http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf587004qs No online items Guide to the Gladys Tilden Papers, 1875-1982 Processed by Rosemary Evetts The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu © 1996 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Note History --History, CaliforniaGeographical (By Place) --California Guide to the Gladys Tilden BANC MSS 89/229 c 1 Papers, 1875-1982 Guide to the Gladys Tilden Papers, 1875-1982 Collection number: BANC MSS 89/229 c The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California Contact Information: The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu Processed by: The Bancroft Library Staff Encoded by: Gabriela A. Montoya © 1996 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Collection Summary Collection Title: Gladys Tilden Papers, Date (inclusive): 1875-1982 Collection Number: BANC MSS 89/229 c Creator: Tilden, Gladys, 1900- Extent: Number of containers: 12 boxes, 4 cartonsLinear feet: 9.8 Repository: The Bancroft Library. Berkeley, California 94720-6000 Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog. Abstract: The collection contains personal (including family) and professional correspondence regarding fashion activities, her employment with the architect Richard Joseph Neatra and the California Youth Authority, and research on her father, Douglas Tilden, and Eliza Woodson Farnham. Also included are poetry, fictional writings, an unpublished autobiography, an a variety of personal memorabilia. Languages Represented: English Access Collection is open for research. Publication Rights Copyright has 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 the Manuscripts Division. 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 Guide to the Gladys Tilden BANC MSS 89/229 c 2 Papers, 1875-1982 holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Gladys Tilden Papers, BANC MSS 88/229 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Related Collection Researchers should be aware that The Bancroft Library also holds the Papers of Miss Tilden's father, Douglas Tilden (BANC 89/124 c). Materials Cataloged Separately Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library. Photographs have been transferred to Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library. Videotapes/sound recordings have been transferred to the Microforms Division of The Bancroft Library. Maps have been transferred to the Map Room. Acquisition Information The Gladys Tilden Papers were given to The Bancroft Library on June 1, 1989 at the bequest of the Gladys Tilden estate. 1900 Born January 5 to the sculptor Douglas Tilden and his wife Elizabeth Delano Cole Tilden. Lived in the Cole's Victorian mansion at 1545 Webster, Oakland. 1901 Grandfather, L. G. Cole, dies. 1903 Brother, Willoughby Lee, born. 1907 Moved to coach house at 1545 Webster. 1909 Mother at St. Helena Sanitarium due to nervous breakdown. 1917 Moved to Hobart Street near Webster in Oakland. 1918 Graduates from Oakland High School. Parents separate. Father moves into studio at 314 Hobart. 1918-1919 Attends Heald Business College. 1919-1922 After graduating from Heald Business College, works as administrative secretary to William B. Bosley, general counsel to Pacific Gas and Electric Company. 1923 Webster Street property in Oakland sold. Moves, with Mother, to Fillmore Street in San Francisco. 1924-1926 Office manager for Blyth & Company, investment bankers. 1925 Begins attending evening classes at the San Francisco School of Fine Art, studying under Rudolph Schaeffer and Lucien Labaudt. 1926-1927 Administrative secretary to James D. Black, vice-president and general manager of San Joaquin Light & Power Company. 1927 Leaves March 19 for New York City. Sails to Paris, France on March 31. 1927-1933 Obtains position in office of French Vogue, variously as business manager, office manager, copyeditor, editorial assistant to Michel de Brunhoff. Supervises layout, art work, production, and mailings. After departure of de Brunhoff, takes over as managing editor for Vogue's Paris Trade Bulletin under it's various titles. In its pioneer color editions, it is Gladys' handwriting that appears in the final copy, as part of the layout. Travels throughout Europe. 1929 Does French and German synopses for Frank Farley of Paramount Pictures. 1930 Brother Lee dies. 1931 Meets, in Paris, divorcee William Taylor of Philadelphia, who becomes the love of her life. 1934-1935 Accepts position as traveling representative for Bonwit-Teller covering all social and style events, buying, reporting, marketing surveys, and fashion lectures. 