970s. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Miller, Char and Rebecca Staebler. The Greatest Good: 100 Years of Forestry in  America. Society of American Foresters, 1999.

Mees, Romain. “An Algorithm To Help Design Fire Simulation and Other Data Base Work,” USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-9/1974.

Pinchot, Gifford. Breaking New Ground, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1947. Pinchot Institute for Conservation. 

People Service People: Women and Minorities Working in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1980.

Peters, Thomas J. and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s-Run Companies. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1982.

Pyne, Stephen J. America's Fires: Management on Wildlands and Forests (Forest History Society Issues Series). Forest History Society, 1997.

________. Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. Penguin Books, 2002.

Pyne, Stephen J., and William Cronon. Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Book). University of Washington Press, 1997.

Robbins, William G. American Forestry: A History of National, State, and Private Cooperation. University of Nebraska Press, 1985.

Runte, Alfred. Public Lands, Public Heritage: The National Forest Idea. Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1991.

Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Show, S. Bevier. “National Forests In California.” Oral history conducted by Amelia R. Fry for the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Regional Oral History Office, 1965.

Steen, Harold K. The U.S. Forest Service: A History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.

Steinberg, Ted. Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History. Oxford University Press, 2002.

The Consent Decree in USDA Forest Service Region 5 and the Pacific Southwest Research Station. Four interviews conducted in 1992 under the auspices of USDA Forest Service and the Oral History Program, CSUS. Collection number: OH-003.

Thomas, J.C. and P. Mohai. Racial, Gender, and Professional Diversification in the Forest Service from 1983 to 1992. Policy Studies Journal 23(2): 296-309. 1995

U.S. Department of Agriculture- Forest Service. Women in the Forest Service. MP-1058. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972.

Williams, Gerald W. The USDA Forest Service: the First Century (Washington, DC: USDA Forest Service, 2000 (FS-650).

Woods, Patricia Dillon. The Defense Budget Process in the Washington Community. The Woods Institute, 1985.

Woods, Patricia Dillon. The Dynamics of Congress: A Guide to the People and Process  In Lawmaking. The Woods Institute, 1991. 

Worster, Donald. Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West. Oxford University Press, reprint edition 1994.

Zunz, Olivier. Why The American Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Related resources

Forest History Society

National Museum of Forest Service History

Grey Towers National Historic Site

U.S. Forest Service History

FIRESCOPE

Gifford Pinchot National Forest Oral History Project

Idaho Panhandle National Forest Oral History Project

Center for Southwest Studies Forest Service Oral Histories

Forest Product Laboratory Oral History Project