Manuscripts

Charles H. Bilke letter

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Description: The letter, which Bilke wrote to the Evans Brothers in Virginia City, Nevada, talks about employment opportunities, or the lack of employment opportunities in Butte, Montana, as well as the availability of work in Salt Lake City, Utah and Nevada. Bilke advises his friends to stay in Nevada and not to come to Montana.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1882, April 10.
Call number: mssHM 68219
Creator: Bilke, Charles H(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Johns' Western Gallery, October 21, 2004.
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Charles H. Ort diary

Manuscripts

Diary that Ort kept during his stay in Alexandria and through the Rapidan Campaign, including Spottsylvania Court House and the Wilderness. The diary gives detailed accounts of minutia of camp life, paying special attention to daily diversions, such as "kicking foot ball," reading dime novels and "ten cent monthleys," and attending theaters, "bath saloons," houses of ill repute, and various drinking and gambling establishments in Alexandria and Washington, as well Ort's numerous love conquests.

mssHM 68422

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Charles A. Magnuson letter to Miss Kneebone

Manuscripts

This letter was written by Charles A. Magnuson to Miss Kneebone, a friend, living in Butte, Montana. He describes his experiences in Alaska, including the weather, landscape, mail delivery, and arrivals and departures of ships. Magnuson arrived in Nome less than a month ago and started working immediately: "This is the busy season here, and I have been working every day and evening since I stepped ashore. However, the rush will be over in a few days...then we will be dead to the outside world for about seven months." He describes the last frontier as being bleak: "I have not had much opportunity to see the country as yet, but what I have seen is not a least bit inviting. Not a tree, or blade of grass...when the heavy snows come, they will hide all of this...nothing but snow, snow, snow."

mssHM 80840

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Lyman H. Howland letters to his son

Manuscripts

Lyman H. Howland wrote seven of these letters to his son, Garrald, after he left New Bedford to become an itinerant miner in California, Idaho, Nevada, and Montana. The first letter is a 16-page description of his 1892 railroad journey to Sacramento. In 1894, Howland is living in Spokane, Washington and talks of mining prospects. In 1896, Howland is mining in Troy, Idaho, and in 1897, he is mining in Sylvanite, Montana. Besides mining and his life as a miner, Howland also lectures his son on the evil of alcohol, talks of sending for his son to join him, and asks about family and friends back in New Bedford. Two of these letters are incomplete.

mssHM 83122-83129

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W. H. Wheeler letters to his father

Manuscripts

Three autograph letters written from Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming Territory; the letters were written over a three month period in 1871. W. H. Wheeler wrote to his father with great enthusiasm about the many opportunities for prosperity he sees surrounding him in Wyoming and Utah territories. Although especially enthusiastic about the possibilities of outfitting miners hoping to exploit the region's mineral wealth, he also describes in detail the fabulous returns being made through the sales of mining claims in Utah as well as the steadily rising values of building lots in Evanston, Wyoming. Wheeler worked in the city's Union Pacific office, but was anxious to quit his desk job and to become a Western businessman in mining and outfitting ventures; in the letters, Wheeler requests money from his father for these ventures while extolling the many opportunities of realizing great profits. Two of the letters are written on Union Pacific stationary or forms and all three are in fragile condition with tearing along the folds.

mssHM 84048

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Thomas Milliken letter to William Todd

Manuscripts

Letter from Thomas Milliken in San Francisco to William Todd in Cherryfield, Maine. Milliken writes shortly after his initial arrival in San Francisco and records his first impressions of the city. He notes the high cost of laborers, the possibility of selling his steamboat for $35,000, and his plans to "break up the company" and become a blacksmith. He concludes that while San Francisco holds many opportunities for profit, "if I could make a fortune here in one year I hardly know that I would stay in such a Sodom as this."

mssHM 75049

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Nathan H. Rappaport letters to Ruth Proskauer Smith

Manuscripts

Two autograph letters written by Dr. Nathan H. Rappaport to Ruth Proskauer Smith, an American advocate for reproductive rights. The letters were written just after his release from prison and detail Dr. Rappaport's work and his vow to continue regardless of possible future incarceration; he also advises how to advocate and thanks her for the literature Mrs. Smith has sent him.

mssHM 84140

Charles H. Bilke letter

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Charles H. Ort diary

Charles A. Magnuson letter to Miss Kneebone

Lyman H. Howland letters to his son

W. H. Wheeler letters to his father

Thomas Milliken letter to William Todd

Nathan H. Rappaport letters to Ruth Proskauer Smith