Neal Townley Childs Collection, 1916-1935
Processed by the Environmental Design Archives staff
Environmental Design Archives
College of Environmental Design
230 Wurster Hall #1820
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-1820
Phone: (510) 642-5124
Fax: (510) 642-2824
Email: archives@socrates.berkeley.edu
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/
© 1999
The Regents of California. All rights reserved.
Note
Arts and Humanities--Architecture
History--California History--Bay Area History
History--California History
Geographical (By Place)--California
Geographical (By Place)--California--Bay Area
Neal Townley Childs Collection, 1916-1935
Collection Number: 1944-1
Environmental Design Archives
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Contact Information:
- Environmental Design Archives
- College of Environmental Design
- 230 Wurster Hall #1820
- University of California, Berkeley
- Berkeley, California, 94720-1820
- Phone: (510) 642-5124
- Fax: (510) 642-2824
- Email: archives@socrates.berkeley.edu
- URL: http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/
- Processed by:
- Environmental Design Archives staff
- Date Completed:
- January 1999
- Encoded by:
- Campbell J. Crabtree
- Funding:
- Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
and by a grant from the Getty Foundation.
© 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Collection Title: Neal Townley Childs Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1916-1935
Collection Number: 1944-1
Creator:
Childs, Neal Townley
Extent: 2 boxes, 3 flat boxes
Repository: Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Director.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Neal Townley Childs Collection, (1944-1), Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental
Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California
Access Points
Garden structures.
Landscape architects--California.
Landscape architecture--California.
Biography
Neal Townley Childs received his A.B. from Yale College in 1909 and his M.F. from Yale University Forest School in 1911. He
also did graduate work in landscape architecture at the University of California in 1914.
Childs' career included work in forestry as well as commercial and residential landscape architecture. He worked for the U.S.
Forest Service from 1911 through 1913 and was an assistant professor of forestry at the University of Nebraska in 1914. He
headed Neal T. Childs Co. Landscape Architects and Consulting Foresters in San Francisco from 1915 through 1920. He returned
to forestry in 1920, working as Chief Forester for the U.S. Leather Company and Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company of New
York City out of their San Francisco office until 1922. He worked as a landscape designer out of his home Oakholme in Atherton,
California after 1923, and completed numerous residential projects in the Palo Alto area.
Childs wrote the book "Man and the Land: The Story Of Man's Use And Abuse Of The Land Thru The Ages" in 1928.
Scope and Content
The Neal Childs collection is comprised of records documenting the landscape architect's career. The collection is arranged
in four series: Professional Records, Office Records, Project Records and Additional Donations. The first series contains
a resume and project list, and correspondence with clients, friends, and publishers. Office records include contracts, fee
lists, and procedural statements as well as visual records. These consist of drawings of garden structures, and reference
scrapbooks containing original photographs and clippings, arranged by subject. Childs's project records consist of specifications,
plant lists, photographs, and one drawing and are primarily related to residential projects in the Palo Alto area. Blueprints
from the Blackman residence (Stanford University, ca. 1931) were donated separately, and comprise the final series. The bulk
of the collection was donated by Childs in 1944, with additional materials being transferred in 1979 following his death.
Series Description
Box 1
I. Professional Records ,
1923, 1931-1935
Scope and Content Note
Contains a resume, project list, job application and correspondence. The job application includes samples of Childs's work
such as reports and drawings. Correspondence includes letters of appreciation from clients and friends regarding the publication
of his work in the "Architect and Engineer."
Boxes 1, 3-5
II. Office Records ,
ca. 1916-1932
Scope and Content Note
Consists of contracts, procedural statements, promotional materials, drawings and scrapbooks. Contracts include blank forms
and completed documents. The drawings, sketches and plans of a variety of garden structures, may have been sold individually
by Childs. The scrapbooks contain photographs and clippings of landscape details, arranged by subject. One volume consists
entirely of photographs of eucalyptus and other trees.
Box 2
III. Project Records ,
ca. 1927-1932
Scope and Content Note
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically within subseries.
Includes correspondence, specifications, plant lists, photographs and a drawing, primarily of residential projects in the
Palo Alto area. Includes photographs and a drawing of Oakholme, Childs's own garden in Atherton.
Box 2
IV. Additional Donations ,
ca. 1931
Scope and Content Note
Blueprints for Blackman Garden, Stanford University.
