Manuscripts
Samuel Morse letters
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Samuel Finley Breese Morse : three letters written while he was inventing his electromagnetic telegraph
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721716
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John L. Morse papers, (bulk 1850-1853)
Manuscripts
The papers contain 18 letters Morse wrote home while he was in California mining for gold (the first few letters discuss his trip to California via Havana, Cuba, and Chagres, Panama). The majority of the letters are to his wife, Susan, but Morse also wrote letters to his son Allen Benton Morse, his daughter Cadelia, and his friend Rufus R. Cook. There is also one letter by his brother-in-law, D. W. Davis, who accompanied him to California. In the letters, which are photostats, Morse details his continuous search for gold and money, and the harsh conditions of living and working in California. He eventually settles in Gold Hill and does find gold. The majority of his letters are about how much he misses his family and his home as well as his plans for going back to Michigan; he also talks about San Francisco and Sacramento. Also included is a 1938 brochure entitled "Historical Detroit: A Guide to Points of Interest," and several newspaper clippings from 1950 entitled "100 Years Ago," that talk about the California Gold Rush.
mssHM 66774-66793
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Josiah Royce letters to Henry L. Oak
Manuscripts
This group of manuscripts is a series of letters from philosopher and historian Josiah Royce to Henry L. Oak, a librarian in California who was part of the founding of the Bancroft Library, which was known as the Pacific Library in its early years. The letters are dated between 1884 and 1886. In HM 20132, Royce writes of the book on California history that he is writing, with advice from Oak. Details of Royce's interview with General John C. Frémont and a possible conspiracy are in HM 20147 and HM 20133. Royce tells of his trip to Washington D. C. to search for "the Frémost documents" in HM 20134, where he failed to find a trace of "any secret instruction" for Frémont. It appears that Royce may have found such evidence in Oak's collections at the Bancroft Library, and considers presenting it to Frémont to gauge his reaction. Royce gives Oak permission to use whatever information from the interview he may find interesting for his own purposes. In his own book, he has included "an elaborate attack on Frémont's honor." Most of the letters are concerned with Frémont's apparent indiscretion and Royce's pending book on the matter, and Royce is keeping Oak informed as Oak's information played an important role in Royce's developing story. HM 20138, dated 1885, August 29, has cross-hatch writing on the first page. By mid-1886 (HM 20143, June 20), Royce's book has been published, and he discusses the resulting reviews and criticism. In July, Royce is happy to accept a list of suggestions from Oak to improve a future edition of his book (HM 20144, July 26), and upon the finding of a mistake in his book, asks Oak to "keep this on file as record of my discovery of my own blunder" while also requesting him to "let me know in case there should be any noteworthy attack on my book from any respectable source" (HM 20145, July 29).
mssHM 20132-20147
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Greenlee D. Letcher letter to Delia F. Morse
Manuscripts
Correspondence of Martha D. Stone and her extended family. Martha D. Stone's correspondence contains letters and documents on family history, including those from 1908 to 1909. Besides the family members, the correspondents include Greenlee D. Letcher, Lawrence Washington (1836-1926) and Frank P. Flint. Also included are four letters, 1916 to 1918, from Jordan M. Stone describing his life in Banning and Pasadena, California, and photographs of Jordan M. and William Welch Stone at Hollister Ranch, California. Jonathan C. Gibson's correspondence includes two letters to his wife written while away from home; the letter of October 18, 1817, contains a vivid description of the flood of emigrants headed to "Mizura;" the letters to his daughter written between 1840 and 1846 discuss family and local news of Culpeper County and details of some cases that he argued. Also included is a letter, 1821, January, from his kinsman and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Fayette Ball (1791-1836), describing bills under consideration. Letters that Frances Ann Gibson Welch Burt and J. Mallory Welch exchanged in the summer of 1844, during her visit to Virginia. In the letter of August 10, 1844, written on pro-Clay pictorial stationery, she described a "Whig festival" in Dandridge, attended by some "thousand persons;" and on August 26, 1844, she gives an account of a Methodist camp meeting in "Prince William Springs." Also included are letters from her friends and relatives. The letter, January 1, 1847, of her friend Mary V. Moore describes her stay at the Olympian Springs, Kentucky, her wedding to a young man she met there, and the busy social life of a newlywed in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. There are also the journal and letters of Mary Emma (Mamie) Cathell Grace (1861-1937), a native of Philadelphia who attended New Orleans High School. The first portion of the diary covers the school year of 1878, the entries describe school studies, including lessons taught by Susan Blanchard Elder (1835-1923) and Mary Humphrey Stamps (1835-); the Mardi Gras festivities, particularly the parade staged by the Knights of Momus, the outbreak of yellow fever, etc. The second portion of the diary gives an account of her trip to Philadelphia to meet her father and siblings. In 1885, Mamie married Dr. Jesse Edward Grace (1852-1895) and moved to Weimar, Texas. The collection also includes photographs, newspaper clippings from The Asheville Citizen, and ephemera.
mssHM 74670
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Samuel Langhorne Clemens letter to Mary J. (Mason) Fairbanks
Manuscripts
A.L.S. (incomplete) 1 p. Consists of page 5 only. This page is dated January 26, 1871, in the Mark Twain's Letters (University of California Press), volume 4, and is probably the continuation of HM 14269.
HM 14271.