Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
The collection, which contains 10,844 items, consists of correspondence, letter books, manuscripts, speeches, diaries, account books, published articles, legal papers, financial statements and business records. The 10,528 pieces of correspondence are chiefly addressed to James De Barth Shorb, James M. Tiernan and Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb. The 17 letter books are related to the business and financial affairs of Shorb and Benjamin Davis Wilson. The 75 manuscripts consist of items chiefly written by Shorb and Wilson family members. The 224 items in the Business Papers include material related to Shorb's many companies including the San Gabriel Wine Company. The following subjects are covered in the Shorb collection: the Shorb, Wilson, and Patton families, David Jacks, Mariano Vallejo, Santa Catalina Island, the Mount Wilson Observatory, California government and politics, African Americans and the Chinese in California, agriculture, the citrus fruit industry, Indians of California, irrigation, lend tenure, mining, railroads, ranching, water rights, and the wine industry. The collection also documents the history and development of the following California cities: Alhambra, Elsinore, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Ramona, San Gabriel, San Marino, and Wilmington.
mssShorb papers
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Manuscripts
The collection consists chiefly of letters, with some manuscripts and documents related to John Wesley Vandevort and his Pittsburgh holdings in the steel industry. There are also seven diaries related to Vandevort's tours of Europe and a 1878-1879 trip around the world with Andrew Carnegie (2 pocket diaries). Correspondents in the collection include: Henry Phipps (102 letters) and Andrew Carnegie and/or his wife Louise (8 letters). The collection also has a letterbook containing typewritten letters of an 1865 European tour by John Hallen Franks and thirty-six letters addressed to John Wesley Vandevort's brother, Robert T. Vandevort. There are also materials about the Johnstown Flood of 1889. Included are financial records such as accounts, bills, receipts, and statements.
mssVandevort
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Manuscripts
The collection contains letters, letterbooks, documents, records, and manuscripts that document Barlow's legal, business, and political career, and his cultural and social pursuits. Barlow's legal and business papers constitute the bulk of the collection and cover 1855 to 1889. This portion of the collection deals with financing, building and management of railroads -- both Eastern and Western divisions of the Ohio and Mississippi, the Atlantic & Great Western, the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio, the Little Miami, the Columbus and Xenia, the Erie, and the New York, Erie & Western; Barlow's lobbying on behalf of Texas and Pacific Railroad Company and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; his involvement in the affairs of the Tehuantepec railroad route in Mexico, mining promotions and operations, including the notorious Arizona diamond hoax; land speculation (farm lands in Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio and urban properties in St. Louis, Mo.); his patronage of the New York subway and telephone enterprises, and his part ownership of the New York World. Political and military correspondence and manuscripts cover Barlow's involvement in Democratic politics at both national and state levels, that started in 1856 and continued until his death. The papers deal with Barlow's role in the nomination of James Buchanan for President, 1856, and his administration; Democratic National Convention at Charleston, 1860; George McClellan's presidential bid, the National Union Club, congressional elections, Tilden, Hancock, and Cleveland campaigns, 1876 to 1886. This portion of the collection also contains reports from the Eastern theater of the Civil War that Barlow received from his agents in the field. Among the correspondents are William T. Sherman, and T.J. Barnett, a minor official at the Department of the Interior and the Washington correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce, who provided an insight into Lincoln's White House. Also included are items reflecting Barlow's role in social and cultural life of New York -- his friendship with William Cullen Bryant and Bret Harte, patronage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Academy of Music, and the New York Historical Society, his collections of colonial Americana and rare books, etc. Correspondents include William Henry Aspinwall, Henry Douglas Bacon, T.J. Barnett, James Asheton Bayard, Jr., August Belmont, Judah Philip Benjamin, Montgomery Blair, William Montague Browne, Benjamin Franklin Butler, Roscoe Conkling, George Ticknor Curtis, John Henry Dillon, William Maxwell Evarts, Henry Harrisse, Ben Holladay, Hugh Judge Jewett, Clarence King, George Brinton McClellan, James McHenry, Manton Malon Marble, Thomas Alexander Scott, Horatio Seymour, William Davis. Materials created by US presidents in this collection include James Buchanan autograph letters signed to Samuel L.M. Barlow, 1867 May 2 and May 22; Grover Cleveland autograph letter signed to Samuel L.M. Barlow, 1884 October 12; Millard Fillmore autograph letter signed to Charles Day, 1870 October 12; Andrew Jackson autograph letter to Mahlon Dickerson, 1835 June 9; also present is a contemporary copy of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee special order to Thomas Mann Randolph Talcott regarding Confederate soldiers paroled at Appomattox, 1865 April 10.
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of letters (including 1 letter book), manuscripts (including 50 diaries), documents (including 55 account books, 12 cash books, and 5 miscellaneous volumes), and photographs related to the lives and activities of various Janin family members and the extended Janin-Blair-Jesup-Croghan families. Subject matter in the collection includes: politics and government in Washington, D.C., and Louisiana; society and customs in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans; Blair House (Washington, D.C.); land titles in Indiana Territory, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Missouri; the Ocean Canal and Transportation Company, which ran from Louisiana to St. Louis; the history of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, from the time of purchase by John Croghan in 1839 until 1932, when it became a national park (at which time Violet Blair Janin was the primary owner); and mining in Australia. Persons represented in the collection include: James Lawrence Blair, Mary Jesup Blair, Violet Blair Janin, John Croghan, William Croghan, Albert Covington Janin, Louis Janin, Julia Clark Jesup, Thomas Sidney Jesup, George M. Wheeler, and Lucy James Blair Wheeler. Organizations represented in the collection (with which Violet Blair Janin was affiliated) include: Daughters of the American Revolution, National Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage, National Cathedral Association, National Society of Children of the American Revolution, and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
mssJaninf
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Manuscripts
Collection consists mainly of correspondence from the period 1910-14, beginning when Oddie initiated his campaign for governor and ending when he was about to terminate his administration. The correspondence is arranged in 19 boxes in alphabetical order by author. There are also 6 boxes and 4 rolls of Nevada State papers, almost entirely copies of legislative bills for the year 1873, and a small number of documents from other years. Subjects include: mining, politics, and government in Nevada (including divorce laws), women's rights, the financial panic of 1907, the Progressive party, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915.
mssOddie
mssBW