Guide to the Anna Blake Mezquida Papers, 1788-1975 (bulk 1898-1965)
Processed by Albert Park
Jennifer Yoshida; machine-readable finding aid created by James Lake
The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu
© 2001
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Anna Blake Mezquida Papers, 1788-1975 (bulk 1898-1965)
Collection number: BANC MSS 73/188 c
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Contact Information:
- Processed by:
- Albert Park
Jennifer Yoshida
- Date Completed:
- January 2003
- Encoded by:
- James Lake
© 2001 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Anna Blake Mezquida Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1788-1975
Date (bulk): (bulk 1898-1965)
Collection Number: BANC MSS 73/188 c
Creator:
Mezquida, Anna Blake
Extent:
Number of containers: 4 boxes, 6 cartons, 4 oversize folders, 1 oversize volume
Linear feet: approx. 9.3
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Abstract: Professional and personal correspondence concerning her activities and interest in writing, poetry and publication. Also contains
family papers or genealogical information for the following families: Blake, Bean, Cary, Clark, Cross, Eastman, Gilman, Wells,
and Wiltse. Includes Civil War diary and letters. Other letters pertain to the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
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], Anna Blake Mezquida papers, BANC MSS 73/188 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Material Cataloged Separately
- Pictorial materials have been transferred to Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
- Sound recordings have been transferred to the Microforms Collection of The Bancroft Library.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The Anna Blake Mezquida Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by the Wiltse family on June 8, 1973 with additions on April
15, 1974.
Biographical Sketch
Anna Blake Mezquida was the daughter of San Francisco attorney Maurice B. Blake. Her great-uncle, Maurice G. Blake, was a
judge of the California Supreme Court, a mayor of San Francisco, and a member of the city's Committee of Vigilance. Ancestors
of both her parents fought in the American Revolution. One maternal ancestor, Lieutenant Ebenezer Eastman, served as an aide
to General George Washington. Her family lineage in the United States traces back to the arrival of the
Mayflower.
Born in San Francisco on September 1, 1883, Mezquida won numerous local, state, and national poetry contests throughout her
career, the first at age 16. In 1906, having just undergone a serious operation, she experienced the San Francisco earthquake
and fire, and subsequently spent several months in the Presidio General Hospital. She married Mateo M. Mezquida, an importer
and exporter from Madrid, Spain in 1911. Her poem, "The Wondrous Exposition," was set to music and became the theme song of
the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
She studied journalism at the University of California at Berkeley and became a popular poet, short story writer, scenarist,
critic, and journalist. By the early 1920s, Mezquida had been published in such periodicals as
Good Housekeeping,
Cosmopolitan,
Ladies' Home Journal, and
Overland Monthly. In 1922 Mezquida published a book of her poems titled
A-Gypsying.
Mezquida lost her husband to a heart attack in 1928 and remained unmarried the rest of her life. A serious automobile accident
in 1933 left Mezquida with broken vertebrae, a fractured skull and injuries to her right arm, causing her to wear a back brace
for several years. A lifelong staunch Republican, in 1938, Mezquida began a word of mouth effort to end a strike of San Francisco
department store workers. The largely successful "Buy Now" telephone campaign, facilitated by women all over California, urged
people to break the strike by shopping at stores as normal.
During World War II, in addition to working in the United States Office of Censorship and the Message Analysis Unit, she wrote
radio broadcasts, both informational spots and dramatic programs, to be transmitted to the Armed Forces stationed in Thailand
and the Philippines. After the war, Mezquida wrote for the radio station KFRC. She sold several scenarios to motion picture
studios, among them "Dancing Feet," "The Charm Trader," and "What the World Expects." She was active in a number of literary
organizations, including the Ina Coolbrith Circle, where she was on the Board of Directors, Theta Sigma Phi (a fraternity
of women journalists), and the Authors' League of America, as well as serving as an executive of the San Francisco Branch
of the League of American Pen Women. In the late 1940s, Mezquida, as part of the Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Cars,
was very active in an effort to save San Francisco's cable cars from being retired.
After a long and full career of writing, having been published in dozens of publications and awarded numerous prizes, Anna
Blake Mezquida died in San Francisco on March 12, 1965 at the age of 81.
