OPEN TODAY: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.

Tickets

Manuscripts

Agnes Gallicker diary of an automobile trip from Iowa to the Pacific Coast

Image not available

Description
Diary kept by Agnes Gallicker as she and seven friends drove from Iowa across the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast from June to August of 1924. Most of the women were inexperienced drivers, and Agnes makes frequent references to the difficulties of automobile travel, including punctured tires and other mechanical failures, avoiding a "speed cop," and navigating often unpaved or damaged roadways. Agnes herself was a confident driver, and on her days off from driving noted that "my suggestions (driving from the backseat) were well (?) received." Agnes also describes a variety of fellow motorists they met along the way, including three young Dutchmen who helped them with car troubles at different stops along their route. Some encounters were less successful, and Agnes's motto became "Don't pick up with strange men." The diary opens on June 12, the day the women departed from their homes in Iowa. They spent much of their time traveling along the Lincoln Highway and spent each night camping out. In Iowa they passed through Marshalltown and Ledges State Park before driving quickly through Nebraska. Agnes noted with some awe their first view of the Rocky Mountains from Goodrich, Colorado. They also passed through Denver (where Agnes and another of the girls were "looked upon as Indians - People came out...to gawk at us"), Bear Creek Canyon, Colorado Springs, Big Thompson Canyon, and Rocky Mountain National Park, and hiked to Bear Lake (June 25). In Wyoming they drove through Laramie and stopped for a picnic after leaving Fort Steele. "Any place was as good as the other so we ate out on a desert," Agnes wrote, adding that "sand storms [are] similar to Iowa snow storms" (June 27). In Utah they saw Ogden and Salt Lake City (they missed some of the Mormon sites due to arriving on a Sunday, but eventually saw an organ concert at the Tabernacle), and in Idaho drove from Boise to The Dalles along the Columbia River. After ferrying across the Willamette River, they drove down to California, where they saw Mount Shasta and stopped in Redding, Stockton, Buck Meadows (near Yosemite, where Agnes did not go), and Oakland, and saw the Presidio Recruiting Station in San Francisco, went wading in the Pacific Ocean, and passed by U.C. Berkeley. When they tried to pay a portion of a car repair bill in pennies, Agnes wrote that the attendant told them "Californians don't care for pennies - they throw them away. Rich!!". The women then drove north toward Oregon, passing Mount Siskiyou and stopping at Klamath Falls and Crater Lake. In Washington they saw Mount Rainier National Park, Seattle, Snoqualmie Falls, and Spokane, and took a day trip to Victoria, British Columbia. In early August they began their trip home, and Agnes' diary describes touring the State Prison and Anaconda Reduction Works in Montana (Aug.4), spending two days at Yellowstone National Park (Aug.6-7), and driving through the Badlands to the Red River Valley. Her diary ends on August 17, when they were near the Elk River.
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date
1924.
Call number
mssHM 78235
Creator
Gallicker, Agnes(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Purchased from Michael Brown Rare Books, April 9, 2013.
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

You might also be interested in

  • Image not available

    Adams, Lady Agnes. 1 letter (1920) to Cornelius Van Hemert Engert, London, England

    Manuscripts

    Lady Agnes saw a French play and also saw Pavlova perform. She is happy that Sir John will not be lecturing in Dublin where they would be in the middle of all that "fuss." An article by Lady Agnes published in the Daily Chronicle about American university students' behavior is enclosed.

    mssAdams

  • Image not available

    Angus G. McAllister letters to Agnes McArdle

    Manuscripts

    A series of letters written by Angus McAllister after he relocated from California to the small community of Paisley, in south central Lake County, Oregon. The letters are written to his future wife, Agnes McArdle, who was living in Tuolumne County, California. In the letters, McAllister writes about the variety of jobs he is doing (hauling lumber, ranching, cattle driving), weather, town dances, memories of his Tuolumne friends, and his desire to return to Agnes.

    mssHM 83877-83885

  • Image not available

    Adams, Lady Agnes. 1 letter to Sara Engert, Los Angeles

    Manuscripts

    Lady Agnes writes she often reads of Mr. Engert in newspaper accounts and even saw him in a film as he attended the coronation of the Emperor of Ethiopia. Lady Agnes is moving to the Hollywood Hotel as the Canterbury Inn is being torn down.

    mssAdams

  • Image not available

    Mae Donovan Dihel diary of a trip to Mexico City

    Manuscripts

    Diary kept by Donnie Dihel while on her trip from Lexington, Kentucky, to Mexico City in 1938. The author makes several comments about the conditions she saw due to the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. She also makes several comments regarding the African Americans she saw during her travels as well as the people of Mexico. Accompanied by a letter to Mae Donovan Dihel and a family-related clipping, 1937 and 1951.

    mssHM 84013

  • Image not available

    Agnes Margaret Gore Browne note to Grace Hubble

    Manuscripts

    This is a note from Agnes Margaret Gore Browne written to Grace Hubble. It is on a letter originally sent to Gore Browne from her Aunt. Gore Browne wrote on the letter and forwarded it to Grace Hubble. In the letter she discusses the book Period piece by Gwen Raverat (1952) and well as Gore Browne's family.

    mssHM 81270

  • Image not available

    Photograph album of automobile trips through the West and Mexico

    Visual Materials

    A photograph album containing 128 photographs documenting two separate excursions by automobile, one undertaken in 1937 and the other in 1939. The first trip appears to have been taken by a family group of five who may have lived in Iowa or Missouri. Their trip photographs are all captioned, and include images of their group and the car, the roads, the sights they visited, and sometimes motels or cabins. They traveled through Texas, New Mexico (including Laguna Pueblo), Arizona, and California, where they visited numerous locations. They are seen at stops in and between Los Angeles and San Francisco, including missions, Hollywood, and three snapshots taken at the Huntington Library. A typed record of the miles traveled, gas used, and cabins they stayed in is pasted to the back of the album. The 1939 trip features mostly photographs of Texas, including parks, landmarks, and visits to friends' houses. They also visited Mexico, including a bullfighting ring, and New Orleans, Louisiana. One photograph of a wooden shack in Arkansas is captioned indicating it is an African American dwelling.

    photCL 640