By Robert J. Chandler and Anne M. Hall
Historical Services, Wells Fargo Bank

Reprinted from the Summer 2006 issue of the California Historian

Irene showing her husband, Aubrey, the San Francisco Wells Fargo History Room which she had created. Aubrey was a noted historian with the State Department of Parks and is especially remembered for Old Town Sacramento.

A Wells Fargo Bank publication summed up Mary Irene Simpson Neasham (1916-2006) concisely as “The First Lady of History.” She was unforgettable. Her small stature belied an immense talent. Irene tallied many presidential “firsts” — first woman president of the Conference of California Historical Societies, 1963; first woman president of the California Historical Society, 1970; and first woman sheriff of the San Francisco Corral of Westerners, 1989.

Irene’s father, David Simpson, was one of six younger brothers who immigrated from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland; the eldest brother inherited the family farm. David became the proprietor of a successful clothing business on the San Francisco Peninsula and married a Danish colleen, Marie. Irene arrived in 1916, and Robert in 1920.

Following Irene’s graduation in 1937 from Stanford University, she took secretarial courses, and in 1938 she landed in the advertising department at Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company.

The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, became an opportunity for Irene to sharpen her secretarial skills, reveal more of her talents and see the world — or part of it.

In 1942 she became part of the first class of Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), and the Navy dispatched her to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. “After three months at Smith College and a commission,” Irene said, “I was put in charge of an LMD — Large Mahogany Desk.”

From the quarterdeck of her first command, Irene demonstrated mastery of her political science major from Stanford University. “One of the important things I learned at Smith was to request duty in New York,” she recalled. “Of course, I was promptly shipped, as hoped, to California.”

She served on Treasure Island, handling sensitive documents, with authority to wear a sidearm. Off duty, she lived at home with her family, took them to great meals at the Treasure Island Officers’ Club, and rewarded Dad with extra gasoline ration coupons.

Following Irene’s discharge from the Navy in 1946, she fortunately returned to Wells Fargo’s advertising department. Manager Jerry Wickland also ran the museum.

Wells Fargo was a Gold Rush company and had long been interested in its history. It exhibited a large display of relics at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and then again at San Francisco’s 1894 Mid-Winter Fair. Thirty-five years later in 1927, Mavis Grove began assembling historical materials at the same time the bank acquired Wickland’s collection, which included the stagecoach currently on display.

School tours and public research began in 1935 at the headquarters at Market and Montgomery streets. Now in 1946, Wickland, perhaps recalling how former naval officer Louis McLane rebuilt Wells Fargo & Co. after the financial panic of 1855, quickly and appropriately placed Irene in charge of the History Room.

Here she was, as a bank publication described her, “an artifacts collector, historical researcher, bibliophile, curator, consultant, public speaker, historian, librarian, and tour director, almost literally at the whim of whoever called from upstairs in the bank or walked through the front door.”

Irene spent almost 30 years compiling a detailed still-useful subject card index that unified a mixed collection of books, artifacts, pamphlets, photographs, manuscripts and ephemera on the era between Wells Fargo’s founding in 1852 and the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. When a customer walked in with a question, Irene could find the answer instantly.

With the pittance of money allotted by the bank, Irene added wisely to the collection. She contracted with William Long and Norm Wilson to create traveling displays filled with real artifacts that circulated among the branches. Irene managed a working collection. Its value came from use.

Harking back to the political savvy gained from that Stanford major, an observer noted, “She was all things to all people, an authority or a dilettante, a voluble talker or a patient listener, a combination traveling ambassador and resident diplomat.” Of course, Irene was nationally known as a speaker on Wells Fargo and the American West.

Many a book carries warm thanks to Irene for her help. In 1949, Joseph Henry Jackson, the San Francisco Chronicle’s legendary book reviewer and author, thanked Irene “especially” for making available Wells Fargo & Co. records. Similarly in 1969, the equally illustrious Richard Hugh Dillon stated, “My particular gratitude goes to Irene Simpson for her splendid research help.” When I arrived a decade later, researchers still asked for Irene and pleasantly recalled past assistance.

