Hollis and Pat Black
name: label: Collection Interviewer
content: Edwards, Nanci
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Fleckner, John A., 1941-
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Green, Rayna, 1942- (Curator)
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Johnson, Paula, Curator
label: Collection Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.)
setName: label: See more items in
content: American Wine Documentation Project
label: See more items in
content: American Wine Documentation Project / Series 4: Interviews / 4.1: Interviews and Abstracts
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2001-03-28
container: label: Container
content: Box 1, Folder 11
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The interview was conducted at Black Ranch near Healdsburg, California by Paula Johnson, Rayna Green, Nanci Edwards and John Fleckner, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.  Those present included Hollis and his wife Pat, and their children, Nelson, Ron Black, Harry Black, and June Kincaid.  There is one original DAT and two reference cassette tapes.

Abstract

This interview with Hollis and Pat Black and their children chronicles the lives of one of the few remaining multi-generational Napa Valley families.  It is both a family history and a local history, providing a personal view of Napa before the wine industry took over in the Sixties and how it changed the farming culture in the region.  The Black family has been farming in Sonoma County since the 1860s.  Black describes working on the family ranch over the course of the twentieth century.  He discusses the federal government-sponsored brassaro system that hired Mexican laborers due to the shortage of American men during World War II.  He also mentions the use of German POWs at local farms.

He describes various aspects of commercial prune growing, which was the dominant business before grapes took over.  He compares and contrasts the production and economic value of prunes and other cash crops with the much more lucrative business of growing grapes for winemakers.  He mentions the production of grapes for the Italian-American home market before Napa became well-known as a wine region.  The Black's offer an important perspective on the great transformations in Napa Valley in the twentieth century.