Davis (William H.) Papers, 1840-1905

Collection context

Summary

Title:
William Heath Davis Papers,
Dates:
1840-1905
Creators:
Davis, William Heath, 1822-1909
Extent:
Part I: 3 boxes and 5 volulmes Part II: 2 microfilm reels
Language:
Collection materials are in English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], William Heath Davis Papers, BANC MSS C-B 445, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Biographical / historical:

William Heath Davis was born of a Boston sea-faring, ship-owning family, in Honolulu in 1822. Visiting California as a boy, he returned in 1838 to clerk in a store in Monterey owned by his uncle, Nathan Spear, and subsequently engaged in trading trips to Yerba Buena and the Hawaiian Islands. In 1845 he settled in San Francisco, established his own business and became one of the city's most prominent merchants and ship owners. In 1847 he married María de Jesús Estudillo, daughter of Joaquin Estudillo, a wealthy rancher. In addition to his mercantile activities he was instrumental in the founding of San Diego and Oakland. He died at Hayward, California, April 19, 1909.

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

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Processed by The Bancroft Library staff
Date Prepared:
© 1997
Date Encoded:
Machine-readable finding aid derived from paper by means of scanning and OCR; OCR file edited for typographical errors before encoding; finding aid encoded by Xiuzhi Zhou. Date of source: ca. 1956-1967.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library 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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], William Heath Davis Papers, BANC MSS C-B 445, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
Contact:
510-642-6481