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Prentice Bloedel papers, 1892-1982

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Bloedel, Prentice, 1900-1996
Title
Prentice Bloedel papers
Dates
1892-1982 (inclusive)
circa 1900-1960 (bulk)
Quantity
17 cubic feet (27 units)
Collection Number
5044 (Accession No. 5044-001)
Summary
Papers of a Seattle lumberman documenting logging activities of several businesses
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to all users.

Request at UW

Additional Reference Guides

View inventory/container list for this accession

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Prentice Bloedel was a leader of the timber industry. He left a brief teaching career to join the management of his family's far-flung timber empire and led the industry's forest-conservation efforts. Bloedel guided the firm into a merger with H. R. MacMillan Export Co., which became the giant MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. Prentice and Virginia Bloedel were important patrons of the arts in Seattle, a tradition carried on by their daughter Virginia Wright. The Bloedels created the Bloedel Reserve, a botanical showcase of gardens, pools, lawns, and arbors on Bainbridge Island. Born in Bellingham in 1900, Bloedel graduated from Yale University planning to be a teacher. In 1929, in response to a request from his father, he gave up his teaching career and went to work in the family business: Bloedel, Stewart and Welch, based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

He first took charge of a new mill at Port Alberni, B.C. The mill became one of the first to make efficient use of sawdust and waste, called "hog fuel," to generate power. He believed integrating a pulp mill with sawmill operations would get the most out of every stick of timber, and the mill became one of the first waste-based operations in North America. In 1938, Bloedel guided the company into a reforestation program and the firm became the first company to plant seedlings. A decade later, the firm was responsible for 70 percent of all the reforestation carried out by private industry in British Columbia. During the 1930s and 1940s, Bloedel began buying land in Whatcom and Skagit counties that had been clear-cut and abandoned. He became treasurer of Bloedel, Stewart and Welch in 1942 and continued to implement innovations to the industry.

In 1948, he launched a plant designed to produce fuel briquettes made from shingle waste products, which were marketed under license as "pres-to-logs." Two years later, driven by a reluctant conviction that "to do the best with the resource would require larger units, greater markets and greater flexibility in product," Bloedel guided the firm into a merger with H.R. MacMillan Export Co., which became the giant MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. He moved back to Seattle and to Bainbridge Island and, in early 1972, retired from the board of MacMillan Bloedel. He continued his involvement in the industry through his leadership of Bloedel Timberlands Development Inc., a company he founded in 1945 in partnership with his father. The firm bought up land long since logged and essentially abandoned.

Prentice Bloedel died at his Capitol Hill (Seattle) home in June 1996, at age 95.

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Content Description

General correspondence, reports, financial records, minutes, newsletters, ephemera, speeches and writings, maps, and similar records documenting the management of MacMillan Bloedel operations on Vancouver Island, B.C. as well as the direction of other companies by Prentice Bloedel and his father, J.H. Bloedel. Firms include Lake Whatcom Logging Company; Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills; Columbia Valley Lumber Company; Bloedel, Stewart & Welch Ltd.; Bellingham Securities Syndicate; and Canada Permanent Toronto General Trust Company. Also includes papers regarding the University of Washington Arboretum, 1954-1970.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donated by Virginia Wright, 6/27/1997.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Lumbermen--British Columbia--Vancouver Island
  • Mills and mill-work--British Columvia--Vancouver Island
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)

Personal Names

  • Bloedel, Prentice, 1900-1996--Archives

Corporate Names

  • Michigan-California Lumber Company
  • Powell River Company
  • Welch Investment Company

Geographical Names

  • Vancouver Island (B.C.)

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Bloedel, Julius H., 1864- (creator)

    Corporate Names

    • American Forestry Association (creator)
    • Arboretum Foundation (Seattle, Wash.) (creator)
    • Bellingham Securities Syndicate (creator)
    • Bloedel Corporation (creator)
    • Bloedel, Stewart & Welch (creator)
    • Blue Canyon Coal Mining Company (creator)
    • Canada Permanent General Trust Company (creator)
    • Columbia Valley Lumber Company (creator)
    • Committee of the Northwest (creator)
    • Ernst & Ernst (creator)
    • Fernstrom Paper Mills (creator)
    • H.R. MacMillan Export Company (creator)
    • Lake Whatcom Logging Company (creator)
    • Larson Lumber Company (creator)
    • MacMillan Bloedel Limited (creator)
    • MacMillan, Bloedel & Powell River Ltd (creator)
    • Pacific American Fisheries, Inc (creator)
    • Puget Sound Navigation Company (creator)
    • St. Mark's Cathedral (Seattle, Wash.) (creator)
    • U.S.-Japan Centennial Royal Visit Committee (creator)


2007 (Last modified: 4/29/2020)

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