Rare Books
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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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Rare Books
52701
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Manuscripts
The collection, which contains 10,844 items, consists of correspondence, letter books, manuscripts, speeches, diaries, account books, published articles, legal papers, financial statements and business records. The 10,528 pieces of correspondence are chiefly addressed to James De Barth Shorb, James M. Tiernan and Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb. The 17 letter books are related to the business and financial affairs of Shorb and Benjamin Davis Wilson. The 75 manuscripts consist of items chiefly written by Shorb and Wilson family members. The 224 items in the Business Papers include material related to Shorb's many companies including the San Gabriel Wine Company. The following subjects are covered in the Shorb collection: the Shorb, Wilson, and Patton families, David Jacks, Mariano Vallejo, Santa Catalina Island, the Mount Wilson Observatory, California government and politics, African Americans and the Chinese in California, agriculture, the citrus fruit industry, Indians of California, irrigation, lend tenure, mining, railroads, ranching, water rights, and the wine industry. The collection also documents the history and development of the following California cities: Alhambra, Elsinore, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Ramona, San Gabriel, San Marino, and Wilmington.
mssShorb papers
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Henry E. Huntington. There is material related to the Huntington, Holladay (Henry E. Huntington's sister Caroline married Edmund Burke Holladay), and Metcalf families, but most of the collection deals with Huntington's business interests in Southern California, railways, real estate, and industry. There is a series about Henry E. Huntington and his family that includes biographical information, newspaper clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, ephemera, and physical objects. There is material related to the Huntington Land and Improvement Company, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, and the Pacific Electric Railway Company as well as other businesses in Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Gabriel Valley, California. This material includes business records, account books, annual reports, correspondence, maps, tracts, balance sheets, and others. There is also material related to the founding of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens including auction catalogs, invoices, receipts, and bills for art and rare books, and information regarding a lawsuit about Huntington's estate tax after his death, and the passing of Proposition 15, in 1930, which exempted The Huntington from paying California property tax. There is also material related to Collis P. Huntington and his business interests and Arabella Huntington. The largest series contains over 22,000 pieces of personal and business correspondence spanning approximately 1790 to 1950. The physical objects include Henry E. Huntington's lunch box, razors, traveling trunk, and other items.
mssHEH
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Manuscripts
The correspondence series contains 961 letters and is organized alphabetically by author. The series consists of a large number of letters written to the Jacobs brothers and their mercantile and banking operations. The collection includes letters from individual customers and businesses regarding their accounts, letters from other banking institutions regarding customers, and letters from suppliers and shippers regarding the mercantile business. The correspondence also includes a significant number of letters written within the Jacobs family. There are number of early letters from Mark Jacobs to his wife, Hannah, as well as a few written to his sons, Lionel and Barron. There are also quite a few letters written by Lionel to Barron as well as a few from their youngest brother, Albert, and a number from their sisters and brothers-in-law. The financial documents series contains 2,191 documents, sorted and alphabetized by type and then by institution or organization. The bulk of financial documents consist of processed checks, collection and returns forms, and receipt postal cards. The financial documents also include account books, balance sheets, bills, inventory lists, order forms, protest cards, receipts, and tax receipts. These documents reflect both the mercantile and banking enterprises of the Jacobs family including L. M. Jacobs and Company, Pima County Bank, Agency Pima County Bank, Cochise County Bank, and First National Bank.
mssJacobs