Manuscripts

J. Goldsborough Bruff poems and drawings

Description: Photocopies of four poems and two drawings by J. Goldsborough Bruff. Poems include "Invitation" (1850); an untitled poem about the SS Central America disaster, a steamship carrying gold prospected from California and several hundred passengers that sunk in a hurricane (1857); "Life's Voyage" (1884); and "Recovering from the Small-pox" (undated). Drawings include "A Delicious Bit of Scandal," depicting two women talking (1849); and an undated sketch of a house entitled "Genevese, Lake of Geneva."
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1849-1884
Call number: mssBruff
Creator: Bruff, Joseph Goldsborough (1804-1889)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Nellie Hewitt Stinchcomb via Nellie Jackson Proctor, June 1991.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
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J. Goldsborough Bruff poems and drawings

Manuscripts

Photocopies of four poems and two drawings by J. Goldsborough Bruff. Poems include "Invitation" (1850); an untitled poem about the SS Central America disaster, a steamship carrying gold prospected from California and several hundred passengers that sunk in a hurricane (1857); "Life's Voyage" (1884); and "Recovering from the Small-pox" (undated). Drawings include "A Delicious Bit of Scandal," depicting two women talking (1849); and an undated sketch of a house entitled "Genevese, Lake of Geneva."

mssBruff

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J. Goldsborough Bruff journal and drawings

Manuscripts

The collection contains J. Goldsborough Bruff's oversize revised version of his journal (c. 1853) which documents his journey across the American plains in 1849 by way of Lassen's Trail. Also included in the collection are 264 drawings of scenes from his overland journey, of various places he visited in California, and of his sea voyage to the Eastern United States via Mexico and Panama. Many of Bruff's drawings are in pencil, but thirty-eight of them were drawn with pastels and are in color.

mssHM 8044

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Bruff, J. Goldsborough. Journal

Manuscripts

Also includes mssFAC 626 and mssFAC 627: copies of related correspondence.

HM 8044

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J. Goldsborough Bruff manuscript history of Sonora and Alta California

Manuscripts

An apparently unpublished history of the states of California and Sonora, found among the papers of J. Goldsborough Bruff, the noted artist of the Gold Rush, though it may or may not be in his hand. A densely-written and substantial contemporary history of California during a transitional time for the region, containing accounts of gold in Sonora, the types of stories that helped spark the great California Gold Rush just a few years later. The manuscript begins with the "discovery of the Gulf of Cal" and contains much about the early discovery and exploration of California and Sonora. There is also a detailed account of gold mining in Sonora. The manuscript concludes with the Mexican-American War.

mssHM 82520

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Joseph Goldsborough Bruff letter to the "President of the United States" with a poem "To the promoters of disunion,"

Manuscripts

In this letter to the "President of the United States With the Compliments of His very Humble and Obdt. Servant J. Goldsborough Bruff," is a 28-line poem entitled "To the Promoters of Disunion. E. Pluribus Unum. One and inseparable; United we stand, but divided we fall." There is also a 16-line "Invocation" and a sketch by Bruff of a man with a cannon. It is written on a pictorial lettersheet with an image of Washington, D.C. entitled "View of Washington City." The poem is dated 1860, December 10 while a note about the sketch is dated 1860, December 17.

mssHM 72872

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Joseph Goldsborough Bruff and W.H. Gatliff sketchbook

Manuscripts

An artist's sketchbook possibly evolved from J. Goldsborough Bruff's encounter with Dr. W. H. Gatliff, an Englishman who was a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, while visiting the Gold Bluffs region of northern California near Trinidad in February 1851. Bruff and Gatliff spent time together sketching various scenes, including views of the California landscapes by both men, along with several portraits, some featuring Mexican residents of California, drawn by Gatliff. Accompanying the volume are two cartoons from newspapers: one regarding ship voyages to California and the other is a racist depiction of Native Americans arriving in Sacramento.

mssHM 83972

J. Goldsborough Bruff poems and drawings

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J. Goldsborough Bruff poems and drawings

J. Goldsborough Bruff journal and drawings

Bruff, J. Goldsborough. Journal

J. Goldsborough Bruff manuscript history of Sonora and Alta California

Joseph Goldsborough Bruff letter to the "President of the United States" with a poem "To the promoters of disunion,"

Joseph Goldsborough Bruff and W.H. Gatliff sketchbook