Manuscripts
Manuscript account of the life of Plummer Edwards Jeffries
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Edward S. Swan letter to Fanny P. Clark
Manuscripts
In this letter to his cousin, Edward Swan describes his journey to San Francisco. He endured "a very unpleasant passage" and was "detained in Panama for 12 days waiting for a steamer." Once he finally arrives in San Francisco, he finds it "a much nicer place here than expected."
mssHM 19296
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Charles Plummer journal
Manuscripts
This journal is an account by Charles Plummer documenting his travels and gold mining experiences California, which took place in 1850-1851. The majority of the volume concerns the trip, which lasted from 1850, May 2 to 1851, October 1. While Plummer was digging outside Stockton, there were several instances of theft and murder in the town and the surrounding mining claims. He describes digging for gold as "very poor business." Bound leather volume. Journal entries begin in 1842; most of the early entries are financial notes, such as bills paid.
mssHM 2017
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Charles Plummer diaries
Manuscripts
Two diaries kept by Charles Plummer, one while he was traveling from Boston to San Francisco in 1849 and one while he was sailing from Boston to Brazil in 1863-1864. The 1849 diary begins with Plummer's preparations to leave Boston and his joining of the New England and California Trading and Mining Association. He departed from Boston on the ship Lenore in February 1849 and while on board recorded notes on brigs he has seen (including his tracking of the brig Charlotte), a minstrel's concert on board, his stop at the Port of Talcahuana (Chile), and notes on the flying fish and birds he has seen, including the capture of an albatross. He also writes of difficulties with the Association, noting that various members had been tried on board for "deception, falsehood, neglect of duty, intemperance &c." In July the Lenore put down anchor near Benicia and Plummer was chosen to join a "pioneer party to the mines" which traveled up the Sacramento River to the Feather River and set up a "gold washer." The trip was ultimately disappointing, and things did not improve upon the party's return to the Lenore, where on September 10 "a mutiny...result[ed] in the dissolution of our company." In November the Lenore was sold and Plummer stayed for a few months in San Francisco, which was "truly a dark time," as his companion Morris had dysentery and Plummer suffered from a "bad cough [and] two very sore fingers." He wrote that their only opportunity for the winter might be to "go to the mines," which he hoped to avoid at all costs. In December Plummer came down with dysentery and began taking opium pills, and made few further entries in the diary until he gave it up completely on December 18.
mssHM 75054-75055
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Account of the state of France: manuscript
Manuscripts
Account of the state of France written by Sir George Carew after he returned from France in 1609.
mssHM 41951
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A narrative ; or an historicall account of the most materiall passages in the life of John Rastrick... : manuscript
Manuscripts
An autograph manuscript of Rastrick's account of his life; the title page contains the subtitle: "...An unworthy Minister of Jesus Christ at Kirkton in Holland in Lincolnshire. And afterwards Preacher to a private Congregation at Spalding in ye same Country, & Rotheram in Yorkshire, and at Lyme-Regis in Norfolk." With limp vellum covers; in half morocco slip case. Facing the title page is a memorandum to Rastrick's son requesting that each of his children have an account of the narrative of his life; folio 89 is a family register which records deaths into the mid-eighteenth century.
mssHM 6131
Howard's Livery Stable, where Booth hired the horse on which he escaped
Visual Materials
A view of the John C. Howard Livery Stables on G Street between 6th and 7th Streets in Washington, D.C., where John Wilkes Booth kept his horse while carrying out the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Two horses are drawing a four-wheel contraption out of the large entrance to the stable on the right. Men are standing near the stable and in the doorway of the Howard Restaurant on the left.
photCL 511 (13)