Scope and Content
The Anna Blake Mezquida Papers, 1788-1975 (bulk 1898-1965), document her career as a San Francisco poet and author, her participation
in many professional organizations, her experience and survival of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and her family's
long genealogy in the United States. Mezquida's interests varied widely, though writing was her obvious calling. She supported
herself her entire life by writing, whether for the government during World War II, for the movies or radio, by winning contests,
or by selling pieces to magazines, from the 1900s to her death in 1965. Also noteworthy are family papers, including military
documents, sermons, newspapers, and correspondence dating from as early as 1788, of many of Mezquida's ancestors, the families
Blake, Bean, Cary, Clark, Cross, Eastman, Gilman, Wells, and Wiltse.
Mezquida's correspondence consists almost entirely of incoming letters, with a small portion of outgoing correspondence. The
bulk of the incoming correspondence consists of letters from various publishers regarding submitted manuscripts, personal
letters from family and friends, fan mail, business correspondence with lawyers, literary agents, and insurance agencies,
contest notifications, letters from radio stations and movie studios, and correspondence with affiliated professional clubs
and causes. Notable, however, are letters between Mezquida and her mother, Martha Hanna Blake, grandmother, Hannah Little
Blake, and aunt, Susan Marcia Blake, from 1906, describing the San Francisco earthquake and fire and their personal experiences.
Mezquida's husband Mateo, wrote numerous letters to her between 1898 and his death in 1928, all in Spanish. Also very interesting
is the extensive correspondence from Elizabeth Craig, Vivian Horn, and Tana Mayland relating their long stays in Japan during
and after WW II. Mezquida received several letters and photographs from Fish Wolf Robe, a Blackfoot Indian whom she met at
the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition. Among Mezquida's incoming correspondence are also a 1927 thank you letter from Charles
Lindbergh, a letter from William Randolph Hearst to Reverend Charles Aked complimenting her writing, and a letter of thanks
written by President Herbert Hoover's secretary to Mezquida on the President's behalf.
Mezquida's writings contain short stories, articles and poems, her main modes of writing, as well as radio scripts and book
drafts. Some stories, articles and poems are in typescript form, never published, while others come as clippings from the
magazines and newspapers in which they were published. Some of Mezquida's short stories were sold to movie production houses
as scenarios for movies, such as "Dancing Feet," "Man Crazy," "Service," "The Charm Trader," and "What the World Expects."
The books, which appear here in typescript form, were never published. The radio scripts ("Stories Behind the Headlines,"
"Thai Newsletter," "Voice of America," "Our Cities," and "Philippine Newsletter") were all written for broadcasting to American
military stationed in Southeast Asia.
The subject files contain research for Mezquida's writings and reflect her personal interests. Most prominent among them are
the extensive files on various facets of San Francisco, one of Mezquida's most beloved topics. Other area of interest include
Asian countries, Ghost Towns and the Old West, Espionage and the FBI, and the United Nations. Notes and Clippings include
poems, scripts, and stories by other authors, which Mezquida may have admired and learned from, as well as notes on writing,
radio broadcasting, and radio monitoring.
Organization papers include notices, certificates, minutes, and mailers from groups to which Mezquida belonged, including
the Academy of American Poets, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Pacific Coast Women's
Press Association, as well as many others. Of interest is the Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Car file, which includes
essays written by school children on why the cable cars should stay in San Francisco. The YWCA materials contain lesson plans
and course materials for several writing courses Mezquida taught at the San Francisco Young Women's Christian Association
1963-64.
Scrapbooks and Miscellany includes Mezquida's recollections of the 1906 earthquake and fire, written a year later, and scrapbooks
of newspaper clippings from the department store strike in 1938, to which Mezquida was radically opposed, and worked to break.
Other materials of note are her biographical materials (mostly relating to her writing career), clippings of her writings
and articles about her, diaries of her visits to Fort Bragg, an autograph book of authors and important people of the time,
and Mezquida's handwritten recipe book.
The bulk of the Family Papers contain obituaries, wedding announcements, yearbooks, genealogies, anecdotes, army papers and
family correspondence. Of especial interest are several different accounts and correspondence about the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake and fire. The papers of Hannah Little Blake, Martha Eastman Blake, and the Wiltse family all contain accounts of
the experience. Also in the Wiltse file is a line pass issued by the Chief of Police during the aftermath of the quake. The
Bean family file contains an interesting account of the introduction of tea to Nantucket Island in 1735, as well as a letter
from Curtis Bean to Martha Bean from Washington D.C., the day of the Battle of Bull Run in 1861 about the condition of the
soldiers and morale of the Union. The Eastman family papers also include a Civil War diary, ca. 1862. In Hannah Little Blake's
papers are letters from and about her brother Theodore Blake, who was working in the Dakota Territory from 1879 to 1881 when
he was struck by lightning. In the Gilman family file is a booklet of a sermon by Tristam Gilman from 1788. Some of Mateo
Mezquida's correspondence, which relates mostly to his import and export businesses, is written in Spanish, as is a letter
from him in Hannah Blake's file.
