Kuchel family papers, 1860-1940

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Summary

Creators:
Kuchel family
Abstract:
This collection comprises Anaheim-related printed ephemera, photographs, and clippings gathered by the Kuchel family, owners and publishers of the Anaheim Gazette, and documenting the family's publishing activities and other local commercial publishing. Other materials in this collection record the meetings of the Anaheim City Trustees and the Anaheim Water Company Board of Trustees. The majority of materials in this collection are printed ephemera from the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, primarily printed for Anaheim companies and citizens. These include stationery, business and calling cards, corporate and public notices, flyers, broadsides, advertisements, tickets, and labels for wine, liquor, and other products. Some of these items were printed by the Kuchels' Anaheim Gazette press.
Extent:
1.1 Linear Feet (2 boxes and 1 oversize folder)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Kuchel Family Papers. MS-R29. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection comprises Anaheim-related printed ephemera, photographs, and clippings gathered by the Kuchel family, owners and publishers of the Anaheim Gazette, and documenting the family's publishing activities and other local commercial publishing. Other materials in this collection record the meetings of the Anaheim City Trustees and the Anaheim Water Company Board of Trustees. The majority of materials in this collection are printed ephemera from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily printed for Anaheim companies and citizens. These include stationery, business and calling cards, corporate and public notices, flyers, broadsides, advertisements, tickets, and labels for wine, liquor, and other products. Some of these items were printed by the Kuchels' Anaheim Gazette press.

The collection also contains photograph portraits of Henry Kuchel and an assortment of newspaper clippings concerning the Kuchel family and the Gazette. A scrapbook of Gazette clippings records the meetings of the Anaheim City Trustees from 1894 to 1898, and a bound volume of holograph minutes records the meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Anaheim Water Company from 1872 to 1882. The minutes were published in the Gazette.

The printed ephemera provide a record of early Orange County business and cultural history. Among the business-related printed ephemera are illustrated business cards for the city livery and stables, banks, grocery stores, vineyards, and hotels. Announcements range from family wedding invitations and city concerts to grand balls hosted by the Native Sons of the Golden West.

Printed ephemera are arranged by material format (e.g., business cards, stationery, tickets). Within this arrangement, material is grouped topically by function or purpose.

Biographical / historical:

The Kuchel family of Anaheim published Orange County's first newspaper, the Anaheim Gazette, for 90 consecutive years. Henry Kuchel, editor of the Gazette, was born in 1859 and arrived in Anaheim in 1860 with his German immigrant family. His father, Conrad Kuchel, was one of the original fifty colonists of Anaheim in 1857. He owned several vineyards in the area, as well as the first meat market in Anaheim. With his brother Charles, Henry purchased the Gazette in 1887 after working extensively in the newspaper publishing business in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Henry married Lutetia Kuchel of Texas in 1894. She assisted Henry in running the Gazette and continued to write for the newspaper after Henry's death in 1935.

Their youngest son, Thomas H. Kuchel, practiced as a lawyer in Anaheim before he was elected as a Republican to the California state Assembly. He was elected to the California State Senate in 1940 and served until 1945. Beginning in 1953, he served in the United States Senate and was elected again in 1956 and 1962. He died in 1994.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Lutetia and Thomas H. Kuchel, 1965-1966.
Processing information:

Processed by Adrian Turner in 2001.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Preferred citation:

Kuchel Family Papers. MS-R29. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Location of this collection:
P.O. Box 19557
Irvine, CA , US
Contact:
(949) 824-3947
spcoll@uci.libanswers.com
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