Emily S. Lin

As we prepare to celebrate the Labor Day holiday, we are pleased to announce that the UC Merced Library has acquired a major photography collection, the work of George Mark “Elfie” Ballis. George Ballis began his career in the Central Valley as an editor of the Valley Labor Citizen newspaper, was mentored by Dorothea Lange and UC Berkeley professor Paul Taylor, and started documenting farm labor and living conditions in the Central Valley in the 1950s.

The collection of over 31,000 images, acquired with funding from the Office of the Chancellor, includes some of the most iconic images of farm worker organizing efforts by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, the National Farm Workers Association, and the United Farm Workers during the 1960s and 70s. Historian George Patrick Fontes calls Ballis a “master photographer” who “created images that are now windows, time machines, into a tumultuous time in American history, in California history, in Mexican American and Chicano history.” Ballis was both an active organizer and documentarian of anti-poverty programs and efforts to support small farmers and farm worker co-op farms. The collection includes photographs of Black co-op farms in Lanare and Pixley and Self-Help Housing projects in Tulare and Fresno counties.

Archived at the library alongside the photographs of Ernest Lowe, they will offer students and researchers a detailed and extensive visual record of the struggle for environmental and social justice in the region—the organized movements to improve everyday working and living conditions in the world’s most productive agricultural region. The Library is working with the Center for the Humanities to plan an exhibit of the collection in the spring of 2023. Digitized images from the collection will be made accessible to the public on the California Digital Library’s Calisphere site.

The Library is partnering with the Center for the Humanities to develop a Sierra Nevada-Central Valley research archives and thanks our colleagues at the Center for their support with this acquisition.

Migrant girl, Three Rocks, California.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

 Maria Moreno and migrant laborers in the field.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

 Workers using the short-handled hoe.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

  Marchers north of Merced, en route to Sacramento.
Photograph by George Ballis © 2020 TakeStock / TopFoto.

As farm advisors fanned out across California in the 1910s and 1920s and developed programs of work with local farm bureaus, one of their key endeavors was enrolling boys and girls in local agricultural clubs. Early agricultural clubs, including calf, pig, poultry, vegetable growing, and home economics clubs, were formed to provide youth with hands-on learning experiences and demonstrate better agricultural and home practices. Merced County agent J.F. Grass attested in his 1920 report that these clubs successfully “aroused the interest of parents” and “stimulated farm bureau work in those communities.” Competitions were established to increase attention to purebred stock, better feed, and other farm improvement objectives.

Images above: Dos Palos Calf Club Members, 1920, Merced County. First and second prize lamb exhibited by Edward Questo of the Harmony Grove Club, 1936, San Joaquin County. Stanislaus County Demonstration Day winners Joan Dompe and Rita De Lash (photo dated 1950s).

Participating in demonstrations, competitions, and judging allowed members to polish what are called “soft skills” today: skills such as communication, teamwork, project management, and leadership. Growth in membership led to the recruitment of adult volunteers who served as project leaders, and clubs adopted formalized procedures and organizational structures under the national 4-H system. The breadth of publications and other 4-H materials from California archived in the California Agricultural Resources Archive shows how projects expanded beyond agriculture and home economics. We’ve picked a few highlights found in the recently published Madera County UC Cooperative Extension records.

Illustrations of California Trees (1930) prepared for California 4-H leaders is a guide to identifying native conifers that indicates their distribution across the state:

Following these 1966 instructions, a 4-H club could construct a Portable P.A. System for $18-20 dollars and “amplify a speaker’s voice with clarity and enough volume to cover audiences of 200 or more:”

Humboldt County 4-H All-Star Mark Bent compiled this 1973 project manual, Rocket into the Future:

In 1959, the University of California produced a 28-minute motion picture film, The 4-H Trail, as an introduction to the 4-H Club program in California. The film features lively footage of club activities and events from around the state and singing by 4-H chorus members. The CARA project has digitized this film for preservation and access. It can now be viewed in full online in Calisphere.

Last month, I introduced the history of the development of the Merced County Farm Bureau as documented in the early reports of the county agent. These reports, as well as historical photographs, are now freely available in digital form through Calisphere. Working alongside the county agent was a home demonstration agent who was responsible for organizing activities to solve problems and improve practices which affected “physically, socially, or economically the homes of the community.” In December 1920, after her first year in the county, agent Mary Van Camp reported that fifteen centers had been organized in the county with a membership of 401 women engaged in a program of work for each farm home department center. 

