RESEARCH QUERIES

(Names withheld)

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June, 2005 - "First I wanted to thank you for all your help last Monday. I'm thrilled to have found those yearbooks! Also, I wanted to ask if I could visit your library again next Monday (and perhaps do some photocopying.)? If this is a bad time--no problem. Just let me know what is convenient for you. best regards." [A UCI graduate student.]

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January, 2006 - "I have recently come across a profound question amongst my ponderings. Please help me by filling my mind with your wisdom and experience. Please help me aquire a better understanding for the term, "WCTU". What is this? and please describe the subject matter thoroughly, and its relation towards prohibtion in the 1920's. I am so happy I found your organization, you have all truely enriched my life and inspired my to become a better individual. Thank you with all of my heart." [private research]

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April, 2006 - "I am a graduate student in the History, PhD program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I am currently investigating possible historical dissertation topics and am very interested in pursuing studies about the W.C.T.U. As my past research is based in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era California (roughly 1875 to 1920), I am restricting my search to the California W.C.T.U.'s activities. I previously researched the campaign by the League of Women Voters (known in the 1910s as the California Civic League) to close San Francisco's vice district by passing the "Red-light Abatement Act" of 1913 and 1914. The California's W.C.T.U. president initiated the legislation. For that reason, I am hoping to find a primary source material (correspondance, primarily) between the W.C.T.U. and the the California Civic League in San Francisco. Or, I am hoping to just find an interesting campaign of the W.C.T.U.'s to focus my dissertation on. I would be interested in finding out how the archival material is organized, if there is any material on the W.C.T.U.'s participation in closing the vice-district in San Francisco, or what information is available on the W.C.T.U. from the oldest material to about 1920. Thank you tremendously for your assistance. It is much appreciated."

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November, 2006 - "I am working on a research paper and was wondering if you would be able to give me the names of the ladies who belonged to the WCTU in Santa Monica, CA around 1885 / 1890. Thank you for your help!" [private research]

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March, 2008 - "I am a PhD Candidate with the University of Oklahoma History Department. I am currently conducting research for my dissertation about woman's suffrage in the American West and would like to be able to examine the link between the suffrage and temperance movements of the late 19th and early 20th century. Would you be able to tell me what kind of sources you have available or point me in the right direction as to where I can find more information? Thank you in advance for your help."

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July, 2008 - "In my work, Santa Cruz Spirituality, I have included a brief history of the WCTU in Santa Cruz County. Last year I was in Evanston, Illinois and was permitted to search the archives there, but my time was limited. Among other documents, the early issues of the Union Signal had pertinent articles, and I copied as much as I could from them. Los Angeles is much closer to Santa Cruz than Evanston. Therefore I wonder if you have a complete set of the Union Signal which I might consult." [private research]

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August, 2008 - "I’m a graduate student at the University of Washington and I’m working on a dissertation involving, at least in part, the interrelationship between temperance advocates and California Indians in the later half of the 19th century.  On a broader scope, I am looking at how white reformers “discovered” the plight of California Indians and how their work among native communities helped or hinder the revitalization of Indian identity.

My interest in temperance workers and Indians in California was raised when I ran across information about the WCTU of California’s establishment of Department of Indian Work as well as the activities of Dorcas J. Spencer [Northern Calif. WCTU], one of the state union’s vice presidents (before the split). I’m hoping that, as you seem to hold the only existing WCTU archive in California, that you may have some records of the WCTU’s Indian activities or copies of local WCTU publications (like the Pacific Ensign) that may talk about the union’s work in that area. Or, perhaps you could direct me to another resource?"