United States, France, and Germany: 1870s–1940s. Approximately 469 total items. Fifty-nine pieces of loose correspondence, one with four photographs affixed. In large letter album, approximately 199 pieces of written material: 118 pieces of incoming correspondence, twenty-one drafts of outgoing correspondence, and sixty other. 139 photographs: nine cabinet cards, thirty-three smaller mounted or framed photos, eleven CDVs or tintypes, nineteen in small photo album, sixty-six loose photographs, and one real photo postcard. Eight pieces of loose miscellaneous written material totaling sixty-four pages; nine forms, applications, etc; forty-five clippings, generally affixed to notebook pages; and ten pieces of unsorted ephemera. Written material generally dating from about 1891–1928. Photographic material and ephemera generally dating from about 1870s or earlier to 1943. Letter album with covers detached and damage to edges of paper, very good plus; other material generally excellent. Overall very good to excellent. Item #List3440

Charles Colt Yates (1868–1944) was born in Binghamton, New York. He received a BS in Physics and an MS in Civil Engineering from the Case School of Applied Science (now Case Western Reserve University) before joining the US Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1892. Yates’ work with the USC&GS took him around the US and abroad; his work included observing the earth’s surface density in Hawaii; surveying Lake Pontchartrain, the Alaska–Yukon border, and the Aleutian Islands; surveying and ship-building in the Philippines and Hong Kong; and surveying the oyster bars in Maryland and Delaware.

Offered here is a large collection of photographic and written material belonging to Yates. The photographs are almost entirely family shots. Subjects are generally identified verso by their initials, and include Yates; his grandparents, James Dennison Colt and Abigail Weber; his parents, Walter Lloyd Yates and Charlotte Colt; and especially his brother Alonzo Colt Yates, sister-in-law Elizabeth Deming, and their children Evelyn and Lloyd Deming Yates.

The written material relates to Yates’ work and includes incoming correspondence, particularly work assignments sent by the Survey’s various superintendents; Yates’ drafts of outgoing correspondence; field expense forms—providing a look at the more quotidian activities of the Survey’s researchers—and departmental circulars; resumes and applications; notes and article drafts; and newspaper clippings. The latter generally relate to either the 1916 controversy around Woodrow Wilson’s scientific appointments, particularly of E. Lester Jones, or to the 1916 and 1928 Merchant Marine Acts. The merchant marine issue preoccupied Yates as several of his letters and articles concern the subject; other of his articles are an 1898 “Report on the Establishment of a Self Registering Tide Gauge at Morehead City, N.C” and a 1914 report on oceanography.

Early in his career, Yates apparently wanted out of the Survey, writing to several different people seeking a teaching position and explaining that his “desire to become a teacher, and ultimately a professor, is so great, that I am willing to make a considerable sacrifice” in terms of pay (July 16, 1896). Of course, there would have been upsides to leaving the Survey, as working conditions at the time were far from ritzy; for instance, fellow officer Alex S. Christie wrote of the employee at the Sandy Hook tidal station in New Jersey:

“Where now located, on the west side of this sand spit, the observer is completely isolated and threatens to resign. He has no love for nature, and no resources within himself. I could be very happy there.” (July 26, 1892)

Similarly, Superintendent William Ward Duffield attempted to convince Yates that the conditions on the Alaska-Yukon boundary survey were more tolerable than he might think:

“It might pertinently be added here that the American Transportation and Trading Company has a number of stations on the Yukon and carries a large stock of goods including drugs, etc. at points near the boundary. The country is better supplied with means of existence and communication than was supposed sometime ago.” (February 29, 1896)

As references for a teaching position, Yates offered his Case classmate and highly decorated electrical engineer Comfort Avery Adams, then at Harvard, and Case president Cady Staley. Yates corresponded occasionally with Staley, including helping him with research by, among other things, giving him honest advice on the use of a theodolite:

“From a personal experience: to approach a Vertical Circle without ever having seen one and having had it explained by a textbook is not only awkward but a[n] embarrassing experience and perhaps even a disastrous experience when the proper approach of the level correction is reached.” (February 24, 1897)

