The Charles A. Ellis Papers

A GUIDE TO THE CHARLES A. ELLIS PAPERS AT THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Descriptive Summary


Creator:	Ellis, Charles Alton, 1876-1949


Title:	The Charles A. Ellis Papers


Dates (Inclusive):	1911-1946


Dates (Bulk):	1928-1938


Abstract:	Correspondence, writings, printed material, photographs, organization chart, financial estimates, and biographical information relating to the professional career of structural engineer Charles A. Ellis. The primary focus of the papers is on Ellis' design of the Golden Gate Bridge.


Quantity:	0.4 cubic ft. (1 Box)


Location:	Aisle 10


Identification:	US-InLP-20050624-1


Repository:	Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections


Language:	The Papers are written in English

Preferred Citation:

The Charles A. Ellis Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries

A supplementary collection of items relating to Charles Ellis and the Golden Gate Bridge is also available, including photocopies of Ellis’ architectural drawings for the design of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Biographical Information

Educator, structural engineer, and mathematician Charles Alton Ellis (1876-1949) was born in 1876 in Parkman, Maine. Ellis was an expert in bridge design, co-designing the Montreal Harbor Bridge and designing the structure of the Golden Gate Bridge almost single-handedly. Ellis took four years of mathematics and higher mechanics at Wesleyan University, where he received his A.B. degree in 1900. Upon graduation from Wesleyan, he worked at various engineering jobs, joining the staff of the American Bridge Company in 1902. It was in this position that Ellis received recognition for his calculus expertise when he calculated the stresses of the subway tubes under the Hudson River. He remained with the American Bridge Company until 1908, when he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. Ellis remained as Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Michigan until 1912. He spent the following two years as a designing engineer for the Dominion Bridge Company. In 1914, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois as Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, and was promoted to Professor of Structural and Bridge Engineering the following year. He continued in this position until 1921, when he accepted a position as Vice President in charge of bridge design and construction supervision for the Strauss Engineering Corporation of Chicago.

In 1922, Ellis received his C.E. degree from the University of Illinois. That same year, Joseph Strauss hired him to create a design for the Golden Gate Bridge. Ellis’ job was to draw up new plans for Strauss and his team, as Strauss’ own design had been rejected. In 1929, Strauss was officially selected as the bridge’s chief engineer, with Leon S. Moisseiff, O.H. Amman, and Charles Derleth, Jr. as consulting engineers. Leon Moisseiff had developed a new theory of suspension bridge design, but it was Ellis’ job to apply Moisseiff’s theory in practice. In March 1930, under Strauss’ authority, Charles Ellis began the preliminary design and estimates for the bridge, completing the overall design in four months. In June, Ellis’ design was reviewed by the three consulting engineers. The Bridge District Board of Directors reviewed and enthusiastically accepted his design in August. Strauss, meanwhile, had turned in his Engineer’s Report to the directors, and the report was not received favorably. Strauss believed that Ellis was responsible for the dissatisfaction on the part of the directors when Ellis refused to comment on the report to the directors.

In September, Ellis gave the keynote address at the first West Coast meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in Berkeley, California. His speech was about the theory behind the design of the Golden Gate Bridge. In November, Ellis began computing thousands of calculations for the bridge, including suspension ropes, floor beams, and cables. Ellis wrote the specifications for all ten bridge construction contracts, which included everything from cable wire to concrete for the anchorages. He supervised the test boring and siting, which involved the complicated process of locating firm footing on the Marin shore. Working twelve to fourteen hours per day, Ellis personally made all the computations and the entire design for the bridge. In October 1931, Strauss began pressuring Ellis to finish his work. Ellis felt that he needed to take the time needed to ensure his calculations were correct for the safe design of the bridge. In November, voters approved a bond issue providing funding for the Golden Gate Bridge. The following month, Strauss ordered Ellis to go on vacation. Three days before his vacation ended, in December 1931, Strauss instructed Ellis that he would no longer be needed for the project. Strauss stated in his letter that the design for the bridge was “nothing unusual and did not require all the time, study, and expense which [Ellis] thought necessary for it.” Ellis was replaced by Clifford Paine, a former student of his who had no knowledge of suspension bridges, and all mention of Ellis was removed from the bridge materials. Construction began on the bridge in early 1933, and it formally opened in 1937. Heralded as a beautiful monument, in addition to serving as the West Coast entrance to America, the bridge opened with great fanfare. On the South Tower, a plaque honoring Strauss, his assistants, consultants, district directors, and others was unveiled. Although the bridge design was almost single-handedly his own, Ellis was never properly credited for his contributions to the project, and the plaque bore no mention of his name.

