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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Manuscripts
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of American railroad mechanical engineer and innovator William Riley McKeen Jr. (1869-1946) who developed some of the first gasoline-powered railroad motor cars, beginning in 1905 for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1908, he became president of the McKeen Motor Car Company, which built over 150 of the pioneering motor cars through 1917. The materials are primarily focused on the McKeen motor cars and the history of their promotion and production, 1905-1917. Materials include promotional booklets and ephemera, news clippings, scrapbooks, operating manuals, McKeen's personal notebooks and over 300 photographs. Series 1 begins with McKeen's youth and schooling, with examples of some of his engineering notes and workbooks. There are also notes on designing his house, a genealogy of the McKeen family, and his father's estate settlement papers, which include correspondence between McKeen and his siblings. McKeen's professional work and concerns are reflected in several notebooks he kept during his career, with detailed notes related to employees, design issues and other work in the railroad mechanical shops. There are only a few letters of business correspondence, and just one copy of a letter from E. H. Harriman (no original). Among the personal papers is a file of documents related to a 1912 lawsuit brought against McKeen and his second wife, Mary, by Mary's former husband, Charles Hull, in Omaha, Nebraska. This file contains documents that would be of interest to medical and social history researchers: a detective's transcript of observations of prostitutes and activities at brothels (collected to disparage Mr. Hull). Series 2 contains McKeen motor car materials, primarily promotional brochures and ephemera (including a package of custom cigarettes), operating manuals, production statistics, news clippings and articles. See also Series 3 and 4 for clippings and photographs of McKeen motor cars. Series 3 contains three scrapbooks: A) a personal ledger, with clippings; B) a scrapbook of over 100 clippings about the McKeen Motor Car Company, 1907 -- 1920; and C) a scrapbook of photographs and clippings about McKeen motor cars in Australia, 1911-1912. Series 4 contains photographs, including a set of Union Pacific company photographs of McKeen motor cars over the years 1905-1911. McKeen appears in some photographs, and there are some views of employees, Omaha shop buildings, engines and production views. Other photographs show McKeen motor cars on various railroads, some wrecks, engine parts, and views of the McKeen Highway Coach, a passenger vehicle introduced in 1915.
mssMcKeen
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Manuscripts
Microfilm of a typescript of Silas Harris' autobiography, written in about 1880 and completed by his daughter Sarah F. Cutler sometime after Silas' death in 1897. In the autobiography Silas writes very briefly of his childhood and conversion to Mormonism, his experiences in the Mormon Battalion, his overland travels back to Council Bluffs from California, his return to Utah, his mission work, and notes on his children. The final few paragraphs were written by his daughter Sarah, and contain reminiscences of her father.
MSS MFilm 00132
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Manuscripts
The Diaries series contains 22 diary transcripts of daily diary entries by Charlotte Close Knapp Dole, George H. Dole and Clara Rowell Dole (covering 1850-1884). Charlotte Dole's diary talks about her husband's work as a missionary, other missionaries, church meetings, the Punahou School, and Hawaiian royalty. George H. Dole's diaries include a trip to the United States in 18640-1865, as well as details about his work on several sugar and rice plantations including crop numbers, Chinese workers, effects of weather, etc., and events taking place in Hawaii. The Family Correspondence series contains 128 pieces of correspondence, the majority of which are written by Clara Rowell Dole to her husband, George, her sons, Walter and Herbert, and brother-in-law, Sanford B. Dole. Most of these letters were written from her home in Kapaa, Kauai, while her husband was away and her children were attending Oahu College (Punahou School). She talks about her daily activities, the school, her children, an outbreak of measles, the Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese workers, and some about Hawaiian royalty and government. There are five letters written by Sanford B. Dole, three to his brother George and two to his nephew Walter, and he is the addressee of nine letters. The rest of the correspondence includes letters by Clara and George's children and family and friends. The majority of these letters written by their eldest son, Walter, are from his time at Cornell University. Details about ship arrivals and departures are included in both the diaries and correspondence series.
HM 76503
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Manuscripts
C. Ramiro Ramírez Pinedo details his life in Mexico, discussing such matters as his father's work, including his pay as a farm worker and a stint working in Washington state; his mother's and father's family backgrounds; and a vivid account of his father's experience in Mexico's Cristero War. Mr. Ramírez Pinedo discusses how he left home at a young age in search of work because of his family's poverty. Ramírez Pinedo's move to the United States receives detailed attention: the means of coming here, his wife's journey to the United States, where they lived once she had arrived in Southern California. In regards to his work at The Huntington, Ramírez Pinedo recounts how he came to The Huntington through a cousin, that his initial position in Botanical was only temporary and without insurance, and how much he was paid. He goes on to discuss his work with the camellias and in the Cactus Gardens. He eventually moved to bonsai pruning, which is now his specialty. Ramírez Pinedo notes that his training came from Japanese-American gardeners at UCLA and from Ben Oki, a well-known bonsai specialist in Southern California. Mr. Ramírez Pinedo explains his philosophy of pruning and how it is an art form to him. In addition, he covers such matters as pay at The Huntington, the ethnic make-up of the Botanical Gardens' non-managerial staff, and the attention that he receives from Huntington visitors when he is working; that attention led him to establish his own gardening business. Ramírez Pindeo also discusses his wife's work, their children, and their philosophy in raising them as well as his devotion to the Virgen de Guadalupe. The length of the two interviews cumulatively total approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes.
HIAoralhist
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of family and personal correspondence, family business papers, manuscripts, ephemera, photographs and books. The collection consists of materials from three generations of the Pease family from 1816 to 1974. The papers are organized chronologically in their respective series boxes. The majority of the papers consists of personal correspondence to members of the family. The correspondence is separated into four main divisions: the correspondence of E. M. Pease, Harriet A. (Sturtevant) Pease, Ned (Edmund Morris) Pease, Jr., and other correspondence. The subject matter of the personal correspondence consists of daily family activities, missionary work on the Marshall Islands, descriptions of raising children, traveling, family health and well-being, and theological/spiritual matters. A large portion of the correspondence consists of letters to and from Harriet A. (Sturtevant) Pease. The subject matter includes family matters, family estate concerns, and missionary work. Notable correspondence includes travel and missionary work letters to friends (letters dated 1877-1894) and consolatory letters after the death of her husband (letters dated 1906). A great deal of the personal correspondence is also authored by Ned (Edmund Morris) Pease, Jr. His correspondence is primarily addressed to his mother, Harriet A. (Sturtevant) Pease, and recounts his daily activities as a medical student, church and spiritual matters, business matters concerning the family estate, and his personal thoughts and desires. Notable correspondence includes his feelings for Clara Bradbury and their marriage (Mar. 3, 1907; Nov. 2, 1910), thoughts about his relationship with his mother (Jan. 22, 1911), arrival of daughter Phyllis (July 13, 1912), and the mention of the infantile paralysis epidemic in Boston, Massachusetts (Aug. 10, 1916).
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Visual Materials
Photograph collection of prints and albums detailing the missionary work of William H. Weinland (1861-1930), a Moravian missionary, as well as his family and associates. Images include sites in Alaska among the Eskimo and southern California at the Morongo Reservation. Other images are from Arizona, possibly Montana, and the Great Plains. Photographs in Alaska are by Canadian missionary and Weinland associate Henry Hartmann, William H. Weinland, and commercial photographer M. Lorenz. Many of the southern California images are by William Weinland. Includes a cyanotype of native American school children in southern California and contact prints of Banning, Calif. and the surrounding area.
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