Another Case affiliate with whom Yates corresponded was Albert A. Michelson, then at the University of Chicago. Michelson is best known for the 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment, a test of the speed of light performed at Case with Edward W. Morley and the assistance of Comfort Adams, then a student. Yates had sent Michelson an observation of some kind—though he did not save the draft of this outgoing letter—and Michelson responds with several pages of reasoning:

“I scarcely think it likely that refraction is the cause of the color observed – but even if this were the case it would not help matters much. The angle subtended by the spectrum could certainly not be less than 10” if a consistent color could be appreciated [...] Nevertheless I would recommend that the color phenomenon be carefully observed and recorded – for it may throw light on other matters of importance – even tho not of immediate practical use.” (March 8, 1896)

Yates also kept up with his Case classmates; several letter drafts in the archive are addressed “dear Classmates” and seem to be part of a semi-regular correspondence where the former classmates would update each other on their careers and lives, though only Yates’ outgoing mail is represented. Yates writes a particularly interesting letter to his classmates describing his time in the Philippines and Hong Kong, the surveying of which had become part of the USC&GS’s duties after the US assumed control of the territory:

“I was just leaving for a surveying cruise along the south west coast of Samar Island the island General ‘Jakey’ Smith and brother officers made so famous by their approved ‘water cure’ and other ancient methods of obtaining information from the natives. We had an excellent Thanksgiving’s dinner in Jakey’s former residence the ‘bungalow’ at Tacloban, and although many of his officers were still there, I feel quite certain that water was not mentioned but their liquid method of obtaining information was probably even more effective. No doubt the natives of Samar are well subdued, at least we judged so from the fact that when they saw any of our boats put off from the ship, they immediately abandoned house and home to the old and crippled. Apparently Americans are to be trusted in reference to these two classes. Disappearing streaks of red skirts indicating retreating females were sometimes seen but our male ‘little brown brother’ was rarely discovered even on a run. This was quite a change from our previous experiences in other parts of the Philippines which had not received the benefit of the same intimate contact with our methods of civilization. In fact, we were usually accompanied along the beach by a swarm of men, women and children of all size[s] and ages, who, though always polite and gentle, were a nuisance sometimes through unintentionally getting in the way of our work.” (October 15, 1903)

The “water cure” was a form of torture, similar to waterboarding, often used by American soldiers during the Philippine-American War. General Smith was infamous not for use of the “water cure” but for his orders, during the Pacification of Samar, to execute everyone over age ten and turn the island into a “howling wilderness”; during the campaign, several thousand civilians were killed.
Later, Yates explained to his classmates that he had had a nervous breakdown while stationed in Asia following the death of his only child at five months old, and was sent home (January 20, 1907). He was assigned to survey oyster fields for the Maryland Shell Fish Commission, which he described as “surrounded by politicians as our work seems to be the political issue of the State”.

In fact, at this time, Yates seems to have become more interested in politics, especially the Merchant Marine acts mentioned earlier. He sent out his article titled “By-products and Relative Values of a Merchant Marine” to several potential publishers, and also corresponded with Congressmen regarding the act, including Jesse D. Price of Maryland, Frank P. Woods of Iowa, and Joshua W. Alexander of Missouri. He wrote to the latter, who was the 1916 act’s sponsor:

“If you succeed in passing the Bill you will deserve oceans of credit, and even if you fail you will have gained the sincere admiration of those who have studied the subject and know the great aggregate of vested shipping interests, both foreign and domestic, which are fighting you so hard because they fear the results to their personal interest of the founding of a real American Marine which would be brought about by the passage of your Bill.” (May 16, 1916)

Yates was also interested in the 1928 Act, which concerned shipbuilding—having built ships for the Survey in Hong Kong and Wisconsin—and wrote an article that year giving suggestions for it. Otherwise, the more recent contents of the archive are mainly ephemera of Yates’ brother, diplomat Alonzo Colt Yates (1864–1950), including an ID card and passport.

Overall a unique collection of an employee of the US government’s first, and for a long time only, scientific agency, the archive provides a look at the agency’s activities at home and across the globe. It also provides some history of the early days of the Case School of Applied Science, especially the activities of early alumni and faculty.

Price: $2,500.00