Holway R. Jones papers , 1927-1986

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Jones, Holway R.
Title
Holway R. Jones papers
Dates
1927-1986 (inclusive)
Quantity
33 linear feet, (22 containers)
Collection Number
Coll 226
Summary
Holway R. Jones was a prominent leader of the conservation movement in the Pacific Northwest from 1963, when he moved to Oregon, until his death in 1986. Jones was a librarian but he spent much of his time working on conservation issues. He served on the Sierra Club's Board of Directors, 1973-1976, was chairman of the Publications Committee, 1974-1976, and of the National Wilderness Committee, 1972-1974, 1976-1978. Jones was one of the early advocates of the Oregon Wilderness Coalition, serving as its president 1976-1978, and served in other conservation groups in the Pacific Northwest. This collection is in fact only a section of Jones's papers. Those files pertaining to his career as a librarian and his activities in the field of urban planning were donated separately to the University of Oregon Special Collections & University Archives. Represented in the papers described in this inventory are Jones's activities in the many national and local conservation organizations in which he participated. It should be noted also that the Jones papers contain papers that originated in the files of other conservation leaders, including Karl Onthank, Ted Snyder, and Richard Noyes.
Repository
University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives
UO Libraries--SCUA
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene OR
97403-1299
Telephone: 5413463068
spcarref@uoregon.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.

Additional Reference Guides

See the Current Collection Guide for detailed description and requesting options.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Historical NoteReturn to Top

Holly Jones, as he was known in California and throughout the Pacific Northwest, was a librarian by profession but his passion was conservation and love of the land. Born in New Orleans, October 11, 1922, Holway Roy Jones received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and it was there he began his career as a city and urban planning librarian. It was in California, too, that he experienced his first taste of the wilderness when he backpacked into Sequoia National Park's Kaweah country in 1942. Three years later he joined the Sierra Club, and participated in one of the club's early float trips down the Yampa and Green rivers. Almost every summer in the years after that time, he and his wife and their two sons shared wilderness experiences in different parts of the west.

Jones's early wilderness experiences in California provided the impetus for his research for his master's thesis which culminated in his book, John Muir and the Sierra Club; the Battle for Yosemite, published by the Sierra Club in 1965.

It was the Sierra Club, in which he became a national leader, which gave focus to his conservation efforts. He served on its Board of Directors, 1973-1976, was chairman of the Publications Committee, 1974-1976, and of the National Wilderness Committee, 1972-1974, 1976-1978. During his tenure with the NWC he became the major player in the fight to save French Pete, conservationists' long but finally successful effort to stop the logging of the French Pete Valley drainage, which had been removed from the Three Sisters Wilderness in 1957.

Jones was one of the early advocates of the Oregon Wilderness Coalition, serving as its president 1976-78, and he was active in many other organizations including the Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth, North Cascades Conservation Council, Oregon Environmental Council and the Friends of the Three Sisters Wilderness, as well as being an officer and leader of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Sierra Club.

No biographical sketch, as such, appears in the Jones Papers, but brief biographical information contained in an affidavit dated [May 8, 1972] was drawn upon for this account, as were two standard biographical dictionaries of librarianship.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The papers described in this inventory document Jones's activities in the many national and local conservation organizations in which he participated. It should be noted also that this collection contains papers which originated in the files of other conservation leaders. For example, the early material on the Three Sisters Wilderness probably came from the files of Karl Onthank (collection no. Ax 356), and much of the correspondence in Box 12, the French Pete Files (O), is from the papers of Richard Noyes, who, like Onthank, was another University of Oregon professor vitally interested in conservation. When Jones became the chairman of the Sierra Club's National Wilderness Committee for the second time he apparently inherited the files of Ted Snyder, who chaired the committee for a time between Jones's two terms as chairman (see 14/23-44). Box 10 contains files of John Patt, Jr., who was Middle Santiam Wilderness Coordinator, Oregon Chapter, Sierra Club, 1980, and Wilderness Chairman of the Oregon Chapter, Sierra Club, 1982-83.

The present arrangement of the papers represents a compromise arrived at in an attempt to restore original order to files which were rearranged and otherwise disturbed in packing to come to Special Collections. Files thus restored in arranging the collections are marked (R). Papers that arrived at Special Collections in their original file folders, or which were together in envelopes, were kept together in folders marked (O), and were given whatever title appeared on the original folder or envelope. This has resulted in some instances where two or more folders with different titles are obviously on the same subject, as for example Box 10/18 and 19, or Box 10/17 and 20.

Papers that did not seem to fall into either the (O) or (R) categories were arranged in a general correspondence file at the beginning of the collection. This series, designated Correspondence in this inventory, was deemed of primary importance and is arranged first in the collection. In general, an attempt was made to arrange the remaining series in descending degree of importance from beginning to the end of the collection, and within each series to arrange the material chronologically.

The attempted compromise of a collection arranged partially by chronology and partially by subject, in original or recreated order, has resulted in anomalies of which the researcher must be aware. Information relating to an organization can often be found elsewhere apart from the regular series heading. Examples of this would include: Three Sisters Wilderness, see also 9/21 and 29; Outings Committee, see also 9/30; National Wilderness Committee, see also 10/7 and 22; or Sierra club, Board of Directors, see also 10/34-36. Other examples of this exist, and researchers should examine the entire inventory for any given topic.

In part the anomalies noted above can be explained by knowing that Jones often filed copies of the same document in several different files. He also kept many duplicates, as many as possible of which were sorted out of the papers. None of which explains other seeming irregularities in the papers. These include almost no correspondence for 1975 in the National Wilderness Committee series, or the Three Sisters Wilderness material not being filed separately after 1972.

Jones's research files (R), US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 18/2-22 appear to be copies from record groups held in the Federal Records Center, San Francisco.

Perhaps the only "celebrity" letter in the collection is a carbon letter, apparently signed by Ansel Adams, September 15, 1960.

Holway R. Jones was a prominent leader of the conservation movement in the Pacific Northwest from 1963, when he moved to Oregon, until his death in 1986. His papers, studied in conjunction with the Karl Onthank Papers, collection Ax 356, Special Collections, University of Oregon, and the Brock Evans Papers, University of Washington, will provide researchers with an unparalleled look at the inner workings of national and local conservation organizations in this region.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Conservation of natural resources
  • Conservation of natural resources--Oregon
  • Conservation of natural resources--Societies, etc.
  • Environmentalists--Oregon
  • Wilderness areas--Oregon

Personal Names

  • Onthank, Karl William, 1890-1968
  • Patt, John
  • Snyder, Ted

Corporate Names

  • Friends of the Three Sisters Wilderness
  • Oregon Wilderness Coalition
  • Sierra Club
  • Sierra Club. Pacific Northwest Chapter

Geographical Names

  • French Pete Creek Valley (Or.)
  • Kings Canyon National Park (Calif.)
  • Sequoia National Park (Calif.)
  • Three Sisters Wilderness (Or.)