Irene Neasham packed a pugnacious personality. After years as a male bastion, a local German restaurant decided to admit women — but only after one o’clock. As Irene marched in that first day, she spotted the maître d’ counting the seconds. Her withering glance, I suspect, made their cabbage especially sour that day.

Irene joined about every available organization. A sampling includes:

American Association of Museums
American Association of State and Local History; trustee
American Association of University Women; joined in 1938
California Historical Society; president, 1970
California Heritage Preservation Commission, to which she was appointed by Governors Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan through the 1960s; chairperson
C C H S; president, 1963-1964
Friends of The Bancroft Library
International Order of the [Masonic] Rainbow for Girls; Worthy Advisor, 1934
Sacramento County Historical Society
San Francisco Corral of Westerners; sheriff, 1989
San Mateo County Historical Society
Special Libraries Association, San Francisco Chapter; treasurer, 1960
Western Cover Society
Western Museums League

As president of CCHS in 1963, her vision is instructive: “Ten years ago, the Conference of California Historical Societies was a dream. You have made it a reality,” Irene Simpson told the Conference. Her goal was as simple as it was strong: “I firmly believe we could, over the next ten years, become the leading organization to foster worthwhile historical projects, sponsor farseeing legislation for the preservation of historical landmarks, and encourage a respect for an understanding of California’s past in a growing California.”

Meantime, Aubrey Neasham gained his doctorate from UC Berkeley in 1936, became a regional National Parks historian, and in 1953 he began building “a sound historical program” within the California State Parks. Shortly, this resident of the City of the Plain had more than enough to do restoring Old Sacramento, now blessed by a Wells Fargo Museum.

Then, however, Neasham lost his bearings and grounded in Bolinas Lagoon. That is to be expected from a Cal Bear, who ventures too close to that mythic place. Mistakenly, Neasham thought the Old Buccaneer Sir Francis Drake had landed there, rather than the proven anchorage of Drake’s Bay.

Road signs keep disappearing, today, making Bolinas impossible to find. The situation was worse 500 years ago. Was Neasham doomed to lie “Bear” and abandoned in the lagoon’s “Rotten Row?” No! Irene, that avid football fan, stretched out to Aubrey a Cardinal red Palo Alto to save him. In return, she did not “axe” too much. They married in 1969, making the Cal-Stanford Big Game a household rivalry.

Irene gave up management of the History Room in May 1973 and officially retired from Wells Fargo on July 1, 1974, to a life of playing the piano, dominoes and bridge, sampling liquid products from Napa County, traveling and fishing. She drove until last year.

My colleague Anne M. Hall, a Wells College graduate and curator of the History Museum, and therefore Irene’s successor, interviewed Irene, and has her own stories to tell:

My acquaintance with Irene Neasham started during my time as curator in the Old Sacramento Wells Fargo History Museum. Irene wasted no time in stopping by to introduce herself when she had professional activities that brought her to Sacramento. Those visits typified the wonderful temperament that was Irene; she would informally inspect the facility to make sure we were maintaining her high standards, and then inquire in her warm and engaging manner what new and progressive activities were occurring.

I had the opportunity to delve deeper into Irene’s professional career when I conducted an oral history with her as part of San Jose State University MLIS coursework. Our discussion covered both time and content broadly, as her professional career spanned such variety — from the Golden Gate International Exposition to the deployment of IBM machines in Wells Fargo business processes, from History Room tours for young visitors to the exhibition of the gold spike, and from informal professional friendships to the circumstance under which she became the first female president of the California Historical Society — all part of her grand adventure.

Some common threads throughout Irene’s work include: commitment to challenging and sustaining work; steadfastness to a vision of progress, even if it made others uncomfortable; and a desire to foster personal attachments to California history for all who crossed her path.

Prior to her WAVES service, Irene left the second highest position for a secretary in the bank because it failed to challenge her professionally. When Irene felt the bank was acting in a manner that was not in the best interests of the History Room, she voiced her concern to members of the board of directors. To close many of her speeches, Irene would invite people to come to the History Room so that, as she said, “I can have the pleasure of showing you something in our collection of special interest to you.”

Irene jokingly stated in the oral history, “I’m glad they did all the things I told them to do…they did right by me.” We are honored in Wells Fargo Historical Services to be carrying on Irene’s legacy.