Rare Books
Powers of attorney
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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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Manuscripts
Hiram Barney's political, business, legal, and family papers concern a wide variety of subjects including real estate, primarily in Iowa, and New York; court cases (often pertaining to debt collection) and other legal services; politics generally, but especially patronage distribution; family affairs, business transactions concerning the Erie and other canals; small railroads (largely in the Lake Plains region); Mexico and Mexican-American relations; the Civil War; U.S. Customs Service. Barney's correspondence contains numerous references to the anti-enslavement movement in the North, the Civil War, Republican Party politics, and Barney's friendship with Abraham Lincoln. Also found throughout this portion of the collection are transportation papers dealing with Barney's interest in connection with the opening up of waterways, the railroad, and the telegraph from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Among the correspondents are William C. Bryant, William A. Butler, Salmon P. Chase, Charles P. Clinch, Erastus Corning, Edward C. Delavan, William P. Fessenden, John Jay, David W. Kilbourne, Eugene Kozlay, Abraham Lincoln, Edward L. Pierce, Matias Romero, Horatio Seymour, William T. Sherman, Edward D. Smith, Breese J. Stevens, Lewis Tappan, William D. Waterman. Real estate papers concern mostly the Half-Breed Tract between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. Which includes signed documents of land indentures by specific Indigenous tribal members of the Sak and Fox (Meskwaki) Nation with papers pertaining to the first Anglo proprietors and settlers. Related to Barney's real estate documents are Francis Scott Key's papers. Legal papers extend from 1825 to 1888 and includes articles of partnership, court cases, powers of attorney, and notes for collection. New York Custom House papers cover the general operations, patronage, and personnel of the Custom House, as well as records of the fraud investigations conducted by the U.S. Treasury Department.
mssHB
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of personal and business papers primarily related to the James De Barth Shorb family and their business ventures and estate settlements. There is also a substantial amount of material about Benjamin Davis Wilson and his business dealings in California. Topics covered in the collection include agriculture, land development in southern California, the history of the San Marino area, mining operations, water rights and irrigation, politics, society stories, and wills, court documents, and settlement papers related to the Shorb estate.
mssShorb1
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of maps, field books, legal documents, business papers, and diaries related to the work of surveyors George Hansen, Alfred Solano, Sidney B. Reeve, and others. The maps and surveys in the collection are of the city of Los Angeles, Southern California ranchos, and subdivisions of the city of Los Angeles and neighboring towns. The collection contains over maps and sketch maps. Other subjects represented in the collection include: civil engineering, land subdivision, mines and mineral resources, and daily life in Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
mssSolano