Manuscripts
Two letters by Alice B. Toklas
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Mary Alice Smith Gray letters to Calvin Oliver Power
Manuscripts
Twenty letters from Mary Alice Smith Gray to Calvin Oliver Power, written between 1918 and 1923. The letters talk about her past, the family news, including the rapidly deteriorating health of John Wesley Gray, and the "dues" she received from Power for the appearances on his show. The letters are undated, scribbled in pencil in a halting and clearly unskilled hand and signed "Mrs. Gray" or "Orphant Annie."
mssHM 44514
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Alice Blackwood Baldwin letters to Frank D. Baldwin
Manuscripts
Alice Blackwood Baldwin (c.1845-1930) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and in 1854 traveled with her parents to Sacramento. Following her mother's death, Alice and her sister moved back to Michigan to live with their aunt and uncle Robert and Rebecca Blackwood, and they remained permanently when their father died soon after. In 1867 Alice married Frank Dwight Baldwin and moved first to Fort Harker, Kansas, and then to the New Mexico Territory. While traveling through Trinidad, Colorado Territory, Alice gave birth to her daughter Juanita Mary in 1867. Alice moved back to Northville in 1869 while Frank served in the Sioux War, and spent the next several years living with relatives. In 1878-1879 Alice and Frank made a European tour (while Juanita was at boarding school in Detroit). Frank retired from the military as a major general in 1906, and the Baldwins moved to Denver. Juanita Baldwin married Ambrose C.G. Williams-Foote, a native of Cornwall, in 1893.
mssHM 75335-75360
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Daniel B. Robinson letter to Mary Ann Robinson
Manuscripts
These manuscripts are a series of letters from Daniel Robinson to his sister Mary and brother James. In HM 19765 (1847, November 14), a letter to his sister, Daniel Robinson writes of his travels and contacts in the middle United States. HM 19766, dated 1849, March 12, also to Mary, Daniel writes he has delayed responding to her last letter due to a lack of interesting things to say. His main wish is to gain his fortune, and plans to accompany a group bound for the gold mines of California, and plans to leave Illinois in a week's time. He promises he will travel safely, and will write from time to time. The last letter to Mary in this sequence is dated 1850, October 31 (HM 19767), and Daniel has reached California, and has purchased "a lot of cattle" with several friends from Illinois. He would describe his journey if he had time, but plans to return to Illinois in the following spring. The final four letters are from Daniel to James, his brother. HM 19768 is dated 1849, April 12, and was written in St. Joseph, Missouri, where Daniel plans to stay for a month. The letter describes Daniel's trek to California, across overflowing rivers and many rough roads. The next letter (HM 19769) is dated May 3, and Daniel has left St. Joseph. His party had to wait two days for their chance to cross a river, as there were four hundred teams waiting for their turn. He saw several familiar Illinois faces in St. Joseph. On May 28, Daniel writes again to James (HM 19770). Their cattle broke free from their corral and scattered; they managed to recover some, but several were lost. Daniel learns that over four thousand teams have passed this way, bound for California. The final letter in this series is HM 19771, and is written from Sacramento City, California, dated 1849, October 3. Daniel reports the final leg of their journey was rather unpleasant, due to poor weather coupled with exhaustion. He says "there seems to be no extent to the amount of gold in California, and common laborers can get from two to three hundred dollars per month." His team has sold their wagons and cattle for mules and and mining equipment. He has heard many tales of gold, and expects to make his fortune soon. Of his journey to California, Daniel writes "I can safely say it is one of the most disagreeable trips a man can make." Included are three newspaper clippings from Illinois newspapers reprinting letters of Illinois travelers bound for California, two undated photos of Daniel Robinson, and a handwritten note addressed to "Mr. Tighe" and signed "Ruth Van Tuyl" regarding the photos and letters of Daniel Robinson.
mssHM 19765-19771
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Mamie Adams letter to Alice Sanford
Manuscripts
In her letter, written to her sister Alice Sanford in Virginia, Mamie Adams writes about the children in her kindergarten class and the activities they do. The letter also mentions different aspects of the school operations, teacher training, and the Parent-Teacher Association. Adams also writes about her difficulties in being a widow and her financial struggles. With envelope.
mssHM 83994
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Alice Jones MacMonnies Papers
Manuscripts
The correspondence in the collection almost entirely consists of letters sent to Alice Jones MacMonnies from about 1917 until 1929. The bulk of the correspondence is from Alice's mother Georgina Sullivan Jones, and the letters focus on news regarding family members and acquaintances, including General John Pershing. Georgina writes of sculptor Prince Paul Troubetzkoy's commission to create a bust of Henry E. Huntington in 1917 and of her hatred of Troubetzkoy, and relates being angered by a discussion that rated Troubetzkoy and Auguste Rodin as the greatest living sculptors with no mention of MacMonnies. Other letters describe events related to World War I, such as the raising of funds for French orphans and news of a friend's brother who was killed in an "aeroplane accident" in France. An undated letter from Alice's nephew Gregory Jones (the son of her half-brother Roy) describes war conditions in St. Rhomble, France, and the "defiant" attitude of German prisoners-of-war toward the French and American soldiers. A series of 1925 letters recount Georgina's trip through Spain and France, and other topics covered throughout the correspondence include Georgina Jones Walton's play Light of Asia (1927), the Jones' mining interests in Alaska, Alice's interest in New York real estate, and memories of John P. Jones, whom Georgina wished had "lived to see the wonders that science has accomplished and what has been done in the film world" (1933). A few letters from Alice regarding the Jones estate before and after Georgina's death, including a notebook of property values from 1924, are also included. The diary volume was kept by Georgina Sullivan Jones during her 1896 European tour with Alice following her graduation from Bryn Mawr, and chronicles their voyage across the Atlantic on board the St.Paul of the American Line, as well as their travels through London, Paris, Berlin, Beyreuth, Munich, Innsbruck, Venice, Milan, Rome, and Zurich.The photographs of Alice MacMonnies and her sisters Georgina and Marion range from her childhood to adult years, including her 1896 class photo from Bryn Mawr College.
mssHM 76195-76259
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Alice S. Arikawa photograph album
Visual Materials
A photograph and scrapbook album compiled by Alice S. Arikawa, a young Japanese American woman in Los Angeles, California, that chronicles her youth from 1934 to 1942, just before the Japanese American internment during World War II. Snapshot photographs are pasted on black paper pages, with captions by Arikawa written in white pencil. Images depict Arikawa and friends at Lafayette Junior High School, then Jefferson High School (both in central Los Angeles), and participating in a wide range of social and school activities in and around the Los Angeles area. She and a diverse group of friends are seen on beach outings, going to Santa Anita Park, the Huntington Library gardens (four images), attending a formal dance, and horseback riding. Other subjects are her family, a business correspondence class in 1936, and activities with the Kalifans, a Y.W.C.A. social group. The album's last images are dated March 1942, just before Arikawa's incarceration at the Manzanar War Relocation Center. The album contains a graduation class portrait taken inside Manzanar, but it does not appear that Arikawa is part of this group (she graduated from high school in 1937). Ephemeral items include school programs, and an identification card belonging to Arikawa's brother, John, age 15.
photCL 637