Willa Cloys Carmack Collection
Scope and Contents
The Willa Cloys Carmack Collection spans the years 1916-1962 and includes personal, professional, and project records. This collection is organized into two series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers.
Series I: Personal Papers contain correspondence, photographs, travel diaries, and handwritten notes about plant types. Much of the correspondence are postcards to Willa’s children during her travels and a few to friends. Photographs include a headshot from the 1916 Blue and Gold yearbook noting her graduation from UC Berkeley. The bulk of material in this series is travel paraphernalia from her trips to Italy (1926), Mexico (1955), across the Midwest (XX), and Japan (1956).
Series II: The Professional Papers include correspondence relating to professional topics, writings, presentations, professional organizations and committees, reference material collected, and project records. Reference Files are the largest sub-series containing nursery lists with handwritten notations, brochures by plant type, and reference materials such as magazines and newspaper clippings related to the profession in general and not to specific projects.
Dates
- 1916-1962
- Majority of material found within 1940-1959
Access Statement
Collection is over for research. Many of the Environmental Design Archives collections are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use.
Publication Use
All requests to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.
Biographical Note
Willa Cloys was an only child, born November 1, 1889, in the Midwest. Her father Edward H. Cloys was a building contractor and the family moved to California around the late nineteen-teens. Willa was one of the first women to graduate with a degree in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley, which at that time was part of the Department of Agriculture under the direction of Professor John Gregg. After graduating with her degree in 1916, she is listed in the Berkeley City Directory, in 1917, as a Landscape Architect.
By 1925, Willa married Robert M. Carmack, and based on the 1930 census they had two children, John and Sarah1. Throughout her career, which spanned more than thirty years, she secured several large estate commissions in and around Hillsborough, schools in San Leandro, the San Jose Women's Club, city parks in Petaluma, and a subdivision called Felton Gables in Menlo Park, among others.
During the Depression, Cloys taught landscape design at the California School of Gardening, a school started by and for women in Hayward in 1926 and lectured at California garden clubs. She was also a founding member of the California Horticultural Society. Cloys was an early proponent of the use of native plants in California gardens and an active part of a network of women working to influence how we garden in California today.
Sources:
Biography of Willa Cloys Carmack by April Halberstadt, May 2007
Extent
1.3 Linear Feet: (1 Carton and 1 Document Box)
Language of Materials
English
Custodial History
This collection was donated by the family of Willa Cloys Carmack.
Funding
Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by the Beatrix Farrand Endowment courtesy of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.
- Title
- Willa Cloys Carmack Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- This Finding Aid was completed by Katie Riddle.
- Date
- April 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives Repository