California surveillance collection
Scope and Contents
The California Surveillance Collection consists primarily of undercover agent reports and other materials documenting the activities of labor organizations and organizations on the left, 1934-1940, including the Communist Party of San Francisco, and labor leader Harry Bridges. The materials were possibly gathered or created by Harper Knowles during his tenure as director of the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion in San Francisco, and Stanley M. Doyle, an associate of Harper Knowles. A second series in the collection contains household and financial records of Harper Knowles from 1901-1954.
Dates
- 1929 - 1940
Availability
Collection is open for research.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Labor Archives and Research Center 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.
Biographical Information
Harper L. Knowles and Stanley M. Doyle, prominently represented among the documents, were both associated with the Radical Research Committee, later the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion. Knowles, nicknamed "Moke," was the head of that committee before he became executive secretary of the Associated Farmers. Doyle, also known as Larry Doyle and Stanley Morton, was designated as a special investigating agent by the governor of Oregon; he worked closely with Knowles, especially in investigating Harry Bridges.
Extent
3 Cubic Feet ( (6 boxes))
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The California Surveillance Collection consists primarily of undercover agent reports and other materials documenting the activities of labor organizations and organizations on the left, 1934-1940, including the Communist Party of San Francisco, and labor leader Harry Bridges. The materials were possibly gathered or created by Harper Knowles during his tenure as director of the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion in San Francisco, and Stanley M. Doyle, an associate of Harper Knowles. A second series in the collection contains household and financial records of Harper Knowles from 1901-1954.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into two series: Series 1: California Surveillance Files, and Series 2: Harper Knowles Personal Papers.
Location
Collection is available onsite.
Custodial History
The materials were given to the MeikleJohn Civil Liberties Institute by an anonymous donor, and nothing is known regarding the provenance of these materials. Some of the materials came in large (8 1/2" x 11") envelopes with the return address of the McGilvray-Raymond Granite Company, with two addresses: G7B South Anderson Street, Los Angeles, and 634 Townsend Street, San Francisco.
Acquisition
The California Surveillance Collection was donated to the Labor Archives and Research Center by the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Unit, March 19, 1999, accession number 1999/028.
- American Legion. Subversive Activities Committee
- Anti-communist movements -- California -- History -- 20th century.
- Bridges, Harry, 1901-1990
- Communism -- United States.
- Doyle, Stanley M.
- Industrial Association of San Francisco
- Knowles, Harper L.
- Labor unions and communism.
- Subversive activities -- United States.
- Title
- Finding Aid to the California Surveillance Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Robert Cherny, revised by Labor Archives and Research Center staff.
- Date
- 1986, revised 2013
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in: English.
Repository Details
Part of the Labor Archives and Research Center Repository
San Francisco State University
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco 94132-1722 USA
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu