The William E. Colby Memorial Library

For those of you that may not be aware of its existence, the Sierra Club has a small library at its National Headquarters on Second Street in San Francisco:
http://207.67.203.80/S10067Staff/OPAC/LibraryInfo/LibraryInfo.asp?MenuID=100
[William Colby was the longtime Secretary of the club. Historical note: after the 1906 earthquake, all the club records were moved to his house at 2901 Channing Way in Berkeley for several years until the S.F. office was rebuilt.]

When I was working up in the South Bay several years ago, I would occasionally take a day off from work and go haunt the place. The main reason for my visits were to peruse the original bound copies of the Sierra Club Bulletin reaching back to Vol.1 in 1893:
http://www.sierraclub.org/library/scb/
They make for fascinating reading, containing articles authored by, among others, John Muir, William Colby, Francis Farquhar, Joseph LeConte, Norman Clyde, Clarence King, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Walter Starr. Great photographs also: I spent one entire day looking at photos and reading ongoing accounts of the Lassen Peak eruption sequence; people would climb the peak, take a few photos, and report back what was happening after each activity. (They were rather distressed when one of the preliminary eruptions destroyed a summit hut that they used.)

This is a small reference library only. All the Sierra Club archives are kept at the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus.


[Note: edit corrects Colby's Berkeley residence address.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2009 12:12AM by szalkowski.

The name of William Colby is not so well known anymore, but I recall being fascinated by aspects of his accomplishments and personality as they were revealed in print. I also seem to recall that he could be mildly irascible with individuals who were not putting forth a full effort, and that elevates him even more in my estimation.