Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Rare Books
49098
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Rare Books
710676
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Manuscripts
The collection deals primarily with the professional and personal activities of Samuel Brooks Morris, a civil engineer of note in Southern California who was most active from the 1930s into the early 1960s. The collection deals with local (Pasadena and Los Angeles), state and national engineering concerns, largely related to water reclamation, dams, hydrogeology, water litigation, and a wide range of related technical publications. The material consists of a highly diverse mix of manuscripts and printed materials, including correspondence, maps, notes, charts, fliers, and brochures, often interspersed within each folder. The correspondence is primarly to and from colleagues, but also includes discusion with government officials at all levels from local to national. The collection includes a small number of photographs, located in appropriate sections of the collection by subject.
mssMorris, Samuel papers
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Rare Books
William Heath Davis (1822-1909) was the son of a Boston ship captain engaged in the Hawaiian trade and a Polynesian mother. After visiting California twice on trading voyages that took him all around South and North America, he settled in Monterey to work with his merchant uncle in 1838. In 1845 he settled permanently in San Francisco, becoming one of the city's leading merchants. His marriage to María de Jesus Estudillo tied him to the Hispanic community in his adopted region. Davis loved the easy life of the Californios, the descendants of the Mexicans who had arrived in Alta California in the late 1770s. He found them the happiest and most contented people he had ever known. Davis managed to meet almost every prominent man and woman who lived in or passed through California. He was one of the founders of New Town (now downtown San Diego). He served on San Francisco's first city council; he built San Francisco's first brick building and cofounded San Leandro.
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