Manuscripts
A trip from England to California
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William Wilson Cowan letters
Manuscripts
In the letters, which Cowan wrote to his wife, daughter and father, he describes his eight-month overland journey from Indiana to California. He includes details regarding the hardships of the trip including disease and the death of several of his traveling companions, problems with the captain of the company, lack of provisions along the way, and delays due to bad weather. In the one letter he wrote from California, he describes California and his life in Weaverville, the conditions in the city, the high prices of food and supplies, the behavior of his fellow gold miners, and the difficulty of mining for gold. Included with the nine letters is a poem, written by Cowan, entitled "A Memento on Leaving for Calafornia [sic]," and a manuscript, written by an unknown person, which gives details about Cowan's life and his sudden death from typhoid fever in December 1849. Also included are negative photostats of all eleven items.
mssHM 68061-68071
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Diary of a trip to California
Manuscripts
The diary chronicles Margaret's travels from June 10 to August 27, 1911, primarily in Northern California. The first week of the journal details her trip alone by train from Niagara Falls to California, with descriptions of Niagara Falls and sites in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona including Cripple Creek, Albuquerque, and the Grand Canyon; some entries include observations of local Native Americans. The rest of the journal consists of descriptions of travels by train and car in California. Locations visited in Southern California include Los Angeles, Pasadena, Venice Beach, Pomona, and Santa Barbara. After June 23, Margaret was based in the Bay Area town of San Rafael with multiple excursions to San Francisco and around Northern California. Her entries describe people met and interacted with, travel methods, homes and architecture, local landmarks and history, flora and landscape, missions and churches, and weather. There are frequent mentions of Aunt May and Uncle Will, who met her in Pasadena and possibly lived in San Rafael; Aunt May, and occasionally Uncle Will, usually accompanied her on her excursions to San Francisco and around California. Entries regarding San Francisco mention Ethel Barrymore plays, the Cliff House restaurant, Golden Gate Park and its zoo and Japanese Tea Garden, Chinatown, and the effects of the 1906 earthquake. She briefly describes attending a women's suffrage event (an Equality Tea) on August 4 and rally on August 25 and mentions a suffrage amendment on the ballot that year in California. Sites traveled to in Northern California include St. Helena and the Chabot estate vineyards; the Guerneville area and the Russian River; Santa Rosa, including a visit to Luther Burbank and his gardens; a fruit farm in Los Gatos; and Eureka and other areas in Humboldt County. The journal also includes a draft or copy of a letter from Margaret to her mother written in San Rafael and dated August 27. The final nine pages of the diary are additional notes on travels in Humboldt County, many of which are crossed out. There are also several pages of loose notes, two envelopes, and a receipt. The journal is unbound and is handwritten in ink on loose paper.
mssHM 84033
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Overland trip to California
Manuscripts
This journal describes Stimson's travels from Wisconsin to California during 1850, and his ensuing search for gold. He eventually sells his interest in a mining company and returns home by ship. Additional notes written by Stimson in 1900. Typescript from original.
mssHM 50451
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Journal of a trip to California
Manuscripts
The journal chronicles a couple's six-month trip from Waukegan, Illinois through Colorado, Utah, and Mexico, to California, August 1920 to February 1921. The entries discuss: train travel, automobile travel, the couple's activities between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, California, visits to Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico, San Diego, Long Beach, Venice, Hollywood, and Pasadena, California (with a visit to Busch Gardens). The journal contains 40 gelatin silver photographs taken during the trip. Following the trip narrative, the journal includes a listing of houses they bought from 1921 to 1926.
mssHM 84009
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Life on the Ocean Wave: Reminiscences of My Voyages Around the World [typescript]
Manuscripts
The volume is Charlotte A. Babcock's reminiscences of her five years at sea (1851-1856) with her husband Captain David S. Babcock aboard the ships Swordfish and Young America. She gives detailed descriptions of San Francisco, Hawaii, Canton (Guangzhou), China, Hong Kong, Bombay, Manila, and Singapore. She also discusses the people she met, parties she attended, and the activities of the sailors and passengers on board her husband's ships. Also included is a sketch of the ship Young America by Charlotte A. Babcock
mssHM 63954
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California trip
Manuscripts
Diary kept by an unnamed Massachusetts man during his travels by train from Chicago to Los Angeles and his subsequent stay in California. The first half of the diary includes colorful descriptions of scenery and local people as the author traveled through St. Louis, Little Rock, New Orleans (which he called "the most foreign looking American city I know of and with the exception of Chicago, the most filthy"), El Paso, much of Arizona, and through the San Gorgonio Pass to the San Gabriel Valley. In this section the author also writes of racial segregation in the Southern states, his observance of stage actress Maud Granger and "her actor lover" on a train in Arizona, and his tour of the Arizona Territorial Prison. The second half of the diary covers his stay in California, where he had gone to see his mother and sister for the first time in 13 years. He writes of his impressions of Los Angeles as "a bright town...clean and new," of traveling up the coast to Santa Barbara, camping in Dos Pueblos Canyon, a trip to San Francisco, and his awe at seeing Mt. Shasta.
mssHM 75026