Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Gold mines and gold mining
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
7 photographs
mssLake papers
Image not available
Visual Materials
A hand-colored daguerreotype from approximately 1850 to 1851 captured a group of miners excavating gold in Coloma, California, near Sutter's Mill. The center figure in the photograph has been noted as Martin Joseph Allhoff, Sr. (1827-1867), a Prussian immigrant who traveled to California during the Gold Rush. Allhoff later settled in Coloma and established a commercial winery at Granite Hill prior to his death. To the left and right of Allhoff in the image are men holding wood handled tools, a sluice appears behind them, and two men are kneeling in the foreground. The person sitting to the right in the foreground is holding a pan with tinted gold. Also pictured to the right are possibly four to five Chinese miners. Both front and back embossed covers retain parts of the original clasps, but there are no longer hinges attached to the case. The interior of the case contains a note adhered to the red fabric lining. It reads, "'Mining Gold at Coloma' Sutters Mill California about 1850-'51. The center figure-with shovel is Martin Allhoff of Coloma-This presented to Phil B. Bekeart-San Francisco by Martin J. Allhoff-son of Martin Allhoff 1914."
photPF 26046
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection contains letters, documents, including 190,000 reports, 1200 maps, 500 photographs, and 8200 pieces of printed material related to the life and career of Ralph Arnold. Subjects represented in the collection include: mining, petroleum, and seismology in the Western United States as well as Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and South America; political papers from 1914 to 1956, mostly concerning the campaign of Herbert Hoover for president; family and personal papers from 1836 to 1961 of Arnold and his father, Delos Arnold, containing source material on Pasadena and Southern California local history. The collection also contains Arnold's field books, including those made at Stanford University with the U.S. Geological Survey from 1900 to 1909.
mssArnold