The Anna Blake Mezquida Papers not only illustrate the life and work of a successful author during the early 20th century,
but also show a cross section of how American families from Puritan to Modern times lived, through first hand accounts and
documents. The papers present a vivid picture of life in San Francisco from the 1900s to 1960s, in particular the devastation
of the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Boxes 1-4
Series 1:
Correspondence, 1898-1975
Scope and Content Note
Divided into two subseries: Incoming and Outgoing Correspondence.
Contains family and personal correspondence as well as that related to Mezquida's writing career and affiliated professional
organizations. Consists of letters, telegrams, postcards, and cards. Among the outgoing letters are several written just subsequent
to the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, describing Mezquida's hospital stay in the Presidio and the destruction
and havoc in the city. Letters to or from Mezquida's relatives which are neither to or from Mezquida can be found in the Personalia
series under Family Papers.
Subseries 1.1:
Incoming, 1898-1975
Scope and Content Note
Incoming Correspondence is arranged alphabetically then chronologically.
box 1, folder 1
Academy of American Poets
1960-1963
box 1, folder 2
Aked, Charles Frederic
1916-1935
box 1, folder 3
Altrocchi, Julia Cooley
1953-1956
box 1, folder 4
American Magazine
1920-1931
box 1, folder 5
Atlantic Monthly
1919-1956
box 1, folder 7
Bender, Albert Maurice
1935, n.d.
box 1, folder 8
Bigalow, William Frederick
1952-1953
box 1, folder 9
Blaisdell, Nathaniel
October 28, 1947
box 1, folder 10
Blake, Francis Gilman [cousin]
1948-1952
box 1, folder 11
Blake, Hannah Little (Clark) [grandmother]
1906-1908
box 1, folder 12
Blake, Martha Hannah (Eastman) [mother]
1906-1935
box 1, folder 13
Blake, Susan Marcia [aunt]
1906-1930
box 1, folder 14
Bruce, John Campbell
February 1963
box 1, folder 15
B miscellany
1906-1964, n.d.
box 1, folder 17
Caen, Herbert Eugene
n.d.
box 1, folder 18
California Monthly
May 7, 1936
box 1, folder 19
California Writers' Club
1933-1964
box 1, folder 20
Chatelaine
August 14, 1956
box 1, folder 21
Cosmopolitan
October 30, 1952
box 1, folder 22
Craig, Elisabeth
1953-1954
box 1, folder 23
Creed, Wiggington Ellis
1922-1924
box 1, folder 24
C miscellany
1910-1965, n.d.
box 1, folder 25
Daughters of the American Revolution
1957-1961
box 1, folder 26
De Rosa, J.A.
May 2, 1947
box 1, folder 27
Dodd, Mead & Company
1935
box 1, folder 28
Doubleday & Company
1956-1958
box 1, folder 31
Everybody's Magazine
1921-1922
box 1, folder 32
E miscellany
July 3, 1941
box 1, folder 34
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
n.d.
box 1, folder 35
Frothingham, Robert
January 20, 1935
box 1, folder 37
Good Housekeeping
1918-1963
box 1, folder 38
Gregory, Blanche
1935-1947
box 1, folder 39
Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason
February 12, 1921
box 1, folder 41
Hagen, John Milton [a.k.a. Sterling Sherwin]
1947
box 1, folder 42
Harper's Bazaar
1930-1931
box 1, folder 43
Harrison, Maurice Edward
December 31, 1925
box 1, folder 44
Hearst, William Randolph
May 30, 1919
box 1, folder 45
Henry E. Huntington Library
1949-1953
box 1, folder 46
Holland's Magazine
1917-1940
box 1, folder 47
Holt (Henry) and Company
1950
box 1, folder 49
Houghton Mifflin Company
November 26, 1923
box 1, folder 50
Howard, Eric
October 24, 1922
box 1, folder 51
H miscellany
1907-1964, n.d.
box 1, folder 52
Ina Coolbrith Circle
1953-1962
box 1, folder 53
I miscellany
February 5, 1948
box 1, folder 54
Jennings, Dean Southern
September 4, 1950
box 2, folder 1
Kelly, Junea W.
