Robert Underwood Johnson Papers, 1889-1924

Summary

Creators:

Johnson, Robert Underwood, 1853-1937

Abstract:

Chiefly concerning conservation of the Yosemite area, including campaign, 1913, against Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Material relating to Sequoia, General Grant and other national parks and to forest reserves included. A few printed items: reports, circulars, copies of laws, etc., with the papers. Includes 146 letters of John Muir and letters from General and Mrs. John Bidwell, Mr. and Mrs. James Mason Hutchings, Charles D. Robinson, George G. Mackenzie, Edward T. Parsons, William E. Colby, Charles Howard Shinn, and other Californians, and John W. Noble, Gifford Pinchot, Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Theodore Roosevelt. George Bird Grinnell and others prominent on the national scene.

Extent:

Number of containers: 8 boxes (1245 folders),1 oversize folder

Language:

English

Background

Biographical / historical:

Robert Underwood Johnson, author, conservationist, and diplomat, was born in New York in 1853. For more than forty years he was associated with The Century Magazine. Associate Editor under Richard Watson Gilder, he succeeded to the editorship from 1909-1913. In 1920-1921 he served as Ambassador to Italy and represented the United States at the San Remo Conference. After his return to this country he devoted himself chiefly to the publication of poetry and his memoirs, Remembered Yesterdays, until his death in 1937.

In the summer of 1889, Johnson came to California to organize a series of articles for The Century. He met John Muir and with him visited Yosemite -an experience which profoundly influenced his life. He spent the next twenty five years actively promoting all the movements to safeguard the natural beauty of the West. He aided campaigns to make Yosemite Valley and the Sequoia Big Tree groves National Parks. In 1913, he spearheaded in the East the unsuccessful fight to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley from becoming the reservoir for San Francisco's water supply.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Related resources

Other descriptive data:

His voluminous papers were sold by his family. Unsuccessful in disposing of the papers as a unit, the dealer who acquired them divided them into groups to facilitate their sale. The Bancroft Library purchased in 1950-1951 from Mary A. Benjamin that portion which dealt with California and Johnson's interest in conservations.

There are relatively few copies of Johnson's own letters in the collection. Of these, by far the largest portion consists of carbon copies of letters written in 1913 in the Hetch Hetchy campaign. The 146 letters of John Muir are, of course, the most important segment. There are, also, letters from General and Mrs. John Bidwell, Mr. and Mrs. James Mason Hutchings, Charles D. Robinson, George G. Mackenzie, Edward T. Parsons, William E. Colby, Charles Howard Shinn, and other Californians, and John W. Noble, Gifford Pinchot, Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell and others prominent on the national scene.

Because of the importance of individual correspondents, the letters have been arranged alphabetically. A listing of the correspondents by year (appended) has been made to preserve as far as was practical some chronological aspect of the papers.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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