Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Coloma
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Visual Materials
This collection contains photographs by historian Ralph P. Bieber documenting the central overland route to California as it appeared in the 1950s. Bieber visited the sites in conjunction with a project to record every aspect of the trails and circumstances associated with the migration of people to California during the Gold Rush years and subsequently. The images document the route through Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and California. Bieber organized and annotated the photographs himself, and his original order, based primarily on print size, has been maintained. Additionally, Bieber created photographic categories such as "Donner Party Sites," "Gold Discovery Sites," and "Sites associated with John C. Frémont." Note that Bieber did not arrange the photographs geographically.
photCL 469
Image not available
Visual Materials
A hand-colored daguerreotype from approximately 1850 to 1851 captured a group of miners excavating gold in Coloma, California, near Sutter's Mill. The center figure in the photograph has been noted as Martin Joseph Allhoff, Sr. (1827-1867), a Prussian immigrant who traveled to California during the Gold Rush. Allhoff later settled in Coloma and established a commercial winery at Granite Hill prior to his death. To the left and right of Allhoff in the image are men holding wood handled tools, a sluice appears behind them, and two men are kneeling in the foreground. The person sitting to the right in the foreground is holding a pan with tinted gold. Also pictured to the right are possibly four to five Chinese miners. Both front and back embossed covers retain parts of the original clasps, but there are no longer hinges attached to the case. The interior of the case contains a note adhered to the red fabric lining. It reads, "'Mining Gold at Coloma' Sutters Mill California about 1850-'51. The center figure-with shovel is Martin Allhoff of Coloma-This presented to Phil B. Bekeart-San Francisco by Martin J. Allhoff-son of Martin Allhoff 1914."
photPF 26046