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 consists mainly of letters and questionnaires written between 1904-1908 on the topic of mid-19th-century Los Angeles. Most of the questionnaires, composed by Mary A. Forman, include a correspondent’s answers, and most of the letters were written to Forman in response to her questionnaires or other inquiries. Forman presumably conducted the correspondence as a result of her involvement in the Auld Lang Syne Club. There are also a few other documents that she probably acquired as part of her research, including a small number of letters written by Southerners (possibly relatives of A. J. King) during the Civil War and a few 19th-century California letters, most of them written in Spanish. The purpose of most of Mary Forman's inquiries was to obtain very specific details or confirmation of details of Los Angeles history, from what kind of roof a certain house had to which band of Apaches killed a certain man. Because of this, the responses cover a markedly wide range of topics, and the number of authors and other people involved is unusually large for a collection of this size. General topics addressed in the documents include Los Angeles history, California state and local government, crime, medicine, architecture, education, land allotment, churches, agriculture, Native Americans, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. Photocopies of photographs and a brief biography of Mary A. and Charles Forman, compiled by John Steven McGroaty in Los Angeles: From the Mountains to the Sea, published in 1921, can be requested with the paper versin of this finding aid.
mssHM 68517-68598
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Manuscripts
The Correspondence series is arranged chronologically and contains letters from Frank to his family members, most notably his sisters and to Susan, about his experiences during the Civil War. Also included in the series are letters from Frank and Susan to their children when they traveled around Europe in 1892 visiting such cities as Rome, Glasgow, Oban, Dingwall, Edinburgh, London, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Naples, Interlacken, and Paris. There are also letters from their children, most notably their daughters Bertha, Grace, and Olive, as they traveled around the United States. The Manuscripts series is arranged alphabetically and contains a typed collection of letters written by Frank McGregor titled "Letters to the Folks at Home from Frank McGregor of the 83rd Regiment O.V.I. Army of the Mississippi." The letters date from 1862-1865 and span McGregor's time in the Civil War. Also included, is a short composition written by Susan B. McGregor recalling details about a story her mother, Olive W. Wilder liked to tell about going to a ball.
mssHM 72510-72606
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Manuscripts
This small collection chiefly contains correspondence between lawyer John Alexander Wills and his wife, Charlotte Le Moyne Wills, before and during the American Civil War, and a few letters between Charlotte Le Moyne Wills and her daughter, Madeline Francis Wills. In addition, there are several manuscripts pertaining to the French history in Gallipolis and Gallia County, Ohio. Ephemera includes newspaper clippings and a drawing of the plan purchase by the Ohio Company and Scioto Land Company.
mssHM 80151-80181