1935 Father dies August 6. Returns to California. In October moves into Father's studio on Channing Way, Berkeley. 1936 Continues fashion activities: advertising for City of Paris Dry Goods Company and I. Magnin, and California fashion reports for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Coordinates Bay Area fashion show and presents department store fashion lectures. Develops her own fashion segment on radio KYA, with frequent guest appearances on radio KGO. Continues Douglas Tilden's lawsuit against the California School for the Deaf over Bear Hunt, Albert K. Whitton as attorney. 1937 Continues free-lancing for Vogue. Helps create About Town, assumes advertising sales. 1938 Creates In Person for the H. S. Crocker Company. Continues to report on fashion for various fashion and style publications ( Vogue, House and Garden). Writes suede publication and associated advertising for trade. 1939 For the H. S. Crocker Company, edits the Golden Gate International Exposition Official Guidebook, and various associated publications ( Today at the Fair, brochures, various post cards booklets) including research, copyediting, proofreading, design and layout, supervising production (1st and 2d editions). Guide to the Gladys Tilden BANC MSS 89/229 c 3 Papers, 1875-1982 1940 Moves to Los Angeles. Continues free lance fashion reporting activities, editorial consulting. Becomes advertising and editorial representative for several of her own accounts: Magda Polivanoff, Scully Brothers Suede, Catalina Swimwear. 1941 Invents ration chart adopted by Office of Price Administration, and syndicated in coast to coast newspapers during the duration of the war. Staff feature writer, advertising copy and sales, production supervisor for California Stylist and California Men's Stylist. In December buys apartment house at 1868 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles. 1942-1944 Accepts position as first woman managing editor in the engineering department of Douglas Aircraft Company. In order to understand the material she was editing, attends UCLA's Aviation Ground School and works for four months as assembler. Attends Santa Monica Technical School studying aircraft power plant assembly. Begins teaching aircraft mechanics. 1945-1948 Mother in poor health, in and out of Southern California rest homes. 1948 Sells Greenfield Avenue property; buys cottage at 434 Veteran Avenue, Los Angeles. 1949 Becomes licensed real estate agent. Mother dies. Begins research on father, Douglas Tilden. 1951 Sells property on Veterans Avenue; purchases house at 10404 Ruthven Lane in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. 1953-1954 Advertising and office management for Paul J. Howard's California Flowerland. Handles rentals for two real estate firms: Cowen & Carls and Philip Norton, Inc. 1954 Sublets Ruthven Lane; rents apartment on Wellworth Avenue. Edna Woolman Chase's book, Always in Vogue, published. 1955-1956 Begins work for Richard Neutra, architect, managing office and editing manuscripts. 1956-1957 Begins work for the UCLA Atomic Energy Project editing manuscripts for publication. 1957 Joins research staff of Veterans Administration Hospital, Los Angeles, as an editor. Begins genealogical research. 1958 Returns to Berkeley and resides in Hotel Durant. 1959-1961 Moves to Sacramento and begins work for the California Youth Authority, Division of Research. Begins serious research in 1961 on Eliza Woodson Farnham, first female matron of Sing Sing Prison, and early feminist. 1962-1969 Employed by California Public Utilities Commission, first in Los Angeles office, returning to San Francisco office in 1963. Rents apartment in Berkeley in 1963. Retires from state employment in March of 1969. 1973 Meets Mildred Albronda, docent for M. H. De Young Memorial Museum specializing in tours for the hearing impaired, who proposes a brief biographical work on Douglas Tilden. 1975 Picks up her own research on Douglas Tilden, languishing since about 1954. 1988 Suffering from Alzheimer's disease and unable to care for herself, becomes a ward of Alameda County. Supervision of her affairs assumed by the District Attorney's office. Scope and Content With the exceptions of letters to her mother and father, most of Gladys Tilden's family correspondence is with relatives on the Tilden side of the family, and occurred after her father's