Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
The story of the Richardson family
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Rare Books
258707
Image not available
Manuscripts
Collection of four diaries kept by Mary Richardson, a cousin of English critic and artist John Ruskin, documenting travel primarily in France and Italy, between 1833 and 1841, with the Ruskin family, including John Ruskin. Richardson often describes the sites they visited, her perceptions, and the daily activities of the family during their tours of Europe. The volumes consist of a diary of travel chiefly in Italy, from May-September 1833 (HM 41910); a diary of travel chiefly in France from June 4-August 25, 1835 (HM 41911); a diary of travel in Rome and Naples from December 22, 1840, to March 11, 1841 (HM 41912); and a diary of travel in Italy from March 14-June 23, 1841 (HM 41913). The collection also contains one additional volume: a diary and appointment book of an unidentified individual, presumably a young man, in London, England, in 1849 (HM 41914).
mssHM 41910-41914
Image not available
Manuscripts
Microfilm of various materials related to the Richardson family, including a family record, autobiography, and unidentified diary. The reel opens with a family record kept by William Richardson through approximately 1884. It traces his ancestors primarily in Scotland, and includes birth and death dates as well as information on marriages and children.The reel also contains a brief autobiography kept by Mary Muir Hughes Bunnell (a sister-in-law of William Richardson), including descriptions of Mary's childhood in Scotland, her conversion to Mormonism, her move to Utah, and her marriage to Ross Burton Hughes. The reel also contains a diary kept by an unidentified man in about 1894 (although portions are dated 1884-1885 and 1890, and some pages may be out of order on the reel). It primarily chronicles daily activities in Utah such as agricultural work, attendance of religious meetings, and Church and community affairs. The second half of the unidentified diary is included on MSS MFILM 00160.
MSS MFilm 00180
Image not available
Manuscripts
This diary was compiled by descendants of Thomas Richardson in 1838 and contains extracts of the letters, journals, and memoranda of Richardson from between 1780 and 1794. Thomas Richardson documented daily life in a prosperous Quaker household and records observations about education, religion, natural philosophy, abolitionism, and domestic medicine. There are accounts of electrical experiments and electrotherapeutic treatments conducted by the family, including a 1786 description of the Richardson family attempting to revive a recently dead woman using electric shocks. The diary also includes examples of children's writing, education, and intellectual life in late eighteenth-century England. The volume is written in a single copyist's hand and is bound in contemporary marbled paper over boards.
mssHM 84540