Archives West Finding Aid

The records of the Alaska Packers Association at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies reflect the history of APA and the development of commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. While the collection contains records dating from 1841 through 1989, the bulk of materials are dated between 1890 and 1974. These bulk dates correspond to APA’s history from its inception in 1893 through its decline as a dominant force in the Alaska fishing industry over the 1960s and 1970s.

Administrative and corporate records and financial records comprise part of the “core” of the APA collection at the CPNWS, most of which were created and maintained in the company’s central offices in San Francisco, California. Administrative and Corporate records document APA’s incorporation in February 1893, and its early consolidation of property and interests in Alaska and the Puget Sound. Administrative record books dated 1891-1941 include a mixture of minutes, agreements, correspondence and contracts. Together with cannery agreements from 1893-1910, the administrative record books reflect APA’s early acquisition and expansion of fishing and cannery operations. The administrative and corporate series also contains internal correspondence maintained by APA’s regional offices in Seattle between 1958 and 1961. This includes a small amount of correspondence from officials including APA vice president and general manager Aubin Barthold, general correspondence files, and “cannery correspondence.” Much of the correspondence pertains to meetings, statistical date, and operational procedure, including references also to labor needs and appointments, wages, shipping and supply of goods to Alaska.

Financial records include bound account ledgers and voucher and receipt books maintained at APA’s San Francisco offices, spanning the period 1902-1967. These ledgers contain detailed documentation of APA income and expenditures, including breakdowns of accounts at individual canneries, and with various companies and suppliers. The series contains additional account books and financial statements specific to the workings, receipts and expenditures of different canneries. Sales records document charges for equipment and materials relating to the APA’s boat yard operations at Semiahmoo between 1961 and 1964.

Property records reflect APA’s interest in California and particularly in Alaska and the Puget Sound. Many of the textual property records were generated by APA for tax purposes and include estimated values of real estate and moveable assets including buildings, equipment and vessels. Capital Asset cards pertain primarily to property at Naknek and Kvichak in Alaska. The series also contains general property and survey maps from Alaska and the Puget Sound, Alaska homestead claim maps dating from 1892 through 1937 and cannery maps (mostly 1950-1960s). Correspondence and information files document APA’s concerns and actions in relation to Native Alaskan land and fishing claims through the period 1939-1954. Additional materials concerning Native Alaskan land and fishing rights are located in Series VI (Fishing Activities and Operations). The John McFarlane Cuthill Collection at the CPNWS contains related material regarding APA property and that of its successor company, DMC Properties.

Personnel records reflect the composition, duties and wages of APA’s workforce from 1907 through 1972. Researchers should note that access to payroll, retirement and personnel cards containing social security numbers or recent payroll information is restricted until further notice. General employment data files contain clippings, memos and correspondence pertaining to employment regulations and procedures during the 1950s and 1960s, with particular reference to employee wages, and occasional mention of union and labor activity in 1959. Contracts and agreements spanning the period 1911-1963 are small in number, but document APA’s agreements with independent and company fishermen as to the duties and payment of employees in Alaska and the Puget Sound. Payroll records are arranged in two main groups, with records arranged chronologically in each. The first group comprises payroll records for workers in both Alaska and the Puget Sound, spanning the period 1913-1970. Records include bound payroll registers maintained at APA’s San Francisco offices between 1913-1947 and 1968-1970, and partial records for warehouse and cannery workers from the 1950s and 1964. The remaining group of payroll records comprises hours and wage records for Puget Sound workers between 1961 and 1964, generated at APA’s Semiahmoo offices. The series also contains personnel cards for regular APA employees (ca. 1918-1951) and gillnet fishermen (1907-41), arranged alphabetically by name of employee. Cards document the service record of individual employees, often including date and place of birth and other family information.

