Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Mary Austin : a memorial
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
The collection consists of 6202 black-and-white and color photographs, pen and ink drawings, and postcards, 1412 black-and-white and color negatives, 2606 black-and-white and color slides, and ephemeral materials, 1898-1982 (bulk 1920s-1930s) collected by the Automobile Club of Southern California. They form a general photographic reference collection as well as a broad visual survey of topics of interest to California motorists. Included are images of sites in North and Central America (with an emphasis on California), Europe, the Pacific Islands, and portraits, as well as images related to other subjects of interest to the Club's membership. Many of the images were published as illustrations for articles in the Club's first member magazine, Touring Topics. A large portion of the photographs were taken by authors of articles that appeared in Touring Topics; others were commissioned by the Club; and others appear to have been sent to the Club. Photographers (and authors) include, but are not limited to, Ansel Adams, Fred Archer, Viroque Baker, George Hugh Banning, Adelbert Bartlett, Virginia S. Bartlett, Andrew R. Boone, Julius Cindrich, Norman Clyde, Will Connell, Loyd Cooper, Imogen Cunningham, Asahel Curtis, Edward Sheriff Curtis, Fred Dapprich, E.H. Davis, E.E. East, John Anson Ford, Frasher, Ewing Galloway, Forman G. Hanna, Phil Townsend Hanna, Hoag and Ford, John Edwin Hoag, Bert W. Huntoon, Philip Johnston, Dr. Frederick Monsen, Dave Packwood, C.C. Pierce, Ernest M. Pratt, Putnam Studios, E. Willard Spurr, and John L. Von Blon.
photCL 375
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Manuscripts
These seven letters are to members of the Watterson family of Inyo County, California, including one letter to Mark Q. Watterson, Inyo County Bank owner. He and his brother, Wilfred, got caught up in the California Water Wars. They were both financial and civic leaders who had opposed the Los Angeles Aqueduct and in 1927 their bank collapsed and they were indicted for embezzlement, later tried, and convicted on thirty-six counts. The other six letters are to Mark's sister Elsie Watterson. The letters deal with the water issue, Owens Valley, Inyo Valley, the aqueduct, Boulder Dam, and Mark and Wilfred's incarceration at San Quentin. Mary Austin is offering to help the Watterson family in any way she can and offers to write something about the situation. She also talks about writing her autobiography. There are also two postcards with images of Mary Austin's house.
mssHM 79044-79050
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Manuscripts
Nine letters by Mary Austin consisting of six letters to John Northern Hilliard, dated [October 1913?] (41072); [September-October 1915] (HM 41073); March 16, 1916 (HM 41074); [Spring 1916] (HM 41075); May 24 [1920?] (HM 41076); and undated (HM 41077); one letter to Ida Louise Harrison Hilliard, dated December 5, 1916 (HM 41071); one letter to Grace (Sartwell) Mason, dated December 22, 1915 (HM 41078); and one letter to James "Redfern" Mason, dated May 16, 1915 (HM 41079). The letters primarily discuss mutual friends and Austin's writing projects and activities. The letters to John Northern Hilliard mention Austin's work and frustration with the Western Drama Society and its treatment of Vernon Kellogg, Austin's work with the Panama Pacific International Exposition, a missing part of a manuscript, and the Forest Theatre, as well as an undated note that accompanied a gun that Austin gave Hilliard.
mssHM 41071-41079
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Manuscripts
This collection contains the personal papers of American novelist, essayist, and political activist Mary Hunter Austin, best known for her portrayals of life in California and New Mexico. It includes correspondence and literary manuscripts by both Austin and numerous other authors, editors and friends, as well as ephemera, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings about Austin, and photographs. Literary manuscripts include Austin's personal journals, short stories, poems, essays, and numerous drafts of novels. The correspondence deals with Austin's personal life and business dealings as well as her activities with Indian rights and the water right controversies in California's Owens Valley and in the Southwest. There are also materials related to Austin's interests in folklore and religion in New Mexico and the Southwest. Subjects include the publishing of her books, Indians of North America, Spanish folklore, religion and mysticism, and the Colorado River and Owens Valley water isues. The more than 1,200 photographs in the collection date from 1869 to the 1920s and include personal and family photographs of Mary Austin, her friends and relatives, and her various homes; portraits of notable literary friends and acquaintances; theaters and theater productions; Southwest Indians and pueblos, art and artifacts; desert plants and scenery; town views and travel photographs; Guatemalan masks; views of Penitente processions in New Mexico; and other miscellaneous views. Most of the photographs are unattributed and are of various sizes and formats.
