Manuscripts

D. A. Pimpell letter to his mother

Image not available

Description: This letter home, written from Donner Lake in Placer County, California, contains an account of the progress on construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States. He states that they are now "100 miles from Sacramento and two miles from the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains...there is about five or six thousand Chinemen [sic] at work here at the present time."
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1867, November 24.
Call number: mssHM 83401
Creator: Pimpell, D. A(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Robert H. Rubin Books, April 2017.

Zachariah Heywood letter to Jonathan Heywood

Manuscripts

In this letter addressed "Dear Brother," Zachariah Heywood writes that he, along with eight others, has found a claim in Placer County valued at one thousand dollars a share. He hopes to be able to return home the following spring.

mssHM 4207

Image not available

H. C. D. Baker letter to his family

Manuscripts

In this letter addressed to "Dear brother and sister," H.C.D. Baker writes of his current situation in Sacramento. With lithograph on final page depicting the plights of fictitious miner "John Smith."

mssHM 16548

Image not available

John D. Mitchell letters

Manuscripts

One of the letters is a 16-page detailed account of Mitchell's voyage around Cape Horn and arrival in San Francisco in April 1849. The other letters are about Mitchell's experiences living in San Francisco and Sacramento including witnessing several hangings; his letters also give details regarding his attempts at mining for gold.

mssHM 63944-63950

Image not available

Map of Yakima Region Washington Ter. / By A. D. Wilson, Chief Topographer

Rare Books

Alt. title from cover. See 317923 for Northern Transcontinental Survey in Montana. At head of title: "Northern Transcontinental Survey Rafael Pumpelly, Director." Ms note: 317925. Prime meridian: GM. Relief: contour lines. Graphic Scale: Miles. Projection: Cylindrical. Printing Process: Lithography.

317925

Image not available

John D. Crawford letter to Medorem Crawford

Manuscripts

In this letter to his brother, John Crawford writes that he has just finished building a house for himself ten miles outside Georgetown, California. In addition, he has also built a public house at the head of Otter Creek, and hopes that it will do good business. Despite the varying success of mining in recent times, he considers his prospects for the next year to be looking well, and after that time, he hopes to settle somewhere in the west or south.

mssHM 16378

Image not available

Theodore S. McLellan letters

Manuscripts

The letters, which are written to McLellan's wife, Mary, discuss McLellan's voyage to and life in California. He tried mining when he first got to California, but he eventually gave it up and took a job in a printing press. His letters also describe both the people and scenes of Sacramento and San Francisco. Two of the letters include pictorial lettersheets including "View of Sacramento City, From Washington Published by The Placer Times." Also included with the letters are five documents: three land deeds, a draft, and a bill of sale for the bark America

mssMcLellan

D. A. Pimpell letter to his mother

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

You might also be interested in

Zachariah Heywood letter to Jonathan Heywood

H. C. D. Baker letter to his family

John D. Mitchell letters

Map of Yakima Region Washington Ter. / By A. D. Wilson, Chief Topographer

John D. Crawford letter to Medorem Crawford

Theodore S. McLellan letters