Manuscripts

Account of a journey to California

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Description: This narrative, written by an unknown author, details a journey to California via Texas and Mexico, including travel by sea from Mexico to San Francicso. Life in the gold mines is described, as is the return voyage via Panama.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1849-1851.
Call number: mssHM 4162
Provenance: Brannan Collection.
Dimensions: 32 cm :
Find out more: View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

Journey of an overland trip from Missouri to California

Manuscripts

This volume is Gorgas' diary of his journey from St. Joseph, Missouri to Placerville, CA, and his return trip to New York via the Panama Canal as part of the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th century. Much of the early entries are concerned with weather conditions and landscape and route details. Gorgas and his party finally reach Placerville on July 26, the ninetieth day of their journey, and begin digging for gold outside Sacramento in August. On February 1, 1851, Gorgas boarded a ship, the Olive Branch, bound for New York by way of the Panama Canal, intending to return home to his much-missed family. He lands at Jamaica on April 1, and arrives at New York on April 8. Dated 1850, April 28 through 1851, April 8. Notes include price charts and signatures of people Gorgas may have met during his travels. Includes newspaper clipping with picture of Placerville, CA, circa 1850, and a four-page handwritten timeline of Gorgas' journey (not in his hand).

mssHM 651

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California Coast Scenery

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.

HM 8044 (211)

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The "gnarled Oak" of California

Manuscripts

HM 8044 (150)

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J. Goldsborough Bruff journal and drawings

Manuscripts

mssHM 8044

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Facsimiles of drawings

Manuscripts

mssHM 8044

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Drawings

Manuscripts

mssHM 8044

Account of a journey to California

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Journey of an overland trip from Missouri to California

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The "gnarled Oak" of California

J. Goldsborough Bruff journal and drawings

Facsimiles of drawings

Drawings