August 13, 1926
box 2, folder 2
Keyes, Frances Parkinson
March 14, 1962
box 2, folder 3
King Features Syndicate
August 18, 1961
box 2, folder 6
Ladies' Home Journal
1956-1963
box 2, folder 7
Latham, Harold Strong
January 3, 1953
box 2, folder 8
Laughton, George
August 22, 1930
box 2, folder 9
Leigh, James
March 11, 1961
box 2, folder 11
Lindbergh, Charles Augustus
December 6, 1927
box 2, folder 12
Longmans, Green & Company
February 25, 1930
box 2, folder 16
MacFadden Publications
1924-1941
box 2, folder 17
MacMillan Company
1940-1960
box 2, folder 21-25
Mezquida, Mateo M. [husband]
1898-1928
box 3, folder 1
Mitchell, Ruth Comfort
1928, n.d.
box 3, folder 2
Morley, Grace (McCann)
1956-1957
box 3, folder 3
Morrow, William Chambers
1906
box 3, folder 4
Morse, Fremont
December 28, 1917
box 3, folder 6
Morse, Mary Elizabeth
November 13, 1918
box 3, folder 7
Morse, Peter
October 14, 1917
box 3, folder 8
Munsey (Frank A.) Company
1921-1928
box 3, folder 9
M miscellany
1906-1962, n.d.
box 3, folder 10
National Contest Headquarters
April 21, 1932
box 3, folder 11
New York Times
May 24, 1963
box 3, folder 12
Norris, Charles Gilman
July 25, 1923
box 3, folder 13
Norris, Kathleen (Thompson)
1920-1952
box 3, folder 15
Oakland Tribune
1955-1960
box 3, folder 16
Overland Monthly
1927-1929
box 3, folder 18
Palmer Literary Agency
1921-1925
box 3, folder 19
The People's Home Journal
1916-1929
box 3, folder 20
The Pony Express
1943-1957
box 3, folder 21
P miscellany
1906-1965, n.d.
box 3, folder 22
Q miscellany
May 19, 1922
box 3, folder 23
Reader's Digest
June 18, 1957
box 3, folder 24
Reynolds (Paul R.) & Son
1938-1948
box 3, folder 25
Richey, Lawrence
November 25, 1932
box 3, folder 26
Robinson, Elmer E. (Mayor of San Francisco)
1949-1951
box 3, folder 28
Russell, Frank Marion
November 13, 1952
box 3, folder 29
R miscellany
1921-1961, n.d.
box 3, folder 31
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
1950
box 3, folder 32
The San Francisco Call
1915-1917
box 3, folder 33
San Francisco Chronicle
1926-1932
box 3, folder 34
San Francisco Examiner
1936-1960
box 3, folder 35
San Francisco News
1956-1957
box 3, folder 36
Saturday Evening Post
1934-1962
box 3, folder 38
Save-the-Redwoods League
September 17, 1954
box 3, folder 39
Simpson, Louis
April 12, 1961
box 3, folder 40
Small, Maynard, & Company
May 22, 1916
box 3, folder 41
Smith, Frederic Stuart
January 4, 1939
box 4, folder 1
Stanford University Press
1949
box 4, folder 2
Sunday School Publications
October 13, 1916
box 4, folder 3
Sunset Magazine
1915-1922
box 4, folder 4
S miscellany
1915-1963, n.d.
box 4, folder 5
10 Story Book
March 20, 1917
box 4, folder 6
Theta Sigma Phi
1938-1965
box 4, folder 7
Thompson, Dorothy
September 15, 1955
box 4, folder 9
U.S. News & World Report
August 8, 1961
box 4, folder 10
Universal Pictures Corporation
1924-1931
box 4, folder 11
University of California, Berkeley Library
October 9, 1922
box 4, folder 12
University of California Chronicle
1924-1932
box 4, folder 13
U miscellany
1941-1962, n.d.
box 4, folder 16
Warenskjold, Dorothy
n.d.
box 4, folder 17
Whitney, Margaret Mason
March 18, 1927
box 4, folder 18
Wilkins, Helen M.