After Ellis ceased work on the Golden Gate Bridge project in 1931, he took up private practice as a consulting engineer in Chicago, serving as an advisor to the PWA on suspension and cantilever bridge applications for loans and grants. In September 1934, he joined the faculty of Purdue University as Professor of Structural Engineering. He remained at Purdue until his retirement in 1946. Ellis was the author of the standard textbook on framed structures, in addition to writing numerous articles on bridge design and related subjects. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Concrete Institute, and the American Railway Engineering Association. In addition to his professional memberships, he was a member of the Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Chi Epsilon, and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternal organizations. He died on August 22, 1949, in an Evanston, Illinois hospital, just twelve years following the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge. In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers named the Golden Gate Bridge one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World.”

Scope and Content Note

The Charles A. Ellis Papers (1911-1946; 0.4 cubic ft.) document the professional career of structural engineer Charles A. Ellis. Types of materials in the collection include correspondence, writings, printed material, photographs, organization chart, financial estimates, and information on professional achievements. Although some biographical information and a small number of personal photographs are included in the collection, the papers primarily document Ellis’ involvement with the design of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The Papers are divided into three series:

1. Golden Gate Bridge, 1929-1938 The series documents the design and initial construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Includes correspondence, financial estimates, letterhead, organization chart, newspaper clippings, and an article written by Ellis on the method he devised for his calculations.

2. Professional Career, 1919-1945 The series documents certain aspects of the professional career of Charles Ellis. Includes a summary of Ellis’ professional experience, correspondence, transcripts for speeches made by Ellis, printed material, and a newspaper clipping of Ellis endorsing a Howard radio. Notably missing are Ellis’ faculty papers from his tenure at the University of Michigan, University of Illinois, and Purdue University.

3. Photographs, 1911-1946 The series includes six photographs of work on the Golden Gate Bridge, Charles Ellis with friends in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and Ellis’s retirement dinner at Purdue University.

Arrangement

Within each series, items are arranged chronologically by type of material.

Alternate form of the Finding Aid

The finding aid is available as a PDF document and in print form located in the repository.

List of Subject Headings

Ellis, Charles Alton, 1876-1949.
Strauss, Joseph B. (Joseph Baermann), 1870-1938.
Moisseiff, Leon S.
Clarahan, Charles.
Harlan, George H.
Ammann, Othmar Hermann, 1879-1965.
Cameron, George T.
Cone, Russell G.
Derleth, Charles.
Keesling, Francis. V.
Paine, Clifford E.
Reed, James.
Ward, Henry B.
Orr, Nolan B.
Wilmot, Sydney, b. 1887.
Rohlwing, A. W.
Hogan, John.
Jones, Jonathan.
Wyly, Lawrence Theodore.
Sparks, John.
Elliott, Edward C. (Edward Charles), 1874-1960.
Potter, A. A. (Andrey Abraham), b. 1882.
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)
Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
Strauss Engineering Corporation.
American Society of Civil Engineers.
Purdue University.
Indiana. State Highway Commission (1919-1953)
Soule Steel Company.
American Bridge Company.
Hackensack River Bridge (Hackensack, N.J.)
Bethlehem Steel Company.
Suspension bridges--United States.
Bridges--Design and construction.
Mathematicians--United States.
Engineers--United States.
Engineering--United States.
Civil engineering--United States.
Structural engineering--United States.
Engineering--Study and teaching--United States.

Inventory

The entire collection is contained in 1 box.


SERIES ONE: GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, 1929-1938
Folder: 1	Golden Gate Bridge Project Files, 1930-1938; n.d.
Folder: 1-4	Set of Correspondence Regarding Ellis's Work and Progress on the Golden Gate Bridge, March 1930-June 1938; n.d.
Folder: 5	Summary of Estimates by Contracts for the Golden Gate Bridge, June 12, 1931 [includes annotations, presumably by Ellis]
Folder: 6	Letterhead, Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, ca. 1930s [lists Charles Ellis as Designing Engineer]
Folder: O.S. Box	Organization Chart for the Golden Gate Bridge Project, 1930 [Oversized Box]
Folder: 7	Newspaper Clippings on the Golden Gate Bridge, 1929-1930
Folder: O.S. Box	Newspaper Section Promoting Bond Issue for Golden Gate Bridge Funding, ca. early 1930s [Oversized Box]
Folder: 8	Article by Ellis and Related Correspondence Concerning Willot Equations and Charles Clarahan's Resulting Accusations, 1934-1935


SERIES TWO: PROFESSIONAL CAREER, 1919-1945
Folder: 9	Summary of Professional Experience of Charles Ellis, 1900-1944, ca. 1944
Folder: 10	Incoming Correspondence, 1919-1945
Folder: 11	Speeches on suspension bridges by Charles Ellis, n.d.
Folder: 12	Advertisement of Charles Ellis endorsing the Howard precision screen grid radio, newspaper source unknown, ca. 1930s [includes image of Charles Ellis]


SERIES THREE: PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS, 1911-1946
Folder: 13	Golden Gate Bridge Photographs, ca. 1930s
Folder: 14-15	Personal Photographs, 1911; 1946

Descriptive Summary

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