Robert B. and William R. Moran Papers
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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8fn14ws No online items Guide to the Robert B. and William R. Moran Papers Department of Special Collections Davidson Library University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone: (805) 893-3062 Fax: (805) 893-5749 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html © 2011 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Guide to the Robert B. and Mss 282 1 William R. Moran Papers Guide to the Robert B. and William R. Moran Papers Collection number: Mss 282 Department of Special Collections Davidson Library University of California, Santa Barbara Processed by: Pearl Ko, Zachary Liebhaber, Christina Scholze Date Completed: 6/13/2012 Encoded by: Zachary Liebhaber © 2011 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Robert B. and William R. Moran papers Dates: circa 1900-2000 Collection number: Mss 282 Creator: Moran, Robert B. Creator: Moran, William R. Collection Size: 58 linear feet(121 document boxes, 8 flat boxes). Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Abstract: Photographs and documents relating to Robert B. and William R. Moran. Most of the collection pertains to oil exploration in California, other parts of the U.S., and abroad. Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog. Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English Access Moran 1963 Trust subseries is closed. Use of the remainder of the collection is unrestricted. Publication Rights Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained. Preferred Citation Robert B. and William R. Moran papers. Mss 282, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California, Santa Barbara. Acquisition Information Bequeathed with the Estate of William R. Moran. Biography Robert Breck Moran (1879-1961) graduated from Stanford University in 1907, worked as a petroleum geologist for Associated Oil and Standard Oil, and opened his own office in San Francisco as a consulting geologist in 1911, marrying Edna Louise Venable (EVM) of San Luis Obispo, California, that same year. Eventually settling in Pasadena, Robert Moran moved his office to Los Angeles in 1915. Among other achievements, Robert Moran pioneered the use of the airplane in geological reconnaissance work and has been credited with the discovery of the Venice oil field well in Los Angeles while consulting for the Ohio Oil Company from 1927 to 1929. On a trip to Peru in 1929, Moran discovered the Agua Caliente oil dome, upon which he established the Ganso Azul Oil field. Robert Moran has been recognized as an early pioneer in the fields of petroleum geology and petroleum engineering. Guide to the Robert B. and Mss 282 2 William R. Moran Papers William Rodes Moran (1919-2006) followed in the footsteps of his father. After obtaining his BS in Geology from Stanford University in 1942, William went on to work for Union Oil as an exploration geologist, retiring as Vice President for Exploration of Molycorp in 1985. From 1956 to 1989 William was associate editor of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin. In addition to his professional work in exploration geology, William was a recognized collector and researcher in the area of early recorded sound. To consult materials related to William's early sound recording collecting and research activities see PA Mss 57 William R. Moran Collection. Scope and Content of Collection This guide covers the non-music portion of the William R. Moran Collection, including material relating to Robert B. Moran (RBM) and William R. Moran (WRM). Most of the material relates to oil exploration, in California, other parts of the U.S., and abroad. There is an extensive photograph component to the collection, with 200 Glass plate negatives, 8000 early black and white negatives and contemporaneous black and white prints, and about 4300 more recent color slides. The photographs range from about 1900 to the present, and are particularly strong in the areas of early oil exploration and drilling along the coast and central valleys of California, geological features of the American west, particularly within the coastal ranges and valleys of central California, Alaska, Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as many early photos of Baja and Peru. Included among the Baja photographs are early prints, negatives and slides of the flora and physical features of the peninsula and Guadalupe Island, likely taken by explorer and botanist Dr. Reid Venable Moran (1916-2010), William's older brother. In