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San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
Bolster's diary (55 pages) begins July 15, 1899, as he left Maine for his trip West. He arrived in Sioux Falls January 21. Bolster gives detailed accounts of his travels though the Black Hills, and Badlands of South Dakota, including visits to Interior, Farmingdale, Rapid City, Spearfish, and Deadwood. Bolster also talks a lot about the people his group met along the way including a drunk cowboy who shot up a saloon and "Hank Clifford and his Indian wife." He also describes his experience in a cattle stampede and troubles with the covered wagon. There is a typed transcript of the diary. HM 81276
mssHM 81276-81277
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Manuscripts
In this letter addressed to his wife and daughters, J.I. Stickney gives his observations of the business and customs of the people of California, as well as personal details of individuals he has met or heard of, and a description of San Francisco and its inhabitants. Incomplete; first four pages of letter only.
mssHM 4170
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Manuscripts
This lecture details a trip the British speaker took to the United States and Canada in 1877 (the speaker's name is unknown). His travel companion for some of the trip was Reverend Thomas Harwood Pattison who would become the Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Hartford, Conn. The trip started in New York City after a voyage from Liverpool. He and Pattison traveled throughout New England and Canada, making stops in Boston, Providence, Poughkeepsie, Albany, Saratoga, Montreal, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. In Johnsbury, Vermont they heard a talk by Henry Ward Beecher. The trip then took them to Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha and Salt Lake City; while in Kansas City, Pattison returns to England . The speaker describes in detail the Rocky Mountains and the canyons of Utah. While in Salt Lake City he attends a Mormon service and describes the Tabernacle and the Mormon people in attendance. He then crossed the Sierra Nevadas and stopped in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco and Yosemite. On his train trip to San Francisco, he met a group of American Indians, whom he describes in detail as well as some men of "questionable character." His last stop, before returning to New York City, is at the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. The speaker, throughout the lecture, makes comments on "Americans," the people he met along the way, the landscapes he saw, and the events he attended (church services, fairs).
mssHM 71164
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Manuscripts
Captain Girdler wrote this letter to his sister and brother-in-law while on board the ship Vandalia in San Diego harbor. In the letter he describes agriculture, commerce, and the people in California. He also talks about his success at selling hides.
mssHM 68186
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Manuscripts
A photocopy of a corrected typewritten manuscript. It is a memoir of Allan Nevins' time at the Huntington Library and was written by John Steadman, Nevins' contemporary during his years at the Huntington. The memoir includes trips to Mexico, and various places in California, including Death Valley and Idyllwild. He includes many humorous Huntington Library stories about witty lunches, walks on the grounds, and playing lawn-bowling. Notable people mentioned in the memoir include, among others: Robert O. Dugan, John F. Kennedy, Mary Elizabeth Massey, Cholmondeley M. Nelson, John E. Pomfret, and A. L. Rouse.
mssHM 84055
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Manuscripts
The journal, which contains 57 pages, covers the entire voyage from Bangor to San Francisco. It includes descriptions of the weather, ocean conditions, and other ships the Cantero encountered along the passage. Marston describes his stays at Santa Catarina Island (Brazil) and Valparìso (Chile), including details about the people he met, the food he ate and the churches and places he visited. The journal contains two songs, written by a passenger on board, about going to California in search of gold. The certificate for Marston's membership in the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance measures 51 x 38 cm.
mssHM 56797, HM 63329