Manuscripts
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
This group contains material related to mining activities in the White Pine Mining District, Nevada. Included are a handwritten memo of the costs of a proposed "Smelting and Mining Company" along with a list of shareholders, a memorandum of agreement signed by Jeremiah Wilbur and relating to his purchase of "St. Paul" silver mine in White Pine, and a variety of printed prospectuses from the Pinto Consolidated Silver Mining and Smelting Company, The Pinto Silver Mining Company, the Hamilton Mining and Smelting Company, and the Hamilton Smelting Company, all based in London, England. Mines mentioned in these documents include the Maryland Mine, the Buckeye and Champion Mines, the South Aurora Mine, the Eberhardt and Aurora Mines, the Silver Star Mine, the Massachusetts Mine, the Marion Mine, the Eureka Mine, the Ethan Allen Mine, and the Ebenezer Mine. Several blank applications for shares are also included.
mssHM 72275-72277
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Manuscripts
Materials on quartz and gold mining operations mainly in Tuolumne County and Placer County, California. Items include an 1884 letter to Henry G. Wetmore from Charles L. Lang of the Rising Sun Mine in Placer County in which he writes of "the idiotic manner in which my partner Comstock is running the mine;" an 1876 letter from C.J. Moore asking Wetmore to invest in the harness leather trade; an 1877 letter from C.J. Pilsbury to Wetmore with mining engineering instructions; an 1888 letter from E.A. Roberts to Wetmore about selling a mine in Sonora; an 1877 letter to Wetmore from Sam Rudolph at the Bower Cave Mine in Colorado regarding quartz testing; an 1880 description of the Well Rough Mine and statements regarding the collapse of the Soulsbyville Mill; an indenture between the Duchow brothers and Wetmore for the Lony Mine; and a printed pamphlet on the Mazeppa Gold Mining Company in Tuolumne County, California.
mssHM 73077-73084
![Record book "A" of the Box Elder County Mining District [microform] : 1880](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN45EH28Y%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)
Manuscripts
Microfilm of Book "A" of the Box Elder Mining District records, beginning with the By-Laws of the Box Elder Mining District adopted August 7, 1880, and signed by Committee secretary and chairman F.J.P. Pascoe. The book also includes minutes from a meeting of the Box Elder Mining District held at Brigham City on August 26, 1880, and notices of location for various mines, including the Highland Mine and extensions, the Yellow Jacket Mine and extensions, the King Fisher Mine, the Sunny Side Mine, the Great Western Tunnel Mine, the Nabob Mine, the Elizabeth Mine, the Louisa Mine, the Arabella Mine, the American Mine, the Uintrah Mine, the Lake View Mine, the Excelsior Mine, the Keystone Mine, the Henrietta Mine, the Star Metal Mine, the Locators Storm Cloud Mine, and the Box Elder Quarry.
MSS MFilm 00120
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Visual Materials
A collection of photographs and maps compiled by American geologist and petroleum engineer Ralph Arnold (1875-1961), documenting his pioneering work in oil and mineral exploration, chiefly in the Western United States, Mexico and Venezuela, from 1900 to 1954. The collection centers on 64 photograph albums that span 50 years of Arnold's life and work. Photographs are accompanied by Arnold's typed captions identifying geological features; oil and mining activities; technical data; and dates and locations, i.e. often an oil or mining "district" or "field," such as "Sunset Field" (California). Subject matter includes geological and topographical features such as rock formations, faults and schisms, mountain structure, geothermal activity, and open land with potential drilling or mining spots. Earthquake faults are seen and described in many of Arnold's California investigations. There are also views of small and large-scale oil operations (by individuals and by organized companies); details of oil flow and reservoirs; asphalt; drilling equipment; workers and fields of oil wells. Arnold's work took him all over the Western United States, particularly California oil fields, but also Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, Alaska and other states. From 1911-1916 he was primarily in South America, and in the 1920s-1940s, mostly in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Mining operations are the focus of some albums, showing investigations for tin, gold and other minerals; mines and ore processing, all with detailed descriptions. Arnold also often photographed people: colleagues and business associates, oil lease owners on their properties; workers (particularly Black and Asian workers in Venezuela); and friends and family. Personal photographs are throughout the album, such as of his wife, Winninette, and their two daughters; Stokes family members (Winninette's family) in South Pasadena; and alumni of Pasadena High School and Stanford University. Arnold was an avid gardener and the albums contain detail views of cactus and tropical plants, and scenes of Arnold collecting wild orchids in Trinidad, Venezuela and Mexico. The maps date from 1880-1948 and include U.S.G.S. and geological maps, California oil fields and well locations; layouts of mines, and various tract maps showing oil company-owned land.
Visual Materials
A panoramic view of the Consolidated Gold Mine at Mojave, in Kern County. The main mining building in the center is low, built along the side of a hill, with sheds and cylindrical structures built around it. There is also a mining structure on the far left, opening out of the ground, with a pulley system at the top. Two men, one seated and one standing, are on the side of a hill on the left, next to a pile of discarded rocks. A few dirt roads wind past the mine and into the hills in the distance. Writing in white in the bottom center reads "Photo no. 313 ; C.C. Pierce & Co ; 1572 W. Pico Blvd. ; Los Angeles, Calif." and "Consolidated Gold Mine ; Mojave, Calif."
photCL 470 (207)
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Manuscripts
The collection contains letters, documents, including 190,000 reports, 1200 maps, 500 photographs, and 8200 pieces of printed material related to the life and career of Ralph Arnold. Subjects represented in the collection include: mining, petroleum, and seismology in the Western United States as well as Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and South America; political papers from 1914 to 1956, mostly concerning the campaign of Herbert Hoover for president; family and personal papers from 1836 to 1961 of Arnold and his father, Delos Arnold, containing source material on Pasadena and Southern California local history. The collection also contains Arnold's field books, including those made at Stanford University with the U.S. Geological Survey from 1900 to 1909.
mssArnold
photCL 311