Port of Philadelphia entry of merchandise and return of merchandise documents

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  Letters of Hiram Dwight Pierce and related documents [microform] : 1849-1850

  Manuscripts

  Microfilm of typescript letters from Hiram Dwight Pierce to his wife Sarah Jane Palmer, letters from Sarah to Hiram, notes from the Geneva Gazette, portions of Pierce's 1850 diary, and biographical notes and anecdotes by his grandson. The first few frames are of extracts of the Geneva Gazette from 1848-1849 recounting gold digging in California, specifically mentioning the Ontario Trojan Band and the Rensselaer County Exploring Company. The next portion of the film is entitled "Letters of a Forty-Niner, Hiram Dwight Pierce of Troy, N.Y. to his wife, Sarah Jane Pierce." The letters, written from March 1849-October 1850, recount Pierce's experiences traveling to California and digging for gold in the Maricopa area. Pierce gives detailed descriptions of sailing along the coast of Florida to Havana on the mail steamer Falcon; of stopping in New Orleans; of departing Chagres, Panama, on the steamer Orus, traveling across the Isthmus, and staying for several weeks in Panama while waiting for the Falcon to return (he eventually sailed to San Francisco on the Sylph in late July); of his stay in San Francisco, where he reflected on his religious convictions and noted the plurality of cultures around him ("You cannot name a County or an Island that is represented with all their peculiarity of dress and custom," he wrote to Sarah, "Some of them most ridiculous in the extreme"); mining for gold at Mormon Island in August 1849; going to Maricopa in January 1850 ("I have felt very uneasy about being 7 1/2 months from home and yet having done nothing for myself worth naming," he lamented); of gold mining at Washington Flat and Long Canyon; and of returning to San Francisco in October 1850 and planning his voyage home. The next portion of the microfilm is entitled "Letters of Sarah Jane Pierce to her Husband, Hiram D. Pierce," and includes several letters Sarah sent to Hiram from May 1849-August 1850, mostly recounting conditions at home. The "Story of Grandfather's Diary" by Pierce's grandson Warren Travell (son of his eldest daughter Elvira) gives biographical notes on Pierce, an account of finding his diary, and an anecdote on Pierce's homecoming in 1851. The "Diary of H.D. Pierce" is incomplete, and although it includes some brief daily entries from about 1850, it mainly consists of extracts such as the prices of goods in California ("Forty-Niner Prices") and a list of people named in the original diary. The microfilm ends with an 1849 letter from Geneva Gazette writer George R. Parburt (who went by the pseudonym LUOF) to Gazette editor S.H. Parker, which recounts Parburt's voyage of the ship Sylph and a brief account by physician James L. Tyson of conditions in the gold fields in 1850.

  MSS MFilm 00044

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  Travels from Los Angeles City to Malibu Canyon and return

  Manuscripts

  This manuscript recounts an adventurous trip made by Sidney Bernard Reeve to and from a surveying job in 1901. The Santa Monica Land and Water Company hired him to look for a potential dam and reservoir site in the Malibu Canyon located in the Santa Monica Mountains. Accompanied by two of his assistants, Reeve rented horses, a phaeton, and a driver from the Tally Ho Stables in Los Angeles. The group traveled on El Camino Real to the Cahuenga Pass and continued to follow the historic route as they headed west across the southern portion of the San Fernando Valley. After they passed through Rancho El Encino, Old Calabasas, and Calabasas proper, they continued west and crossed the Calabasas divide and then entered the Las Virgenes Canyon. They were directed to an old wagon trail which led to the Malibu Canyon. After they made it there, Reeve examined the potential location for the Dam Site, but he and his men were suddenly startled to hear a rough voice coming from the cliffs above, which commanded them to throw up their hands in the air. Since the men confronting them had their guns pointed at them, the unarmed Reeve and his unarmed companions complied with this unfriendly request. Reeve managed to use diplomacy to calm the gunmen down. The gang then invited them to have some lunch, and they felt compelled to accept. This meal almost turned deadly when Reeve simply pulled out his handkerchief - two revolvers were suddenly pointed at him. Fortunately, tensions were quickly eased, and Reeve and his men were soon permitted to be on their way. With this dangerous situation behind them, Reeve's group began to head back to Los Angeles.

  mssHM 4370

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  Henry P. Fleischman journal

  Manuscripts

  Fleischman's journal starts on December 13, 1812 while he is onboard the brig Hunter, which the British ship Phoebe captured on December 23rd. In his journal, Fleischman details how he and his crew mates board the Phoebe and sail for Plymouth where they are put on the prison ship Hector. Fleischman complains about the lack of food and water and the treatment he and his men receive in prison by the British. He also makes comments upon the new prisoners coming in everyday from various American ships that had been captured, as well as the sickness and death onboard. While in prison, he goes ashore to Plymouth to make an official complaint about the prison conditions to an American agent. He and his men eventually get transferred to several different prison ships and there are daily rumors that they are going to be exchanged or paroled. When this part of his journal ends, it is April 1813 and he had been moved to a prison ship at the Chatham Dockyard in Kent. The journal jumps to May 31, and Fleischman is on the frigate Chesapeake; he then details the battle between his ship and the frigate Shannon, including the wounding and eventual death of his captain James Lawrence and the capture of the Chesapeake by the Shannon. He also includes a list of officers killed and wounded during the battle.