mssAU
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Manuscripts
This collection consists of an autograph album containing handwritten notes, letters, poems, and drawings by approximately 200 friends and acquaintances of American author Charles Warren Stoddard, including leading American literary figures, journalists, poets, critics, politicians, and actors of the late 19th century. Among the many notable contributors are Samuel Clemens, Bret Harte, and Joaquin Miller. The earliest item in the book is an 1863 dedication by Thomas Starr King, and continues with contributions primarily from members of San Francisco literary society beginning in the mid-to-late 1860s through the late 1890s, as well as from friends in other locales where Stoddard lived or traveled including Louisville, Kentucky; Washington, D.C.; Massachusetts; New York; and Hawaii. A letter from L.C. Bayles (page 23) introduces lines of verse with the note "in accordance with your request," reflecting Stoddard's curation of the album as a compendium of verse and personal sentiments tailored towards friendships and literary musings. The volume includes two photographs of groups of men and women, captioned, "Riverdale, N.Y., July 4th 1890" (page 116). There are manuscript poems and lines of verse, often penned specifically for Stoddard, from literary friends including Isaac Hull Adams; Daniel Dulany Addison; Benjamin Parke Avery; William Barry; Fred Buel; James F. Bowman; George Burrows; Carrie Carlton; Bliss Carman; Pierre Cauwet; Robert W. Chambers; Sarah M. Clarke; Ada Clare; Katherine E. Conway; Ina D. Coolbrith; R.M. Daggett; Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren; Malcolm Douglas; Theodore F. Dwight; Eugene Field; Hamlin Garland; Grace Greenwood; Bret Harte; Jerome Hart; John Hay; Charles Hinton; Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.; William Dean Howells; Daniel E. Hudson; Thomas A. Janvier; Tremenheere Johns; Ralph Keeler; George Kennan; Orpheus C. Kerr; Alice Kingsbury (Cooley); Rudyard Kipling; Emilie Lawson; James Linen; Fitz Hugh Ludlow; Adah Isaacs Menken; John Malone; Joaquin Miller; Morton Mitchell and Laddie Mitchell; James Whitcomb Riley; James Jeffrey Roche; Edgar Saltus; Richard Henry Savage; Emma D.E.N. Southworth; Frank Soulé; Bella Z. Spencer; Horatio Stebbins; Maria Longworth Storer (with sketches); J.D. Strong; M.D. Strong; H.A. Stuart; T.R. Sullivan; Bayard Taylor; Charles Wadsworth; Charles Henry Webb; May Wentworth; George Edward Woodberry; and R.C. Wyllie. Prose and letters from L.C. Bayles; Frederick Billings; Ezra S. Carr and his wife, Jeanne C. Smith Carr; Samuel Clemens; Laura Cuppy; G.B. Densmore; Annie Fields; Archibald C. Gunter; Francis King Harte; Louise E. Holden; Jules Luquiens; C.T.H. Palmer; Theodore Roosevelt; Anna Josephin Savage; Rodney L. Tabor; Charles A. Wetmore; Virgil M. Williams; and Thérèse Yelverton. Drawings include ones by Reginald B. Birch; John S. Bugbee; Arthur Lemon; G. Thomas; and Theodore Wores. There are also brief notes and/or signatures of individuals including Charles Francis Adams; Henry Adams; Frances Hodgson Burnett; Ada, Dyas; Louise Imogen Guiney; Iza Duffus Hardy; Clarence King; Francis D. Millet; Thomas Nelson Page; Theodore Roosevelt; Charles Dudley Warner; and Lydia Woodworth. The contents are handwritten on blank pages in an "Album" published by Leavitt & Allen, consisting of 241 pages including an engraved title page and frontispiece and [8] other engraved plates with illustrations by Creswick, W.H. Bartlett, W. Tombleson; J. Smillie and T. Addison Richards; engravings by J. Sartain; J. Bannister; Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Smillie; J. White; and C.T. Giles. Edges gilt.
mssHM 35075