The California Surveillance Collection consists primarily of undercover agent reports and other materials documenting the activities of labor organizations and organizations on the left, 1934-1940, including the Communist Party of San Francisco, and labor leader Harry Bridges. The materials were possibly gathered or created by Harper Knowles during his tenure as director of the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion in San Francisco, and Stanley M. Doyle, an associate of Harper Knowles. A second series in the collection contains household and financial records of Harper Knowles from 1901-1954.

Harper L. Knowles and Stanley M. Doyle, prominently represented among the documents, were both associated with the Radical Research Committee, later the Subversive Activities Committee of the American Legion. Knowles, nicknamed "Moke," was the head of that committee before he became executive secretary of the Associated Farmers. Doyle, also known as Larry Doyle and Stanley Morton, was designated as a special investigating agent by the governor of Oregon; he worked closely with Knowles, especially in investigating Harry Bridges.

3.0 cubic ft. (6 boxes)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Labor Archives and Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Collection is open for research.