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Ardis M. Walker Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: [Summit record]
Date: Mar 1967

Biographical History

Ardis M. Walker was an American engineer, civil servant, and local historian and poet.

A descendant of a Kern County, California pioneer family, Walker was born in an old mining camp in Kernsville, California. He was educated in the public schools of the Kern County system and later attended Fresno State College, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. After graduation from the School of Engineering of the latter institution, he was employed in New York City as an engineer. Returning to Kern County, he became active in civil affairs, serving as a supervisor and as a justice of the peace. He also became an active sportsman and conservationist, and was well-known for his writings on local history. He published a number of books, both prose and poetry.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Ardis M. Walker Papers consist of correspondence, writings, printed material, and a small amount of miscellanea.

Correspondence consists primarily of incoming letters, much of which is related to Walker's writings.

Writings contains typescripts of articles, books, pamphlets, poems, and other writings. Of particular interest is the typescript for his Sierra Nevada Sequence (1968), which includes proofs of the woodcuts by Kirk Martin that accompanied each sonnet.

Printed material includes campaign material and clippings relating to Walker's bid for Congress, clippings relating to his work, newspapers edited by Walker, publicity items for some of his books, and a selection of letterpress printings of some of his poems.

A small amount of Miscellany completes the collection. Here will be found photographs of Walker and his house, along with typed copy for two radio pieces on Walker that apparently ran on the local radio station.

Arrangement of the Collection

Overall the collection is arranged alphabetically. Clippings are arranged roughly chronologically.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

A number of published books and monographs by Walker have been removed from the collection and transferred to Rare Books for cataloging. Please refer to Libraries Search and search on "Gift of Ardis M. Walker" to locate these items.

Subject Headings

Persons

Garcés, Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo, 1738-1781.
Walker, Ardis Manly, 1901-
Walker, Joseph Reddeford, 1798-1876.

Subjects

Death Valley '49ers.
Ecology in literature.
Historians -- United States.
Local history.
Nature in literature.
Poets, American -- 20th century.

Places

Kernville (Calif.) -- History.
Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) -- Poetry.

Genres and Forms

Articles.
Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Essays.
Manuscripts for publication.
Newspapers.
Photographs.
Sonnets.
Typescripts.

Occupations

Environmentalists.
Historians.
Poets.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Ardis M. Walker Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Ardis M. Walker, 1971, 1976, 1988, 1989.

Table of Contents

Correspondence

Writings

Printed material

Miscellaneous

Inventory