Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Billigmeier, Robert Henry
- Abstract:
- The Robert Billigmeier collection holds some of the documents of the University of California's Evacuation and Resettlement Study begining in 1942. The collection contains reports conducted under the direction of University of California, Berkeley Professor Dorothy Swain Thomas. There are also publications such as Professor's Dorothy Swaine Thomas' book The Spoilage and the WRA: A Story of Human Conservation. There is a scrapbook produced by the students at Tule Lake, photographs of the internment camp and photos of Billigmeier's personal life.
- Extent:
- 2.5 linear feet (4 document boxes and 1 photo box)
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
Robert Billigmeier Collection, CEMA 60, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Santa Barbara
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Series I Research Studies, 1942-1987
This series includes the "Tule Lake Monograph," by Robert Billigmeier, written in 1976. It also contains the subseries of The University of California study of evacuation and resettelment at Tule Lake, composed by various authors. The study is arranged according to an outline provided in the study. There are also three writings composed by Robert Spencer on the Gila River internment camp and two post internment camp articles.
Series II Publications, 1942-1979
Series two is composed of two subseries, the first subseries being Newsletters, Newspaper and Magazines. It contains newsletters published in the early 40's and in 1950. It also holds newspapers and magazines published at Tule Lake from 1942-1943. The second subseries is Books and Booklets, concerning Tule Lake and other Japanese-American internment camps, composed by a variety of authors. The books and booklets are arranged alphabetically.
Series III Scrapbook, 1942
This is a scrapbook created in Tule Lake by the Japanese-American students.
Series IV Photographs, 1939-1952
This Photograph album contains approximately 300 black and white photographs of Billigmeier's personal life and his stay at Tule Lake.
The Robert Billigmeier Collection contains photographs, a scrapbook, published and unpublished documents regarding the Tule Lake Relocation Center from 1942 to 1943. However, the entire collection ranges from 1940 to 1987. Series I contains research reports concerning the organization of Tule Lake and experiences undergone by the students, as seen through the students personality cards. In the personality cards students wrote about their day and their feelings regarding specific topics such as democracy. The series also contains documents written after 1943 such as the monograph, "Tule Lake in 1976," by Robert Billigmeier, "A Victim of the Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS)" by Violet Kazue de Cristoforo in 1987 and "Educational Norms in Japanese Immigrant Communities" written by Katsuhiko in 1976. Series II contains Tule Lake publications such as the Tri State High Magazine, Tulean Dispatch Magazine and books such as Impounded People: Japanese-Americans in the Relocation Centers, and The Displaced Japanese-Americans previously titled Issei Nisei Kibei in Fortune magazine. Series III contains a scrapbook created by the students at the relocation center in 1942. Series IV consists of photographs dating from 1939 to 1952. The photos are from the Tule Lake relocation center and of Billigmeiers personal life, including his graduation and family trips.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Robert Billigmeier (1914-1996) was a UCSB Sociology professor who specialized in the areas of demographics, social movements and European and American ethnic groups. He was very interested in the Romansh Culture. In 1951 he earned his PH.D. on the history of the Romansh Culture from Stanford University. Billigmeier provided many scholarly contributions such as A Crisis in Swiss Pluralism published in 1979. The book provided an extensive analysis on the history of the Raeto Romansh over the past thousand years. He also wrote books about Swiss immigrants in America and German Americans.
In the autumn of 1942 he was employed at the Tule Lake Relocation Center as a field research assistant on the Evacuation and Resettlement Study of the University of California. During his research at Tule Lake he observed the Japanese-American interns and the overall lifestyle at the internment camps. Twenty-four years later, 1976, he worked on a monograph of Tule Lake which includes diary excerpts, short essays and letters by Japanese-American high school students written in the Tule Lake relocation center.
Billigmeier was also actively involed in the UCSB, Santa Barbara and Switzerland communities. At UCSB he was the foreign student advisor from 1955 to 1963, associate director for the Education Abroad Program from 1964 to 1976 and member and supporter of the Faculty Club. In Santa Barbara he worked for international cooperation, fair housing and family planning. While visiting Swizerland he became involved with community organizations for the preservation of the Romansh culture.
- Physical description:
- Four document boxes and one photo box
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
none
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
- Preferred citation:
-
Robert Billigmeier Collection, CEMA 60, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062