  mssHM 66770

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  Mary Cadwalader Jones travel documents and letters

  Manuscripts

  This small group of items include several travel documents belonging to Mary Cadwalader Jones, including passports, visas, etc., for travels to France in 1914 and 1915. One of the documents is a permit to "travel by motor vehicle," in France, for Edith Wharton, critic Percy Lubbock (whose signatures are on the document), Mary Cadwalader Jones, and their chauffeur Charles Cook (1915, September 13). There are also two letters by Walter H. Page, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom: one letter to Jones and a letter of introduction for Jones to present to people she meets on her trip to France. There is also a "Four-leaved clover from Verdun" in an envelope. There are items in English and French.

  mssHM 81398 (a-k)

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  Christopher Isherwood photographs on Saltair Avenue

  Manuscripts

  The three photographs include: (a) photo of Christopher Isherwood sitting at a desk in an office; (b) photo of bookshelves; and (c) photo of sink with light above it. These photographs were taken in the apartment on Saltair Avenue, Los Angeles, where Isherwood lived from 1952 to 1953. The photographer is unknown.

  mssHM 83417 (a-c)

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  William S. McBride diary

  Manuscripts

  Diary kept by William S. McBride as he traveled overland from Indiana to Utah in 1850. He departed from Goshen, Indiana, on March 31 in company with Eli W. Summey, Fred Summey, Enoch Willett, and Louis Mitchel, who were already calling themselves "Californians." On April 7 they took the steamer Falcon to St. Louis (which McBride called a "second Babel"), and immediately departed on the steamer Globe. Their steamer was delayed several times and it took ten days to reach Jefferson City, and another five to arrive in St. Joseph. While they camped nearby for several days, McBride took the opportunity to observe his fellow emigrants, and although he was impressed by their appearance ("All seemed jovial and full of life...the horses too...pranced along like gay studs on a celebration day," he noted), he was not entirely caught up in the moment. "This is the going out upon the plains," he wrote. "We will see by & bye how it contrasts with the 'coming in from the plains.'"His group departed in a company of 14 wagons on May 2. He writes often of hunting buffalo and antelope (which "made excellent soups"), and that while he himself had cut out a buffalo tongue (which "would be considered a delicate morsel...at St. Louis"), he "felt a deep sympathy" for buffalo approaching the pioneer guns, as they seemed to be "running the gauntlet." He writes extensively of his surroundings, including a mirage, a "very singular but...common occurrence" which made "men...[look] like giants 14 or 15 feet high...horses double their natural size, and...rivers of water when there was no water." McBride also records the initial high morale in camp, as "we often had music and singing." But about a week after their arrival at Fort Kearney on May 16, McBride began to worry about his party's progress, noting that they had fallen behind and were being passed by emigrants who left St. Joseph several days after they did. Blaming the large size of the wagon train for delays, McBride and his companions went on ahead of the rest of the company. They quickly traversed a Sioux village (McBride formed a favorable opinion of the Sioux people), climbed a rock in the area of Chimney Rock (at "no little danger to life & limb"), passed Scott's Bluffs, caught their first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains, crossed the Laramie River, and arrived at Fort Laramie on May 31. He noted the diminished morale of emigrants at Fort Laramie, and noted that many of them were forced to leave their wagons and horses behind, "in some instances sold for little or nothing, or abandoned." By June 1 he reached the Black Hills, and soon crossed the Platte River, observed Independence Rock (which he recognized from a picture he had seen in his "school boy days"), passed Devil's Gate, and reached the Big Sandy on June 16 ("I believe we are in Mexican Territory," McBride guessed on June 17). On June 18 he crossed the Green River with the aid of a "half breed" mountaineer who was "gifted with no ordinary degree of intelligence & energy." He subsequently passed Fort Hall and the Oregon Trail and crossed the Red Fork (on a "very inferior ferry, constructed out of logs pinned together" and attached to "a heavy cable"). On the other side of the river he observed a "very white human skull set up on a stick" which had been "very much used of late as a kind of tablet on which memoranda were written." On June 25 he had his first view of the Utah Valley, and arrived in Salt Lake City on June 26. McBride gives an extensive description of the Salt Lake Valley, and praises the Mormons for having done "a great deal in a short time." But his overall opinion of the Mormons was "very poor," and he described them as "poor silly fanatics, reckless renegades, and blood seekers [with]...no moral honesty." Guided by "artful...dishonest leaders," McBride thought they were prone to excess drinking, "concubinage," lying, cheating, and extortion. The diary ends in Salt Lake City on June 26. The entire diary appears to have been copied over by McBride from his original notes. Also includes a photograph of McBride.

  mssHM 16956