[April 1906]
box 4, folder 19
Wiltse, Mary Eastman (Blake) [sister]
1906-1928
box 4, folder 20
W miscellany
1920-1965, n.d.
box 4, folder 21
Young Women's Christian Association
1957-1964
box 4, folder 24
Letters and Writings from ABM's writing classes
1959-1964
box 4, folder 25
Unidentified
1910-1964, n.d.
Subseries 1.2:
Outgoing, 1906-1965
Scope and Content Note
Outgoing Correspondence is arranged chronologically.
Cartons 1-2, oversize folders 1-2
Series 2:
Writings, 1912-1964, n.d.
Scope and Content Note
Divided into four subseries: Short Stories and Articles, Poems, Scripts, and Books. Poems, because many of them lack dates,
and Books are arranged alphabetically. Short Stories and Articles and Scripts are arranged chronologically, with undated items
filed alphabetically at the end of each subseries.
Contains both published and unpublished writings. Consists of clippings of works published in newspapers and magazines as
well as typed drafts of unpublished works.
Subseries 2.1:
Short Stories and Articles, 1912-1964, n.d.
carton 1, folder 1
The Door of Yesterday
1915
carton 1, folder 2
Specialized Ad Writing
1915
carton 1, folder 6
Don't Be Too Sure--Mr. Hurd!
1919
carton 1, folder 7
For Services Rendered
1920
carton 1, folder 8
Untitled (an autobiographical letter)
1920
carton 1, folder 12
Writing a Prize-Winning Photoplay
1921
carton 1, folder 16
Unto the Fourth Generation
1923
carton 1, folder 17
That Streak of Granite
1924
carton 1, folder 20
If One Could Look Ahead
1925
carton 1, folder 22
Brains in the Movies
1927
carton 1, folder 25
I Can Never Stop Loving Him
1935
carton 1, folder 26
The Man I Married Twice
1938
carton 1, folder 27
When A Girl Plays Around
1941
carton 1, folder 30
The Man on Page Seven (with Dorothy Egbert)
ca. 1953
carton 1, folder 32
A Cousin of the Cablecars
1957
carton 1, folder 33
The House That Screamed
ca. 1960's
carton 1, folder 34
Words in Prose and Poetry
1964
carton 1, folder 37
A Criminal in the Making (as told to ABM by Frank H. McConnell)
n.d.
carton 1, folder 42
The Hafiz Rug (The Peking Rug)
n.d.
carton 1, folder 44
The Hook Never Hangs
n.d.
carton 1, folder 46
Ina Coolbrith Circle
n.d.
carton 1, folder 49
A Rag Doll That Went to Town
n.d.
carton 1, folder 51
The Stinson Beach Murders
n.d.
carton 1, folder 53
We Give You San Francisco
n.d.
carton 1, folder 54
Wear the Scarlet Dress
n.d.
carton 1, folder 55
What Women Are Thinking
n.d.
carton 1, folder 56
Articles written for newspapers
1912-1923, n.d.
carton 1, folder 57
Articles written for
Western Florist and Nurseryman
1949-1951
carton 1, folder 59
Story notes: characters
n.d.
Subseries 2.2:
Poems, 1915-1964, n.d.
carton 1, folder 60-82
Poems, A-Z, miscellany
1915-1964, n.d.
Oversize folder 1 A
Lyrics set to music by Emmet Pendleton and Tersa Dent
n.d.
Oversize folder 2 A
Lyrics set to music by Winifred E. McGee
1932, n.d.
Subseries 2.3:
Scripts (for TV, Radio, and Stage), 1936-1956, n.d.
carton 1, folder 85
Stories Behind the Headlines
1945
carton 1, folder 88
Mel Venter's Pictorial
1946
carton 2, folder 1
Philippine Newsletter
1946
carton 2, folder 2
Breakfast on Nob Hill
1947
carton 2, folder 3
Clothes Are Important!
1949
carton 2, folder 4
When God Came to Portsmouth Square
1949
carton 2, folder 5
Woman's Magazine of the Air
1951
carton 2, folder 8
An Afternoon With Ina Coolbrith
n.d.
carton 2, folder 12
Selections for the Yuletide Season
n.d.
Subseries 2.4:
Books, [1964], n.d.
carton 2, folder 16
Finished chapters and notes
n.d.
carton 2, folder 17
Working copy of manuscript with notes and clippings
[1964], n.d.
carton 2, folder 20-26
Original Manuscript--incomplete
n.d.
carton 2, folder 29-35
Final draft (two copies)
n.d.
carton 2, folder 36-38
Carbon copy with editing
n.d.
carton 2, folder 39-41
Magazine serialization
n.d.