addition to the photographs, the collection includes personal, biographical, and work related documents and correspondence of both Robert and William Moran, as well documents related to the Moran 1963 Trust. Many of the Moran 1963 Trust documents concern the Ganso Azul Oil field on the Agua Caliente dome in the eastern Andean foothills of Peru. Established in 1929 by Robert Moran, this field first saw production in 1939. The Moran 1963 Trust subseries is closed. The collection also contains a stereoscopic photograph subseries. Arrangement The collection has been divided into three series. Series I and II comprise the personal, biographical and work related documents of Robert and William Moran, including the closed Moran 1963 Trust subseries. Items in this closed subseries are in original order, and have not been re-arranged by subject or date. Series III, Photographs, has been divided into subseries by original format, and again by location (by state if within the United States, by country if outside the United States), or subject. Duplicate images have not been matched or cross-referenced in different formats. For example, the same image in the Prints and negatives subseries may reappear as a glass plate in the Glass plate negatives subseries. In order to maintain the intellectual arrangement of certain files within this finding guide, some boxes have been listed out of sequence. This does not, however, reflect their physical arrangement. Physical arrangement on the shelf is not by series, but by box number, which runs continuously from beginning to end of the entire collection. Indexing Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog. Standard Oil Company Union Oil Company of California Petroleum industry and trade--California--History Black-and-white negatives Black-and-white prints Color slides Photographs Stereoscopic photographs Series I. Robert Breck Moran Personal/Biographical Guide to the Robert B. and Mss 282 3 William R. Moran Papers Series I.Robert Breck Moran Personal/Biographical Box 60: 1 Postcards Box 60: 2 American Geographical Society, certificate, 1944 Box 60: 3 American Society of Civil Engineers, diploma, 1946 Box 60: 4 Miscellaneous biographical documents Box 60: 5 Drawing of neoclassical facade Box 60: 6 "Memorial, Robert Breck Moran," AAPG Bulletin, Vol. 46, no. 4, 4/1962 Box 60: 7 Visas, passports, and other travel documents, 1921-1949 Box 60: 8 American Petroleum Institute, 1950s Moran 1963 Trust [CLOSED] Box 61: 1 Philipine islands Copra, 1915 Box 61: 2 Numerical index to cabinet files Box 61: 3 Alphabetical index to cabinet files Box 61: 4 Index to cabinet files, office copy Box 61: 5 Petroglyph on schist wall, 1924 Box 61: 6 Misc. data on mines, 1929-1947 Box 61: 7 Baroid lab report, 1944 Box 61: 8 Mine sale Morrison Co., 1936-1942 Box 61: 9 Equipment catalogs for mines Box 61: 10 Utah salt production, 1948, 1955 Box 61: 11 R.R. and shale oil plant, Chile, 1933 Box 61: 12 Valuation costs, misc. Box 61: 13 Blackfor Company Box 61: 14 Isochores and Isopachs Box 61: 15 Misc. docs Box 61: 16 Osteodontornis Orri, photos Box 61: 17 Horizontal bars estimate, 1920-1921 Box 61: 18 Horizontal bars, complete estimate Box 61: 19 Specifications, cable tool outfit, 1920 Box 61: 20 Unjust taxation of California oil properties Box 61: 21 West Coast Drill and Construction Co., 1917 Box 61: 22 Electric surveying, 1950-1951 Box 61: 23 Peru, astronomical observation, 1931 Box 62: 1 Letter from Hugh A. Moran, 1957 Box 62: 2 Topo map requests and quadrangles, 1922 Box 62: 3 Drawers 15-20 Box 62: 4 Richfield Oil, Mckeon Drilling, 1927 Box 62: 5 Peru, magazine articles and photo, 1938 Box 62: 6 Notes from Scotty Greene's diary Box 62: 7 Nathan Moran, correspondence, 1944, 1946 Box 62: 8 Chaco Boreal, Paraguay, maps Box 62: 9 Ben Page, correspondence, 1942 Box 62: 10 Ed Page, H.L. Pfau, correspondence, 1938 Box 62: 11 U.S. Geol. Survey, correspondence, 1946-1958 Box 62: 12 University of California correspondence, 1955-1957 Box 62: 13 Travel expenses, misc. Box 62: 14 University club Box 62: 15 Atlantic Oil Co. Box 62: 16 Iron King mines title docs, 1902-1903 Box 62: 17 Iron King mines title docs, 1919-1920 Box 62: 18 Iron King report, 1925 Box 62: 19 Iron King mines, 1939 Box 62: 20 Iron King mines, doc xeroxes Box 62: 21 Iron King, map Box 62: 22 Monterey Park Land Co., 1917, 1922 Box 62: 23 Royaume de Belgique, bank certificates Box 62: 24 Capt. Walker Parkin, announcement Guide to the Robert B. and Mss 282 4 William R. Moran Papers Series I.Robert Breck Moran Moran 1963 Trust [CLOSED] Box 63: 1 Peru, Andes, geography, geology Box 63: 2 B.