This collection includes correspondence, postcard collections, postmark (opening day and final day) collections, historical photographs of Santa Cruz area and the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, photo albums and scrapbooks of the early film stars and movie industry in the Santa Cruz mountains, and miscellaneous Santa Cruz ephemera. Also included are 16mm films of Santa Cruz events, negatives and glass plate negatives.

Preston Sawyer, collector, proofreader and historical writer, was born in Santa Cruz on December 6, 1899. He was a life-long bachelor who lived with his brother Ariel, also a bachelor, who ran the Sawyer Tile Company. As a youth, Preston Sawyer worked as a movie extra in the very early movie industry located in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A prolific amateur photographer, he snapped hundreds of pictures of the movie stars and the sets while waiting for work. In addition to taking his own, including, for example, a series of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, taken from a 16 year old's point of view, he also collected pictures covering early Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas.

55 linear ft

45 boxes

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Collection is unprocessed and unavailable for research.