General Cannery Operations comprises records relating primarily to APA’s daily operations and procedure at canneries and fishing stations in Alaska and the Puget Sound, with the bulk of material dating from 1893-1974. These include the select correspondence of cannery superintendents at Chignik and Semiahmoo, reflecting their communication and relations with local businesses as well as with officials in APA’s San Francisco offices, and government bodies such as the Departments of Labor and Licensing. Letters mostly concern procedural matters such as the use and supply of equipment, labor and licensing regulations, insurance, taxes and business accounts. Pack records document salmon catches from APA’s entire operations in the Puget Sound and Alaska, spanning the period 1893-1972. Supply and shipping records, equipment and machinery records and work orders reflect APA’s distribution and transfer of canned goods, equipment, machinery and vessels between its various operations. Supply records and work orders include a large body of files documenting activities and repair work at the Blaine/Semiahmoo shipyard between 1963-1964. In addition to records of “ground” activity, the series contains logbooks generated by launch captains and engineers of APA fishing vessels (mostly dated between 1950 and 1970), and pilot’s journals dated 1946-1973.

Fishing Operations and Activities records reflect APA’s involvement in and response to many of the issues and debates surrounding expansion of the commercial fisheries in Alaska and the Puget Sound during the twentieth century. APA’s San Francisco and Seattle offices both maintained central subject files entitled “Alaska Fisheries Operations,” “Karluk,” “Legislation and Regulations” and “Alaska Fishing Matters Conferences,” which document many of the major developments and conflicts in the Alaska fishing industry from the 1920s through the 1960s. These files include memos, internal and external correspondence and clippings regarding federal regulation of fishing seasons and gear, Native land and fishing claims, labor disputes, Japanese high seas fishing, and the perceived impact of such issues on APA fisheries in Alaska. The files also contain clippings, memos and occasional minutes and transcripts relating to the Fish and Wildlife Service hearings on fishing regulations, including information about salmon runs and fishing restrictions in areas including Chignik, Karluk, and in particular, the Bristol Bay area. Correspondence and minutes in both the “special subject” and Alaska Fishing Matters Conference files reflect APA’s membership and involvement in commercial fisheries interest groups and inter-institutional lobbying organizations such as the Bristol Bay Packers. Correspondents in these files include US Bureau of Fisheries Commissioner Frank T. Bell, and Washington Senator Warren Magnusson.

Records in Fishing Operations also include navigational maps, and maps and a small number of textual records documenting the location and use of APA fish traps in Alaska from around 1904-32. Additional plans and drawings are located in the engineering records, which comprise mostly oversize plans and architectural drawings, arranged into separate categories relating to buildings, vessels, and equipment and machinery. Record books dated 1950 also contain photographs and structural specifications for buildings at Chignik, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Pilot Point, Semiahmoo and Ugashik.

The reference series contains valuable source material regarding the background and history of the Alaska Packers Association, and the major changes affecting the fishing industry from the late nineteenth century through the late 1960s. Company-maintained “History Files” include clippings, and copies of articles and notes regarding APA, the star fleet of sailing vessels, and the history of the commercial fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. Publications and reports spanning the period 1909-1978 include printed material generated by APA, fishing and canning organizations including the National Canners Association, and government agencies such as the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The bulk of these materials date from around 1940 through the 1960s, and reflect industry-related research and technological developments, as well as the processes of economic expansion and decline affecting commercial fishing bodies such as APA. The collection contains copies of the Del Monte Shield, the magazine of APA’s parent company Del Monte, dating from 1948 through 1965. Other significant materials in the reference series are the newspaper clippings maintained by APA, including bound volumes of clippings dated 1898-1939. These files include a wealth of information about the issues and changes shaping the commercial fishing industry during this period, with reference to company and cannery agreements, fish prices and salmon runs, legislative changes, Native Alaskan land and fishing claims and labor conflicts. Some of these files are indexed, or contain clippings arranged topically. Reference files also include a small number of photographs of APA stations and fishing vessels in Alaska, and samples of APA salmon can labels used during the 1950s and from 1966 through 1972.