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Inventory of the Charles Derleth Papers, 1865-1952
DERLETH
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Table of contents
Title: Charles Derleth Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1865-1952
Collection number: DERLETH
Creator: Charles Derleth, Jr., 1874-1956
Extent:
ca. 15 linear ft. (19 manuscript boxes + oversize flat boxes)
Repository:
Water Resources Collections and Archives
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Shelf location: Water Resource Center Archives.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Water Resources Collections and Archives. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Water Resources Collections and Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Charles Derleth Papers,
DERLETH,
Water Resources Collections and Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland and San Francisco, Calif.)
Carquinez Bridge (Calif.)
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (Calif.)
Antioch Bridge (Calif.)
Bridges--California--San Francisco Bay--Design and construction.
Dams--California--Design and construction.
Arch dams--Design and construction.
Earth dams--Design and construction.
Golden Gate International Exposition, (1939-1940 : San Francisco, Calif.)
Engineering Foundation (U.S.). Committee on Arch Dam.
Spring Valley Water Company.
Bonneville Dam (Or. and Wash.)
Exchequer Dam (Calif.)
Lake Hodges Dam (Calif.)
Eleanor Dam (Calif.)
Stevenson Creek Test Dam (Calif.)
Calaveras Dam (Calif.)
Lake Spaulding Dam (Calif.)
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (Calif.)
O'Shaughnessy Dam (Calif.)
University of California, Riverside. College of Engineering.
Charles Derleth, Jr., was born on October 2, 1874, in New York. He received a bachelor of science degree at the City College
of New York in 1894 and civil engineering degree at Columbia University in 1896. He served as Instructor and Lecturer at Columbia
from 1896 to 1901. He moved westward in 1901 to become Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado. In 1903
Derleth accepted appointment as Associate Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of California, Riverside.
In 1907 he became Professor and Dean of the College of Civil Engineering, and in 1930, when the Colleges of Civil, Mechanical,
and Electrical Engineering were combined, he was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering. He served in this capacity
until 1942.
The hallmark of Derleth's career as a civil engineer is undoubtedly his work on San Francisco Bay bridges. He was Chief Engineer
for the Carquinez Strait Highway Bridge, which, at the time it was built in 1927, was the longest cantilever bridge west of
the Mississippi. He was a member of the Board of Consulting Engineers for both the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland
Bay Bridge. He also visited, usually in the company of the Chief Engineer, nearly every major bridge construction site in
northern California.
In addition, Derleth played a pivotal role in the design and construction of some of the best-known buildings, bridges, foundations,
dams, highways, and tunnels in northern California. He was in charge of engineering work for the San Francisco Bureau of Architecture
and was Consulting Engineer for Alameda County on numerous municipal structures, including the 1915 Panama Pacific International
Exposition, the San Francisco Civic Center and Auditorium (which he also designed), Grace Cathedral, and the Native Sons Hall
in San Francisco, First National Bank of Berkeley, and Contra Costa County Hospital. Derleth also served as Chief Consulting
Engineer on the Oakland-Alameda Estuary Tunnel (now called the George A. Posey Tube) and as Consulting Engineer to the University
of California, designing and constructing California Hall, Wheeler Hall, Doe Library, Gilman Hall, LeConte Hall, the Campanile,
and other structures on the Berkeley campus. In 1930 Derleth received an honorary degree from the University of California
in recognition of his service.
Charles Derleth died on June 13, 1956.
Correspondence, engineering reports, blueprints, photographs, notes, and news clippings relating to Derleth's work as a consulting
engineering on the Golden Gate Bridge, Carquinez Bridge, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, a proposed Richmond-San Rafael
Bridge, Antioch Bridge, U.S. Engineer Foundation's Committee on Arch Dam Investigation, Spring Valley Water Company, and others.
Also includes materials on masonry structures (chiefly dams), the Hetch Hetchy Project, Lake Spaulding Dam, and other bridges
and dams in California and elsewhere.
Charles Derleth Papers, [ca. 1886-1965]. BANC MSS 91/116 c, The Bancroft Library
Charles Derleth Papers, [ca. 1900-1938]. BANC MSS C-B 717, The Bancroft Library
Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire from the Charles Derleth Papers, 1868-1908 (bulk 1906-1908). BANC PIC 1958.021--fALB, The Bancroft Library