Cartons 3-4
Series 3:
Research and Background Materials, 1904-1965, n.d.
Scope and Content Note
Divided into two subseries: Subject Files and Notes and Clippings.
Subseries 3.1:
Subject Files, 1904-1965
Scope and Content Note
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
San Francisco subject files are divided further into more specific subjects.
carton 3, folder 2
American Indians
1960-1963, n.d.
carton 3, folder 3
Art and Artists
1948-1959, n.d.
carton 3, folder 4
Astrology
1934-1947, n.d.
carton 3, folder 6
Blindness
1947-1957, n.d.
carton 3, folder 7
Censorship
1946-1952, n.d.
carton 3, folder 9
Clothes - Fashions
1929, n.d.
carton 3, folder 11
Crabtree, Lotta
1949, n.d.
carton 3, folder 13
Espionage
1945-1962, n.d.
carton 3, folder 14
Federal Bureau of Investigation
1945-1952, n.d.
carton 3, folder 15
Flowers and Florists
1926-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 16
Forestry/Lumber
1926-1956, n.d.
carton 3, folder 18
Furniture -- Early American
1949, n.d.
carton 3, folder 19
Ghost Towns
1934-1960, n.d.
carton 3, folder 20
Gold Mining
1924-1936, n.d.
carton 3, folder 21
Hearst, Phoebe (Apperson)
1959-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 22
History, American
1904-1948, n.d.
carton 3, folder 25
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald
1960, n.d.
carton 3, folder 26
Law and Legal Matters
1925-1962, n.d.
carton 3, folder 28
Music and Musicians
1939-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 29
Northern Redwood Lumber Co.
1952-1956
carton 3, folder 31
Palmistry
1925-1953, n.d.
carton 3, folder 33
Railroads
1936-1949, n.d.
carton 3, folder 36
Atmosphere
1954-1962, n.d.
carton 3, folder 38
Cable Cars
1947-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 39
Characters
1936-1962, n.d.
carton 3, folder 40
China Town
1936-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 41
Early West
1940-1947, n.d.
carton 3, folder 42
Earthquake and Fire
1906, n.d.
carton 3, folder 43
Embarcadero -- Marine Exchange
1938-1960, n.d.
carton 3, folder 45
Fire Department
1937-1962, n.d.
carton 3, folder 46
Fisherman's Wharf
1958-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 47
Golden Gate Park
1957-1963, n.d.
carton 3, folder 48
Herb Caen
1958-1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 50
Historic Past
1943-1961, n.d.
carton 3, folder 54
Palace of Fine Arts
1964, n.d.
carton 3, folder 56
Portsmouth Square
1949-1962, n.d.
carton 4, folder 3
Miscellaneous
1946-1965, n.d.
carton 4, folder 10
Miscellaneous
1914-1965, n.d.
Subseries 3.2:
Notes and Clippings, 1915-1965, n.d.
Scope and Content Note
Arranged alphabetically.
Includes clippings and typed notes used by Mezquida as research for her writings, as well as notes on the practice of writing
in various genres.
carton 4, folder 11-12
Research notes for
Cargoes West
1938-1956, n.d.
carton 4, folder 13
Notices of contests
1935-1965
carton 4, folder 15-17
Poems not by ABM
1915-1962, n.d.
carton 4, folder 18
Poetry notes and clippings
1958-1964, n.d.
carton 4, folder 19
Radio broadcasting notes
n.d.
carton 4, folder 21
Stories and scripts not by ABM
1961, n.d.
carton 4, folder 22
TV scripts not by ABM
n.d.
carton 4, folder 24
Miscellany
1920-1961, n.d.
Carton 4-6, oversize folders 3-4, oversize volume 1
Series 4:
Personalia, 1788-1965
Scope and Content Note
Divided into three subseries: Memberships and Affiliations, Scrapbooks and Miscellany, and Family Papers.
Subseries 4.1:
Memberships and Affiliations, 1913-1965
Scope and Content Note
Arrangement
Memberships and Affiliations are arranged alphabetically.
Memberships and Affiliations includes publications, certificates, membership cards, and notes about the groups to which Mezquida
belonged.
carton 4, folder 25
Academy of American Poets
1959-1965
carton 4, folder 26
Authors League of America, Inc.
