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1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
In this diary, Clapsaddle writes daily entries while on his voyage from New York to San Francisco. In it. he talks about life on board the ship, seasickness, his asthma, three passengers dying on board, church services he attended and the meals he ate. He also gives the ship's position and course. He briefly mentions the ship's stops in Panama and Guatemala, the arrival in San Francisco and a job he obtained with the Evening telegram. With the diary is a typed biography of Clapsaddle, outline of his voyage, map of his voyage and typescript of the diary.
mssHM 75101
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Manuscripts
This manuscript is a collection of 23 receipts and bills related to the bark S.S. Peytona. The documents are dated between 1853 and 1855, and deal largely with details of shipping to and from San Franciso, California, and Portland, Oregon.
mssHM 26541
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Manuscripts
The diary, which covers two journeys taken by George S. Mathews, was written from notes he took along the way. The first journey is Mathews' trek from Waverly, Iowa, to Portland, Oregon, via the Oregon Trail in 1865, and the second is a voyage from Oregon to New York City via Panama in 1866. There is little personal detail in the overland portion of the diary; Mathews took note of facts such as weather conditions, number of people in the wagon train, campsites, mileage, and locations passed such as Fort Laramie and Fort Dalles. He also mentions several Indian tribes, such as the Winnebago, the Brule, and the Nez Perce, and their contact with the pioneers and the military (he briefly mentions the Battle of Horse Creek, June 1865). The voyage portion of the diary gives great detail regarding the conditions on the voyage and Mathews' experiences in San Francisco and Panama. After the voyage section, are more notes and mileage lists regarding Mathews' overland journey to Oregon. Also included is a cabinet card photograph of George S. Mathews
mssHM 63161-63162
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Manuscripts
The letter was written by Thomas Warbass in San Francisco to his brother Edward in Cowlitz County, Oregon Territory (later Cowlitz County, Washington). It discusses the organization of the brothers' coal association, the shipment of coal that Thomas Warbass was awaiting in San Francisco, and their sale of coal from Oregon in San Francisco to a man named Deeson. Warbass also asks his brother whether he could obtain a few hundred tons of coal for Deeson if Deeson sent a cargo vessel to collect it somewhere along the banks of the Columbia River. Warbass mentions the high demand for Oregon coal in San Francisco, and his anxiousness to get such coal into the market.
mssHM 69816
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Manuscripts
This manuscript diary by Juan Francisco de la Boedga y Caudra accounts his third voyage in the North West Pacific, from San Blas to Nootka in 1792. During this important voyage, Quadra was commissioned to define the boundaries of the British and Spanish territory on the Vancouver Island (B.C.). There is an extensive vocabulary of the Nootka dialect and a table of the ship's course found on two leaves that displays the meteorolocial conditions on the journeys.
mssHM 141
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Manuscripts
The majority of the journal contains prescriptions Gow made for his customers and the recipes for those prescriptions. The volume also contains two other sections: a female relative of Gow's recorded 19th century poetry in parts of the book and there is also a section titled, "Journal of a Seaman in the Forecastle." This diary section contains accounts from 1851 to 1852 of an anonymous sailor who sailed from Boston to San Francisco in a clipper and then chronicles his time in Port Adelaide, Australia. There are also two pages of what may be the ship's manifest.
mssHM 74486