Manuscripts

William W. Bolster diary and photograph album

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Description: Bolster's diary (55 pages) begins July 15, 1899, as he left Maine for his trip West. He arrived in Sioux Falls January 21. Bolster gives detailed accounts of his travels though the Black Hills, and Badlands of South Dakota, including visits to Interior, Farmingdale, Rapid City, Spearfish, and Deadwood. Bolster also talks a lot about the people his group met along the way including a drunk cowboy who shot up a saloon and "Hank Clifford and his Indian wife." He also describes his experience in a cattle stampede and troubles with the covered wagon. There is a typed transcript of the diary. HM 81276
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1899, July 18 to August 25.
Call number: mssHM 81276-81277
Creator: Bolster, William W (1873-1944)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Swann Americana Sale 2380, Lot 231, by the William Reese Company, April 14, 2015.

W. Frederick Mayes diary

Manuscripts

This diary, kept by W. Frederick Mayes, begins on November 22, 1869 and continues to November 27, 1870. Mayes kept this diary while he was in Honduras building a railroad. He talks about the railroad, his fellow employees, the local people, the villages he comes to, the weather, the geography, etc. He specifically talks about Chamelecón, the Chamelecón River, and the villages of El Chapparo and El Espino, Honduras. Mayes drew several sketches in his diary. These sketches include scenery, villages and people.

mssHM 52253

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E. C. Dunn diary

Manuscripts

The diary only contains one month of entries. In the diary Dunn talks about his experience of living in a mining camp near Weaverville. He talks in detail about snow storms that caused the roofs of buildings to cave in and rain that caused floods; his fellow miners, including one man who got drunk and was later found dead in the snow; prices of provisions such as beef, pork, flour, barley, and potatoes; a New Year's ball held at the Independence Hotel in Weaverville; and problems with competing miners in Stewart's Flat.

mssHM 67919

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Edward W. Syle diary

Manuscripts

Edward W. Syle began writing this diary in April 1851 after six years of missionary work in China, though he still expressed shock at cultural differences. When he moved to San Francisco, he seemed distressed to find the Chinese so ragged and impoverished, and disappointed by the widespread discrimination they faced. He also commented on the circumstances of various Gold Rush mining camps. After he left San Francisco, the closing months of this diary were written back in Shanghai in October 1856.

mssHM 83407

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William T. Cook diary

Manuscripts

Cook's diary starts on March 12 when he leaves San Francisco for Alaska and ends September 23 after arriving back home in Lodi, California. Cook talks about traveling on ship, his arrival, his daily tasks, mining camps, etc. The diary also contains lists of supplies with prices and some accounting. With note found in diary.

mssHM 83409

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Photograph albums and travel diary of the Philippines by sailor aboard the USS Pocomoke (AV-9)

Visual Materials

Two photograph albums, one containing a 60-page travel diary, by U.S. Navy crew member W. A. (William Arthur) Isaminger, documenting his experiences in the Philippines during and after World War II. His travel log titled "Navy Life" begins in March 1944 when he joined the navy, then describes his time stationed in the Philippines through February 1946, when he returns home to Seattle, Washington. He was aboard the USS Pocomoke (AV-9), an aircraft carrier that operated primarily in the Pacific theatre during the war and serviced military seaplanes. Along with the diary are handwritten entries on mileage between various locations on his travels from Seattle to the Philippines and back, addresses of acquaintances and family, and a few pieces of ephemera. There are 173 photographs in the two albums, all with handwritten captions. The images include sailors and local residents, village scenes, churches and civic buildings, the statue of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, a sunken Japanese ship in Manila harbor, and a Japanese internment camp and prisoners. There are also several images of partially nude native women and children, two scenes of cockfighting, a man with elephantitus, and a man holding the decapitated head of a Japanese man. The album also features images of activities on board the ship, various seaplanes, and a series of photographs documenting examples of "nose art": female pinups painted on airplane fuselage. Also includes a printed menu in honor of Victory Day, dated August 15, 1945. Locations include Zamboanga, Mindanao, Luzon, Puerto Princesa, Calicoan Island, Samar Island, Taclogan, and Tawitawi Island.

photCL 677

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William Hammond Hale diary

Manuscripts

The first five months of this diary were written in Minneapolis (except a week long trip to Washington D.C. for President Roosevelt's inauguration in March). Hale left for the mines on May 24, first stopping at Seattle. He arrived at his father's mine on June 7. Hale spent June through October at the Atlin and Willow Creek Mining Company in Discovery, British Columbia. Hale writes in detail about the mines, his work there, his fellow miners, and his social life. On his way home, Hale stopped at the Coppermount Mine run by the Alaska Copper Company on Prince of Wales Island (another mine in which his family was invested). He spent a month there observing the copper smelting operations. He was back home in Minneapolis for Christmas.

mssHM 81275

William W. Bolster diary and photograph album

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W. Frederick Mayes diary

E. C. Dunn diary

Edward W. Syle diary

William T. Cook diary

Photograph albums and travel diary of the Philippines by sailor aboard the USS Pocomoke (AV-9)

William Hammond Hale diary