Manuscripts

Florence Grubb travel diary

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Description: In this American travel diary, Florence Grubb, describes activities and events that took place in 1890 during an extended trip throughout western United States and Canada. Accomplished mostly by train, the trip took over six months and covered towns in Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and British Columbia; as well as leisurely stays in San Francisco and San Diego.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1890.
Call number: mssHM 81571
Creator: Grubb, Florence (1851-1919)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Ian Brabner, Rare Americana, January 27, 2014.

John and Florence Van Loageos travel diaries

Manuscripts

The two diaries document the Van Loageos' trip through the United States, Canada, and some of Europe. One is written by John Van Loageos and the other is written by Florence Loageos. The diaries cover, in detail, the people the authors meet on their trip (with specific commentary on the poverty they see), various tourist destinations, and the couple's daily activities. In his diary, John Van Loageos uses a racial slur to refer to a couple he meets in Florida.

mssHM 84092

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Lundy B. Hogue diary of a trip from Ohio to California

Manuscripts

Hogue began his trip to California in July 1875 from Belmont, Ohio. He traveled through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Nevada by railroad. He talks about the Missouri River, Cheyenne, Mormon villages, Fort Bridger, the Humboldt River Valley, and hundreds of Chinese workers he sees along the way. Hogue arrived in Sacramento and then he proceeded to travel to San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Ventura. While in California, Hogue purchased land. He returned to Ohio in January 1876. The volume also contains several entries from another trip Hogue took in 1882.

mssHM 82444

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Diary of travels through California

Manuscripts

Diary details travels by train and driving excursions (by horse-drawn vehicles) around California from February to April 1898. The diarist first journeys along the Pacific coast to Santa Barbara, where he describes the weather and climate, the town, and a visit to a local mission. He takes excursions from Santa Barbara to nearby Montecito, Carpinteria, Ventura, Goleta, and Naples, observing the homes of wealthy Easterners, large grapevines, the oil industry, cattle ranches, and the drought. He then travels to Fresno, where he writes about the city, malaria, heat and drought, water supply, the fruit industry, and a visit to the city's Chinatown. From Fresno, the diarist travels to the Monterey Peninsula via Tracy, Livermore, and San Jose. He describes the weather, land prices, and the towns of Pacific Grove and Monterey, and visits a giant live oak tree. The traveler then moves on to Southern California, stopping in Pasadena and Santa Monica before spending several days in San Diego, where he stays at the Coronado Hotel and writes of the weather, and the houses, streets, and landscape of the city, which he dislikes; he also visits La Jolla and the "Ramona House" adobe (possibly the Casa de Estudillo in San Diego). After a brief side trip to Tijuana, the diarist travels to San Bernadino County and the towns of San Bernadino, Riverside, and Pomona, with an added excursion into the mountains. Entries discuss the area's landscape, citrus groves, and the challenges of the orange industry. He ends his California journey in Los Angeles, leaving on April 8 and arriving in New York 10 days later. Final entries discuss the weather and scenery enroute and include some detailed description of the Colorado Springs area. The Southern Pacific Railroad is mentioned several times in the journal. The diary is in pencil, written in a bound "Memoranda" notebook. Also present is a second, unbound journal by the same author detailing an October 1898 hunting trip, most likely to Maine, which primarily contains descriptions of the weather (17 pages). In addition, there are three unused postcards depicting Los Angeles area real estate subdivisions, the Pacific Grove bathing beach, and the Riverside Salt Lake Railroad viaduct.

mssHM 84034

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Florence Marx Hellman theatrical diaries

Manuscripts

The diaries contain detailed descriptions and critiques of many plays, concerts and performers, with printed programs and photographs pasted into the volumes. The plays, operas and concerts were performed in theaters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Venice, Paris, London, Berlin, Munich and Vienna. The diaries also discuss automobile trips that the Hellmans took in Europe, current fashions, social life, etc. The diaries cover many well-known actors, singers, dancers, composers, playwrights and members of the British Royal Family including: Zoe Akins, Queen Alexandra, Judith Anderson, Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, J.M. Barrie, Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, Jack Buchanan, Billie Burke, Enrico Caruso, Noel Coward, Isadora Duncan, Queen Elizabeth II, Edith Evans, Geraldine Farrar, Lynn Fontanne, John Gielgud, Helen Hayes, Leslie Howard, Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, Alfred Lunt, W. Somerset Maugham, Henry Miller, Vaslaw Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Will Rogers and Peggy Wood. All of the volumes are in poor condition with loose covers, pages and bindings, but no pages or text have been lost.

mssHM 62931-62946

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Alpha Marsh Cary travel diary

Manuscripts

Although the diary is unsigned, it is reasonable to believe the diary was written by Alpha Marsh Cary from San Diego. The diary was kept during a journey that she and her parents took from San Diego to the East Coast and back again. Besides visiting family along the way, and in upstate New York, the family traveled through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New York City. On their journey home, they visited family in Colorado, stopped at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and visited San Francisco. The author details some of the activities she did while on the trip including reading, sewing, playing cards, going to amusement parks and Vaudeville shows, and seeing "moving pictures." The family also toured a medical museum near Washington, DC, led by its head, Dr. Daniel Lamb, and the Johns Hopkins Institute. They traveled by automobiles, train, streetcars, and even a steamer.

mssHM 84017

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Helen Kern Grills photograph album and diary

Manuscripts

A memory book kept by Helen Kern Grills during her trip west with her family beginning in May 1925 from her home in McKeesport, Pennsylvania to the West Coast, and ending back in Marion, Ohio. The album has a combination of 291 labeled photos and post cards and 45 typed pages of a diary of her trip. Also included are a Band program dated June 5, 1925 from Long Beach, CA; a movie house program dated June 20, 1925 from Long Beach, CA; a map of southern California; the June 25, 1925 Mount Lowe Daily News along with the history of Mt. Lowe Railway. There is a San Diego and Coronado Ferry Ticket and brochure on Yosemite National Park; a map of Yellowstone National Park and three Yellowstone National Park geyser schedules. There are also a substantial number of photographs and descriptions of Missions in California as well as Long Beach, California. The roughly three month trip was accomplished through the use of trains, cars, boats, horses and buses.

mssHM 82583

Florence Grubb travel diary

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John and Florence Van Loageos travel diaries

Lundy B. Hogue diary of a trip from Ohio to California

Diary of travels through California

Florence Marx Hellman theatrical diaries

Alpha Marsh Cary travel diary

Helen Kern Grills photograph album and diary