Manuscripts
H. T. Scott journal
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William T. Cook diary
Manuscripts
Cook's diary starts on March 12 when he leaves San Francisco for Alaska and ends September 23 after arriving back home in Lodi, California. Cook talks about traveling on ship, his arrival, his daily tasks, mining camps, etc. The diary also contains lists of supplies with prices and some accounting. With note found in diary.
mssHM 83409
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Private journal of a cruize in the U.S. schooner Enterprise Lt. A.S. Campbell Esq. commanding in the East Indias & China Seas
Manuscripts
Journal kept by Henry Cadwalader, a midshipman of the United States Navy on board the U.S. schooner Enterprise and U.S. sloop of war Peacock sailing to Zanzibar, Oman, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia from August 1835 to April 1836. Cadwalader's entries are very detailed, and he makes comments on each port and town visited. He writes about his fellow sailors, life on board the ship, and the people he encounters on land. He describes street scenes and mentions other ships arriving in the harbor. The journal contains several sketches done by Cadwalader: on the page before title page there are several sketches of people and the ship Peacock (the page is torn so some sketches were lost) and there is a sketch of the "Town of Zanzibar from the Harbour" above the entry for September 17, 18, 19, 1835.
mssHM 83980
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J.H. (James Hervey) Simpson letters to Richard H. Kern
Manuscripts
In HM 20644, written 1851, December 1, Simpson wishes to be informed of Kern's reconnaissance, and is in need of a good draughtsman. He asks about the current status of George Houghton, and says that Kern will adore Minnesota and St. Paul once he arrives. In HM 20643, dated 1852, May 11, Simpson requests to hear more of the Indians Kern has met with, and is glad Kern has reconciled with Frémont. Both letters contain many inquiries and details concerning Kern's fellow soldiers and colleagues.
mssHM 20643-20644
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Joseph Cleary journal
Manuscripts
This journal consists of lines composed by Joseph Cleary on board the Barque Sarmiento during her voyage from Panama to San Francisco, California. Cleary's voyage is told in twenty-seven eight line stanzas, rhymed A B A B, with a four line chorus after each stanza. While more or less honoring the formal requirements of the poem, he manages to report on the ship, the weather, food, sanitation, officers, crew, lack of water, and his fellow passengers. "The rats which in them got / The rankiest odor up did send / As they did slowly rot...With worms our bread was all alive / Our beef & pork did stink / Though it to eat we still did not starve." Death is a also grim reality, "And most of us are yet alive / Though eight are with the dead." In verse twenty, the crew reaches Honolulu, Hawaii, and remains there until verse twenty-five. "But since the Sandwich Isles we've seen / The time does not seem long / For we much better fed have been...Whilst daily we expect to land / And leave this hateful ship." After the twenty-seven line stanzas, there is a bawdy poem about lice feeding in a mining camp, which is written in mirror image cursive. The next poems are titled, "The Miners Prayer," "Epitaph on a Chinese Grave," and "A description of the view from the western summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains." "Those mighty Nevadas with steep and rugged fronts lifted high their lofty brows: peering the ethereal Regions of snows eternal...Overlooking the western world: which from here Presents to the beholder a scene in All its bearings truly wonderful and Sublime." His description of the mountains is followed by a note about Penn Valley, California, on April 27, 1854, "A Miner's Surprise," "A trip to the summit of a mountain near Coloma, Eldorado [El Dorado] County, California," and a long poem to "My Dear Sister." He addresses his sister, "I look upon Ohio now / As a poor place to be hoe and plow / And poorer still to gather wealth / And worse by far respecting health / I almost dread to venture back / Least some disease my frame should rack." There are also acrostics spelling, "Elisabeth Dickson," "Maptha Dickson," "Mary Meguire," and "Catherine Mulholland." The final poem in this volume is titled, "Woman." "They're always trying to employ / Their time in vanity and prate / Their leisure hours in social joy / To spend is what all women hate."
mssHM 80821
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Mary Stuart Bailey journal
Manuscripts
HM 2018 is the original journal of thirty handwritten pages, dated April 13, 1852 through November 8, 1852. Also included is a negative photostat of the 1850 Federal Census of Lucas County, Ohio, showing entries for Mary Stuart Bailey, her husband Dr. Frederick E. Bailey, and Harriet Bailey, as well as four typewritten pages showing burial plots in Association Cemetery (Sylvania, Ohio), wherein rests Harriet Bailey. HM 2019 is a typescript of an extract of the journal, through October 31. Also included here are two typewritten pages by Mrs. W.W. Hicks relating further information about the Baileys, and a map of the Salt Lake Trail. The journal itself is Mary Bailey's account of her journey. She stops in St. Louis, Missouri to see friends, and gives shelter to some Indians in "destitute condition." After a hard journey, they reach California in October, and Bailey writes in her final entry, "I do not think we shall be as well off as at home."
mssHM 2018-2019
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Mrs. N. H. Dayton diary
Manuscripts
Mrs. H. H. Dayton kept this diary while traveling with her husband, Nate, and Mr. and Mrs. Ben H. Van Levy in 1909. The diary begins in September 1909 with the couples leaving and traveling to Minneapolis, St. Paul, Banff, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, Portland, and then south to California. Mrs. Dayton spends 12 pages describing her experiences in San Francisco: the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake; Golden Gate Park; Cliff House; Chinatown; as well as a visit to an opium den. The diary ends after the couples traveled back to the east coast, arriving home in October 1909. The diary also contains several lists: hotels; cities visited; railroads traveled; theaters attended; miles traveled; and states crossed. The names of the travelers are inside the front cover.
mssHM 81272