Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Wiliam Bagshaw Stevens diary
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
The 137 oral history tapes and 105 transcriptions, together with 363 pieces of correspondence, that make up this collection were created by Peter A. Brazeau during the course of his research for his oral history biography of Wallace Stevens: Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered (New York: Random House, 1983). Brazeau, a member of the English Department faculty of St. Joseph College, wrote to and interviewed dozens of Stevens' relatives, friends, neighbors, employees, business colleagues, and literary associates and acquaintances in order to elicit their recollections about the poet. While Brazeau mined the material fairly thoroughly, the mass of information was too great for it all to be used in the book, and there yet remains a good deal of unused data. Therefore, this collection is an excellent research tool for Stevens scholarship. Researchers are advised to use Brazeau's Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered as a reference source for the collection, to identify the people whose interviews and correspondence are contained in the collection. There are three formats of material:1. Tapes. Duplicate cassette tapes have been made from the master tapes (which are in both cassette and reel-to-reel formats). A fairly substantial number of the master tapes are of markedly inferior sound quality, and, while the copies are no worse in quality, it has not been possible to improve or enhance the quality of the copies. The most frequent problem is either very low volume or loud background noise, or a combination of the two.Researchers are cautioned that there is almost certainly some duplication in the tapes for some individuals. This is often due to Brazeau's inconsistent practice of making a second master of a given interview (in either the same or a different format), whose contents may or may not exactly match those of the first master. In almost every instance, the task of exhaustively comparing the contents of two masters proved too unwieldy and time-consuming and had to be abandoned; all that could be done was to copy each master tape unless duplicate masters could be readily identified. Moreover, Brazeau would group interviews on tapes in the most economical manner possible, and these would not be grouped similarly for duplicate master tapes, e.g., groups of interviews on a reel-to-reel tape would not then be retained as a group on Brazeau's own second (cassette) master but would be dispersed to several cassette tapes. This made the identification of duplicate interviews especially difficult. A third difficulty was Brazeau's frequent habit of beginning an interview too early on the tape (with far too little leader tape) or with the volume initially too low, so that his verbal identification of the interviewee and date of the interview are unintelligible. In short, the tapes were made, not by a professional oral historian, but by a Stevens scholar who used the craft as a means to pursue his own research, so the quality of recordings is highly uneven.2. Transcriptions. The transcriptions have been xeroxed, and the xeroxes will be used for research purposes. Both the originals and the xeroxes are difficult to read, for Brazeau wrote the transcriptions by hand, often in pencil. Moreover, his transcriptions are not complete but are selective; he omitted segments that were not of interest for his own research.3. Correspondence. The correspondence consists of originals, most in good condition.
mssHM 53675-54279
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Manuscripts
Three diaries kept by Charles Rowe when he was living and working in California, Nevada, and Missouri from 1852-1864. The first diary covers 1852-1853 and begins when Rowe had just arrived in San Francisco from New York. It primarily recalls his experiences at Mission San Jose, where he worked as a farmer for $60 a month. He also describes some events at the Mission, such as a "bullfight ...at which two Indians were killed" (May 2, 1852). The second diary, dated 1854-1855, continues with Rowe's work at Mission San Jose, as well as his farm work on Captain Beard's Ranch and the E.M. Knowles Ranch (both apparently near Santa Clara, California), and his mining at Dutch Flat, California, and in Nevada. The final diary, dated 1861-1864, was kept while he was living near Springfield and Sharon, Missouri, during the Civil War. Rowe writes about troops coming to town, but most of the entries focus on his daily activities. The diary was kept from 1861-1862, but also includes account notes from 1864.
mssHM 50575-50577
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Manuscripts
This diary, kept by W. Frederick Mayes, begins on November 22, 1869 and continues to November 27, 1870. Mayes kept this diary while he was in Honduras building a railroad. He talks about the railroad, his fellow employees, the local people, the villages he comes to, the weather, the geography, etc. He specifically talks about Chamelecón, the Chamelecón River, and the villages of El Chapparo and El Espino, Honduras. Mayes drew several sketches in his diary. These sketches include scenery, villages and people.
mssHM 52253
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Manuscripts
In this letter written at Phoenix, Arizona to Allen H. Bent, Librarian of the Appalachian Mountain Club, Stevens notes receipt of Bent's letter requesting a photograph for the next publication of Appalachian. Stevens writes that he has written his sister to send him the photo and would appreciate a copy of the magazine, for which he will pay.
mssHM 29263
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Manuscripts
The 38-page diary was kept by Conway Wing while pastor at the New School Synod Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1845 to 1848. In his entries, Wing details his ministry to and converting of free and enslaved African Americans, as well as national, state, and local news, including the growing difficulties between the North and South, Texas, and temperance.
mssHM 84475
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Manuscripts
This small diary was kept by an unknown man, probably living in southern California in 1930. He seems to be a boxer and talks about "bouts" and training at the gym.
mssHM 77964