Manuscripts
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
Consists of an 1869 marriage certificate of James Richard Smith and Nancy Ross; an 1870 indenture between John B. Don and David Robinson, both of Arizona; and a 1862 passport for D. C. Robinson (see oversize folder)
mssDolley; photCL 123
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Manuscripts
Includes some copy prints as well as three original prints: a cabinet card of Mr. McDougal, 1874 (imprint: Bradley & Rulofson); a tintype portrait of a woman identified as, "'Maud', the Cocopah Indian girl who served as nurse for Ellen Robinson"; and a cyanotype of Ellen Robinson at 65-years-old.
mssDolley; photCL 123
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Manuscripts
Consists of the 1866 pilot's certificate for David C. Robinson; an 1876 check for a stone curb around a cemetery plot; and a Santa Rosa Cemetery Deed.
mssDolley; photCL 123
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Visual Materials
A collection of photographs and maps compiled by American geologist and petroleum engineer Ralph Arnold (1875-1961), documenting his pioneering work in oil and mineral exploration, chiefly in the Western United States, Mexico and Venezuela, from 1900 to 1954. The collection centers on 64 photograph albums that span 50 years of Arnold's life and work. Photographs are accompanied by Arnold's typed captions identifying geological features; oil and mining activities; technical data; and dates and locations, i.e. often an oil or mining "district" or "field," such as "Sunset Field" (California). Subject matter includes geological and topographical features such as rock formations, faults and schisms, mountain structure, geothermal activity, and open land with potential drilling or mining spots. Earthquake faults are seen and described in many of Arnold's California investigations. There are also views of small and large-scale oil operations (by individuals and by organized companies); details of oil flow and reservoirs; asphalt; drilling equipment; workers and fields of oil wells. Arnold's work took him all over the Western United States, particularly California oil fields, but also Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, Alaska and other states. From 1911-1916 he was primarily in South America, and in the 1920s-1940s, mostly in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Mining operations are the focus of some albums, showing investigations for tin, gold and other minerals; mines and ore processing, all with detailed descriptions. Arnold also often photographed people: colleagues and business associates, oil lease owners on their properties; workers (particularly Black and Asian workers in Venezuela); and friends and family. Personal photographs are throughout the album, such as of his wife, Winninette, and their two daughters; Stokes family members (Winninette's family) in South Pasadena; and alumni of Pasadena High School and Stanford University. Arnold was an avid gardener and the albums contain detail views of cactus and tropical plants, and scenes of Arnold collecting wild orchids in Trinidad, Venezuela and Mexico. The maps date from 1880-1948 and include U.S.G.S. and geological maps, California oil fields and well locations; layouts of mines, and various tract maps showing oil company-owned land.
photCL 311
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Manuscripts
This collection contains items related to Ormsby County, Nevada, between 1864 and 1886., arranged alphabetically by author then by type or addressee. All documents are handwritten. Most are business-related, with the majority of them related to the drawing and summoning of trial and grand juries. Other records include statements from county officials, estimates for goods and services, and voluminous reports from the county auditor and treasurer.
mssOrmsby County records
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Manuscripts
This collection consists of research materials compiled by Southern California physician Frank Dolley for his study of the lower Colorado River, especially related to steam navigation, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The bulk of the collection is comprised of research materials from the 1950s including two manuscripts written by Dolley, research notes, Dolley's correspondence, and copy prints, negatives, and lantern slides of historic photographs. There are also some original materials including correspondence of Ellen Robinson (died 1913), the wife of a Colorado River steamboat pilot, and approximately fifteen photographs dating from the late 1880s. The collection includes two manuscripts written by Dolley: "Early Pilots of the Colorado River" and "Wife at Port Isabel: A Pioneer Woman's Colorado River Letters." The first is a history of navigation on the lower Colorado River that includes a brief discussion of Spanish explorations of the Delta region but emphasizes the region's nineteenth-century history, with particular attention paid to steamboat design and pilots. Included in this manuscript are discussions of the Chemehuevi, Cocopah, and Yuma Indians, the Colorado Steam Navigation Company, Captains George H. Derby and William H. Hardy, J.C. Ives, and A. H. Wilcox. The second manuscript is an edited version of Ellen M. Robinson's letters, most between Ellen at Port Isabel on the Colorado Delta and her family in Maryland. These letters depict the experiences of a young woman moving across the country in 1869 with David Robinson, a husband she barely knew, as she tried to narrate the journey and describe her new home to her family. Among the notable experiences she relayed in her letters was a visit to the unfinished Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, a parade in San Francisco featuring General William T. Sherman, and a visit to Woodward's Gardens while staying in that city. This second manuscript was published in as "Wife at Port Isabel: A Pioneer Woman's Colorado River Letters," The Westerners Brand Book (Los Angeles Corral) vol. 7 (1957): 271-285. The correspondence section contains Ellen Robinson's original letters from the 1870s, often with copies made by Dolley, and Dolley's correspondence with Ellen's daughter Margaret Robinson (born 1872) in the 1950s. Three of Dolley's research notebooks are included, covering numerous subjects related to the lower Colorado River region and the Colorado Delta, with particular focus on the river's steamboat activity. These notebooks have been divided for preservation and ease of use, but remain in the order in which they were found, which is loosely alphabetical by subject. There is repetition from one notebook to the other, though each also includes unique material. Most of these notes represent Dolley's research in published sources, including periodicals, narrative accounts, and regional histories, but also includes correspondence with Percy Carter Linss, a descendent of Colorado River ferry operator and landowner Hall Hanlon. There are 95 photographic prints (chiefly copy prints with some originals including carte-de-visite portraits), 94 copy film negatives, and 12 lantern slides of various images of steamboats and towns along the Colorado River and people related to the steamers, dating from approximately 1860-approximately 1910. There are several photographs of Yuma, Arizona, taken from the 1860s to the 1890s; Ehrenberg, Arizona; and Andrade, California. Among the steamboats shown are the St. Vallier, Colorado No. 1, Colorado No. 2, Mohave, Searchlight, and Silas J. Lewis. This collection also includes maps of the Lower Colorado River and Yuma, and advertising material for a river excursion and the Pacific and Colorado Steam Navigation Company.
mssDolley; photCL 123