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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Visual Materials
This collection contains 372 stereographic photographs (including some variants and duplicates) by photographer A. A. Hart that document the construction of the western half of first transcontinental railroad by the Central Pacific Railroad between 1864 and 1869. The collection includes all but seven of the original series, numbered from 1 to 364 by Hart (lacking 193, 323, 333, 358, 359, 362, and 364). The images chronicle the advancement of the railroad over 742 miles in California and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Nevada, and Utah. The majority of the photographs are views of mountains, lakes, rivers, and forested areas (some with stumps from clear-cutting in the foreground), often with railroad tracks running through the center of the images. In addition, there are also images of locomotives, Chinese and other workers, equipment, bridges, tunnels, frontier and mining towns, construction camps, as well as some images of Native Americans, including Paiute and Shoshone Indians. The stereographs primarily contain Hart's own Sacramento imprint with series titles including: "Scenes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains"; "Scenes in the Valley of the Sacramento"; "Scenes in the Washoe Range"; "Scenes on the Humboldt River"; and "Scenes near Great Salt Lake". Interspersed in the collection are stereographs published without credit to Hart by Frank Durgan and Carleton E. Watkins.
photCL 184
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Manuscripts
This collection is comprised of the research material collected by historian John Cumming in his study of Michiganders who went west in the 19th century. The collection includes transcriptions of articles, diaries, and letters written by emigrants from Michigan to the American West, many of which were published in Michigan newspapers. The dates cited refere to the date of the original from which the transcriptions were created. Often the location of the originals is noted on the transcriptions. Also included are several items written by John Cumming. There is one folder that contains original letters from the Gold Rush era: Box 4 (13): Gold Rush Notes: contains original manuscript items and letters.
mssCumming
