|
|
 |
| |
| |
 Records
in the Pacific American Fisheries Records at the Center for
Pacific Northwest Studies document the interests and
activities of the company and its subsidiaries through the
period 1875-1994, with the bulk of materials dated 1899-1967.
Due to the diverse nature of the business, records were
scattered within various company departments or PAF
subsidiaries, and many remained in the possession of former
employees. Employees including Galen Biery saved the history of
PAF by salvaging select records when the company ordered the
remainder burned upon its demise in 1965. The surviving material
is sporadic its coverage of time, events and subjects. The
collection spans the period 1889 to 1994, with the bulk of
materials dated from 1899-1967. The collection contains three
primary record series: records of Pacific American Fisheries
(comprising the bulk of the collection); the records of its
subsidiaries and affiliated companies; and personal papers of
PAF employees including Galen Biery, George Hube, and Bert
Huntoon.
PAF materials comprise corporate and administrative records,
correspondence, financial, property, engineering and operational
records, and also fish supply records, shipping records and a
large body of reference material. Although incomplete, corporate
records provide a brief overview of PAF’s organizational
structure and operations from the mid-1930s through the 1960s,
through incorporation papers, stock records, and annual reports.
The Secretary’s Administrative Files, generated by Beatrice
Anderson between 1947 and 1967, also document many of the
company's daily activities and operations during the 1950s and
1960s. Anderson’s records include subject and resource files,
and contain a set of navigational and radio code books used by
PAF fishing vessels and canneries. Company correspondence dated
1899-1965 is separated into internal and external
correspondence, arranged alphabetically by subject and
correspondence. Internal correspondence documents many of PAFs
operational activities (including its cannery operations) while
external correspondence reflects the company’s daily dealings
and transactions with businesses and individuals on a local and
regional level. The collection contains only a small number of
financial records. Financial materials include account
statements, journals and ledgers, financial statements, and
invoices documenting the expenditures and income of PAF.
Although invoices date from 1900-1906, the bulk of the financial
records span the period 1917 through the 1960s.
Property records comprise a valuable source of information about
PAFs holdings in the Puget Sound and Alaska. Property records
include maps, surveys, legal agreements and correspondence
relating to PAFs ownership and sale of lands. The collection
also contains survey files and tideland applications pertaining
to property in Alaska. Researchers should note that the
collection’s reference materials contains a large number of maps
which further document PAF’s property holdings and interests.
Engineering records comprise a valuable source of information
regarding PAF designs and patents for fishing and canning
equipment, and reflect many of the technological changes
affecting the fishing and canning industry during the twentieth
century. Records include Survey Department records generated by
PAF employee B.W. Huntoon, and a large number of engineering
drawings and plans for PAF canneries, equipment and vessels,
many of which were drawn and maintained by G.E. Hube.
Operation records include PAF’s fishing and custom canning
agreements with other companies, production records, including
packing reports, quality control, some personnel and payroll
records, and equipment and supply purchases. A particularly
valuable series of records are those generated by the research
department, which the company created after World War II to
assist in the diversification of its product lines. The
department was incorporated into a wholly owned subsidiary,
Pacific Laboratories, Inc. in 1950. The records of this
department include correspondence, bulletins, reports and
subject files covering many important activities and innovations
in the industry, including files relating to a fish leather
venture in the late 1940s. PAF’s fishing operations are further
documented in Fish Supply records, which comprise fishing
agreements, trap records and location maps, statistics, licenses
and applications, and a large section of trap files. Besides
documenting the location and licencing of PAF traps, the records
contain catch statistics for salmon and crab, correspondence
regarding the proposed elimination of fish traps, and articles
concerning Japanese encroachments on fishing territory in the
North Pacific. Researchers should note that the reference
section of the PAF collection also contains numerous plats of
fish traps and fish trap locations – these are described
individually in the PAF map catalog. Ships and Shippings records
meanwhile contain a small number of logbooks and operational
records of various company owned vessels.
The reference series contains source material documenting the
background and history of Pacific American Fisheries and the
major changes affecting the fishing industry from the turn of
the twentieth century through the late 1960s. Company and
Industry History files include manuscripts, articles and
interviews regarding PAF and its fisheries which were gathered
by long-term employee and local historian Galen Biery.
Superintendent’s Reference Files contain company-maintained
reports, bulletins and regulations (dated ca. 1924-1966) issued
by government bodies such as the Alaska Department of Game and
Fish and the US. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as
industrial organizations including the National Canners’
Association. Publications include copies of PAF’s company
magazine, The Shield, and newsletter, PAFISCO News, and other
industry-related articles, bulletins, pamphlets and journals.
The collection contains copies of the Pacific Fisherman journal
and annuals dated 1908-1966. Reference files also include
photographs depicting employees, canneries and plants, vessels
and products, and significant number of maps documenting areas
and property in the Puget Sound and Alaska, PAF fisheries and
fish traps, navigation maps and plats of PAF canneries and
properties. Maps are described individually in the Center’s map
database.
The collection also contains the records of affiliated and
subsidiary companies including Deming and Gould, Hoonah Packing
Company and the Pacific Packing and Navigation Company. Spanning
the period 1898-1964, these records are arranged alphabetically
by name of company, and are primarily corporate and financial
materials with some correspondence. The Deming brothers were
stockholders in many of these companies prior to their being
bought out by Pacific American Fisheries. The final record
series contains a small number of personal papers of former PAF
employees including Beatrice Anderson, Galen Biery, the Demings,
George Hube and Bert Huntoon.
This valuable collection documents the rise and fall of the
fishing industry, the proliferation of fish traps and canneries
into new and uncharted locations, the consolidation of the
industry into a streamlined operation from fish harvest to final
marketing, the increasingly mechanized approach to these
operations, labor relations (particularly in relation to
Chinese, Japanese and Native American labor sources), women's
work, the exploitation of salmon, king crab and other
commodities, government involvement in the fishing industry,
subsequent labor and fishing regulations, international
agreements and the effect of these laws on the industry as a
whole.
|
|
|