1926-1964
carton 4, folder 27
California Federation of Chaparral Poets
1959-1965
carton 4, folder 28
California Federation of Women's Clubs
1960-1964
carton 4, folder 29
California Writers' Club (and 1962 conference)
1952-1964
carton 4, folder 30
Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Cars
1947-1952
carton 4, folder 31
The Congress of American Poets
1936
carton 4, folder 32
Hospitalized Veterans Writing Project
1963-1965
carton 4, folder 33
Ina Coolbrith Circle
1951-1964
carton 4, folder 34
Mechanics Institute, San Francisco
1962
carton 4, folder 35
Mystery Writers of America
1963-1964
carton 4, folder 36
The National League of American Pen Women, Inc.
1964
carton 4, folder 37
National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, La Puerta de Oro Chapter
1949-1964
Oversize folder 3 A
National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Membership Certificate
carton 4, folder 38
Office of War Information (OWI)
1944-1946
carton 4, folder 39
Pacific Coast Women's Press Association
1961-1964
carton 5, folder 1
Poets of the Pacific
1947-1948
carton 5, folder 3
San Francisco First Congregational Church
1913-1964
carton 5, folder 4
San Francisco Browning Society
1962-1965
carton 5, folder 5
Theta Sigma Phi and
The Matrix Magazine
1952-1962
carton 5, folder 6
Valley Writers Conference
1959, 1961
carton 5, folder 7-10
YWCA (writing course taught by ABM)
1963-1964
Subseries 4.2:
Scrapbooks and Miscellany, 1903-1964
Scope and Content Note
Arrangement
Scrapbooks and Miscellany are arranged chronologically.
Scrapbooks are bound volumes of clippings in which Mezquida was mentioned, or her writing published.
carton 5, folder 12
Scrapbook of articles, poems, clippings on ABM
1906-1926
carton 5, folder 13
ABM's recollections of 1906 SF earthquake and fire
1907, 1947
carton 5, folder 14
Clippings on Anna Blake Mezquida
1911-1962
carton 5, folder 15
Anna Blake Mezquida poem scrapbook
1917-1964, n.d.
carton 5, folder 16
Scrapbook of published poems
1915-1964
carton 5, folder 17
Autograph book
1920-1945, n.d.
carton 5, folder 18-19
Program announcements mentioning ABM
1922-1959
Oversize volume 1
Scrapbook and newspaper clippings
1923-1949
carton 5, folder 20
Diaries of visits to Fort Bragg
1926, n.d.
carton 5, folder 21
Notes, diary entries, and research from Fort Bragg
n.d.
carton 5, folder 22
Contracts and copyrights
1929-1957
carton 5, folder 23
Anna Blake Mezquida biographical papers
1930-1964
carton 5, folder 24
John Gamble's scrapbooks of ABM
1932-1953, n.d.
carton 5, folder 25
Scrapbook of SF department store strike
1938
carton 5, folder 26
Clippings on SF department store strike
1938
carton 5, folder 27
Federal employment papers
1942-1950
Subseries 4.3:
Family Papers, 1788-1947
Scope and Content Note
Arrangement
Family Papers are arranged alphabetically by family name with miscellaneous items and clippings placed at the end.
Family Papers contains letters, ephemera, scrapbooks, histories, genealogies, and notes of several generations of Mezquida's
relatives, as far back as the 18th century. Includes newspaper clippings from the Civil War.
carton 6, folder 2
Blake, Hannah Little (Clark) [grandmother]
1865-1910
carton 6, folder 3
Blake, Harriet [aunt]
1865-1940
carton 6, folder 4
Blake, Joseph [grandfather]
1834-1893
carton 6, folder 5
Blake, Martha Hannah (Eastman) [mother]
1876-1935
carton 6, folder 6
Blake, Maurice B. [father]
1856-1884
carton 6, folder 7
Blake, Susan Marcia [aunt]
1881-1944
carton 6, folder 8
Blake family genealogy
1935, n.d.
carton 6, folder 9
Blake family miscellaneous papers
1892-1933, n.d.
carton 6, folder 15
Letters to Mateo M. Mezquida [husband]
1915-1928, n.d.
carton 6, folder 16
Mezquida, Mateo M. miscellany
1917-1928, n.d.
carton 6, folder 19
Miscellaneous family items
1856-1910
carton 6, folder 20
Clippings from Civil War
1863-1864
carton 6, folder 21
Scrapbook of clippings
ca. 1874