California Wool Growers Association finding aid

Cheryl Ann Holt, Miss Wool California, ca. 1968. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.002.tif.

The California Historical Society is pleased to announce the completion of the processing of the California Wool Growers Association photography collection and the publication of its finding aid on the Online Archive of California.  The sheep industry has long been an integral part of California’s rich agricultural history and the photographs in this collection demonstrate the California Wool Growers Association’s (CWGA) active role in the industry as advocates for sheep ranchers, proud sponsors of agricultural events such as livestock shows and symposiums, and promoters of wool and lamb products. 

The collection, dating from the early 1900s to the mid-1980s, contains photographs, negatives, slides, contact sheets, banquet camera photographs, transparencies, ephemera, correspondence, promotional materials, press releases, and newsletters collected by the CWGA for use in publication or possible publication in the association's journal California Livestock News.

The collection was processed in conjunction with the California Historical Society’s upcoming exhibit I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California.  Featuring roughly 150 photographs, I See Beauty in This Life brings together writer and photographer Lisa M. Hamilton’s large-scale color prints and her selections from California Historical Society’s vast photography collections, including many images culled from the California Wool Growers Association photography collection.

I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California will run from October 28, 2012 until March 24, 2013 in the California Historical Society galleries.  The finding aid for the California Wool Growers Association photography collection can be accessed through the Online Archive of California (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/) or you may search the California Historical Society’s online catalog (http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/).

African-American man sweeping wool, undated. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.015.tif.

  

Slim Pickens, guest auctioneer at Red Bluff bull sale, 1960. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.015.tif.

Les Bruhn, Bodega Bay, with “Queen”, won 2^nd place, 26^th annual Fox Western International Sheep Dog Trials at California Ram Sale, Sacramento, 1964. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.002.tif.

--- Jaime Henderson, Project Archivist