What is striking to me about her report is the consistent emphasis on the development of local leaders. It was up to each center to decide what problems they wanted to raise attention to and promote training to address. Across the county, the “problems” identified were clothing, food, and improved health and sanitation. While the agent’s role was to advise and provide demonstrations, she describes her role as putting “as much confidence in the ability of the local leader as she could[,] checking methods when undesirable and praising where methods used were good.” That speaks volumes about the spirit behind Cooperative Extension and its approach. “It is interesting to note,” Van Camp writes, “that each different leader is planning the work as best fits her environment.” Her report records insights into the different needs of each community, how sharing models and practices can inspire local initiatives, and how to best foster and support locally-led problem solving.

The Start of School Hot Lunches

After a child feeding demonstration was conducted in a one room rural school in Livingston, local leadership organized to improve the school lunch situation. Teachers, a local nurse and physician, as well as the county superintendent of schools, worked together to introduce hot lunches and improve sanitation at the schools. With a number of photographs, Van Camp makes the point that children no longer needed to sit on the ground outside to eat their lunches. Instead, in cold weather children were served a hot dish, and “pupils mob the home demonstration agent on the road to tell her they have gained a pound.”

Food Preservation and Clothing Techniques

We may not have expected that 2020 would bring a renewed interest in canning (news reports have noted shortages in canning supplies) as well as other at-home activities such as sewing and knitting. A hundred years ago, home demonstration agents played a key role in showing homemakers how to safely preserve food and how to make their own clothing efficiently. That knowledge would become even more valuable as communities later weathered the Great Depression and shortages during the Second World War.

Van Camp reports on demonstrations on “cold pack sterilization, pressure cooker, water bath and steam bath” methods for canning vegetables and meats. A Mrs. L’Hommadieu of Stevinson even hosted a demonstration at her home on the use of a canning retort, where a 35 lb. pig was preserved alongside eight quarts of beans. 

In another photograph in the report, she depicts a project leader demonstrating how to alter dress forms for clothing. A blur of movement in the foreground of the photo are the toddlers in the room watching as well.

For those interested in learning more about the history of canning techniques, the National Agricultural Library has a wonderful digital exhibit on The Evolution of Home Canning Practices. 

This spring, the UC Merced Library is teaming up with Merced 4-H to inspire local youth to create their own digital exhibits and tell their own local stories. We are accepting registration for a county-wide project to begin in January. Students 8th grade and up will learn to use digital archives, Arc GIS Story Map software, and other digital tools. We are excited to see what students come up with and what histories they uncover!

This article was published in the December 2020 issue of the Merced County Farm News.

Amidst the destruction and fast-changing nature of this year’s wildfires, UC Merced Library was able to answer a call for help.

On Monday afternoon, Ward Eldredge, curator for the Sequoia and Kings Canyon (SEKI) National Parks, contacted UC Merced librarian Emily Lin to inform her that he was preparing plans to evacuate the archives. The Castle Fire, part of the SQF Complex wildfire, had expanded considerably over the weekend and was approaching Dennison Ridge, near the southern boundary of Sequoia National Park and the park headquarters. Given the growth of the fire, he and other park employees had already begun to evacuate. Eldredge asked if the UC Merced Library had the ability to house any of the materials.

After saying yes, Lin worked with Eldredge and Associate University Librarian for Library Operations, Eric Scott, over the course of the next day to make arrangements. Because the Park Service had difficulty procuring moving services in such a short window of time, Scott coordinated with UC Merced Facilities Management to arrange for University Moving Services to assist with transport while organizing UC Merced Library staff to assist with unloading of the collections under COVID-19 restrictions.

  
National Park Service employees loading archival records on Tuesday afternoon (photo courtesy of Paul Hardwick, NPS). UC Merced Library staff unloading collections (photo by Rebecca Gourevitch).

An estimated 600 linear feet of documents capturing the history of the two national parks—as well as slide collections, herbaria collections and other artifacts—were transported safely to UC Merced. Sequoia National Park was established in 1890 as the second national park in this country, while Kings Canyon National Park was established in 1940, subsuming General Grant National Park. The two parks have been administered jointly since World War II and have played an important role in the development of fire management practices and modern understanding of fire’s role in healthy ecosystems.

  
Collections safely relocated to UC Merced Library (photos by Eric Scott and Rebecca Gourevitch).

Mutual interest in preserving important park records and expanding research access through digitization led to a loan of two of the Parks’ collections to UC Merced Library in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdown had put a pause in digitization plans. With this rescue, the Library and the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks look to raise attention to the importance of saving and digitizing these valuable collections.

The Library would like to recognize the following UC Merced employees who assisted with transporting and unloading the collections:

Library Staff
Ross Anastos
Donald Barclay
Fabiola Chavez
Derek Devnich
Rebecca Gourevitch
Sunni Nelson
Eric Scott
Jonathan Wilcox

Library Student Assistants
Austin Ashworth
Kalib Caples
Isabella Quiroz
Krista Walsh

Facilities Management Team
Carlos Estrada
Johnny Anjel
Eric Ferreira
Ernie Solano
Rodney Trevathan