Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
The forties : from notebooks and diaries of the period
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Rare Books
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection consists of letters, manuscripts, documents and maps related to the life and business affairs of Benjamin D. Wilson. Subject matter includes business and social life in California (1850-90), Indian affairs in Southern California (1852-56), the wine industry, the Santa Fe trade, the estate settlement of Solomon Sublette, and the early history of Pasadena, San Marino, and Wilmington, California. There is also a great deal of personal correspondence from Wilson's wife Margaret S. Hereford Hereford Wilson, his daughters Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb, Ruth Wilson Patton, and Annie Wilson, his son John B. Wilson, Ruth's husband George S. Patton, Sr., and many of Margaret's Hereford relatives. Also included are diaries kept by Margaret, Ruth, and Annie Wilson. Other individuals represented in the collection include Phineas Banning, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Cave Johnson Couts, Stephen Clark Foster, John Charles Fŕemont, John S. Griffin, William McKendree Gwin, Benjamin Hayes, Henry Edwards Huntington, George S. Patton, Jr., and Jonathan Trumbull Warner.
mssWN 1-2419
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of letters, manuscripts, documents and maps related to the life and business affairs of Benjamin D. Wilson. Subject matter includes business and social life in California (1850-90), Indian affairs in Southern California (1852-56), the wine industry, the Santa Fe trade, the estate settlement of Solomon Sublette, and the early history of Pasadena, San Marino, and Wilmington, California. There is also a great deal of personal correspondence from Wilson's wife Margaret S. Hereford Hereford Wilson, his daughters Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb, Ruth Wilson Patton, and Annie Wilson, his son John B. Wilson, Ruth's husband George S. Patton, Sr., and many of Margaret's Hereford relatives. Also included are diaries kept by Margaret, Ruth, and Annie Wilson. Other individuals represented in the collection include Phineas Banning, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Cave Johnson Couts, Stephen Clark Foster, John Charles Fŕemont, John S. Griffin, William McKendree Gwin, Benjamin Hayes, Henry Edwards Huntington, George S. Patton, Jr., and Jonathan Trumbull Warner.
mssWN 1-2419
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Manuscripts
Series includes William Wesley Chapman's diary of an overland journey to California in 1849; the brief entries cover March 12 to July 25 from St. Louis, Missouri, to Idaho and Hudspeth's Cutoff and primarily mention landscape, waterways, animals and game sighted and killed. There are occasional mentions of deaths of migrants from cholera and of Native Americans sighted, but no details are provided. The volume also has notes and expenses kept in California, October to December, with a short English/Spanish dictionary. Also present are multiple copies of William Wesley Chapman's printed funeral notice that had been filed with the diary. In addition, this series includes Chapman's notebook and account book with brief entries kept in California from March to September 1849 as well as undated bound facsimiles of both volumes, which includes a tipped in letter from Belle Chapman to her daughter Lillian Chapman Merrill, 1924 February 4 with biographic information about William Wesley Chapman. Series also includes Anna Clarkson Chapman's diary and childhood reminiscences, written from 1885 to 1891; primarily memories of growing up in Illinois in the 1820 and 1830s and a contemporary diary, which includes lists with birth and death dates of family members, also family travels and visits. Also present is a receipt for Anna Clarkson Chapman's burial expenses dated 1908 December 16.
mssChapmanf
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Manuscripts
A collection of material related to Benson John Lossing; the collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, notebooks, drawings, photographs, and ephemera. The correspondence includes letters written by Lossing, many illustrated with sketches, which he wrote to his family during his travels in preparation for his "Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution." There are also letters by Lossing, chiefly retained copies, to his scholarly associates and publishers. The miscellaneous material includes printed biographical pamphlets, a small scrapbook related to Lossing, genealogical materials concerning the Lossing and other related families, photographs, newspaper clippings, forms, and other ephemera. The collection also includes some unidentified and uncataloged manuscripts, drawings, photographs, sketches, notes, and ephemera.
mssLS1
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Manuscripts
This collection consists of typescripts of reminiscences, diaries, notebooks, and photographs. The first typescript was written in 1941 and is an autobiography that details Parker's life from his high school days in New York to his times in Alaska, Mexico, and New Mexico as a mining engineer and assayer. The next typescript was written in 1945 and is titled "History and my story about White Oaks 1880-1900." This typescript gives more depth into his families' life in White Oaks as mine owners and as a prominent family in the community. The last typescript was written in 1947 and is titled "Mules, mines, and me in Mexico." This typescript covers Parker's life in Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico and his extensive travels throughout the region as a mining engineer and consultant for such mining companies as Fortuna-North Tigre, La República, and many others. In this typescript he discusses the following people: Plutarco Elias Calles (1877-1945), Britton Davis (1860-1930), James Stuart Douglas (1868-1949), William Cornell Greene (1853-1911), George Wylie Paul Hunt (1859-1934), William Colt MacDonald (1891-1968), Pascual Orozco (1882-1915), Luis Terrazas (1829-1923), and Pancho Villa (1878-1923). Parker also covers the Mexico Revolution, 1910-1920 and conflicts with Yaqui Indians.
mssParkerm