Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Sollen, Robert
- Extent:
- 25.0 linear feet (20 boxes) and (19 boxes)
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Robert Sollen Collection, SBHC Mss 33, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection was assembled over a number of years by Robert Sollen, largely as background research for his reporting duties with the News-Press and his ongoing interest in oil and other environmental issues.
The collection contains the following series:
An Ocean of Oil (binders, with manuscript drafts, chapter notes, and photographs relating to Sollen's monograph, published by Denali Press, 1998).
Chron Files, 1968-1986 (chronologically arranged clippings, notes, reports, and other materials generally relating to Santa Barbara and California oil issues)
Clippings, ca. 1968-1996 (includes many of Sollen's News-Press articles)
Companies/Projects (reports, articles, clippings, memos, and notes)
Leasing, 1980-1990 (includes reports studies, clippings, and articles, many by Sollen)
Subject Files (includes Santa Barbara County Planning Commission documents, and other reports, memos, articles, and clippings)
Oversize (newspaper articles, scrapbooks, and maps).
Also included with the collection are a number of monographs and government reports, which have been cataloged separately. These may be searched on Pegasus, the UCSB Library's online catalog.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The following biographical sketch is drawn from material provided by Robert Sollen and from a January 24, 1997 article in the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Robert Sollen was born September 29, 1921, in Menominee, Michigan. He served with the U.S. Coast Guard, 1942-1946, and received his BA in political science and journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1948. He was a reporter and editor with several newspapers, and was a free-lance writer, before joining the Santa Barbara News-Press in 1963. Sollen was a copy editor and reporter with the News-Press, specializing in environmental writing, until his retirement in 1985.
As a reporter, Sollen covered the January 28, 1969 Santa Barbara Channel oil well blowout that spewed several million gallons of crude oil. That disaster helped to mobilize environmental activism nationwide. In 1968 he had won second place in the national Scripps-Howard conservation writing contest for a series of News-Press articles anticipating oil pollution problems in the Santa Barbara channel.
Sollen has been active in a number of local organizations, including Get Oil Out (GOO). He also was a Santa Barbara Planning Commissioner, 1989-1991, and has taught Environmental Journalism at UCSB since 1986.
- Custodial history:
-
Donated by Robert Sollen, 1996.
- Physical location:
- Del Sur stacks, Oversize, and Telescoping boxes.
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:
-
[Identification of item], Robert Sollen Collection, SBHC Mss 33, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062