Manuscripts

Joe A.Y. letter to Harry

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Description: Joe A.Y. addresses this letter to his friend "Harry" from Skagway, Alaska Territory on August 3, 1897. A.Y. provides details about the Klondike Gold Rush, with a focus on the possibilities for growth and prosperity awaiting Skagway. He informs Harry about Skagway's geographic setting, business conditions, commodity prices, labor costs, his estimation of how to succeed financially in Alaska, and his enthusiasm for the territory.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Call number: mssHM 83908
Creator: A.Y., Joe(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from The Wayfarer's Bookshop, December 2019.
Dimensions: 20 cm :
Find out more: View in the Library catalog

W. H. Wheeler letters to his father

Manuscripts

Three autograph letters written from Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming Territory; the letters were written over a three month period in 1871. W. H. Wheeler wrote to his father with great enthusiasm about the many opportunities for prosperity he sees surrounding him in Wyoming and Utah territories. Although especially enthusiastic about the possibilities of outfitting miners hoping to exploit the region's mineral wealth, he also describes in detail the fabulous returns being made through the sales of mining claims in Utah as well as the steadily rising values of building lots in Evanston, Wyoming. Wheeler worked in the city's Union Pacific office, but was anxious to quit his desk job and to become a Western businessman in mining and outfitting ventures; in the letters, Wheeler requests money from his father for these ventures while extolling the many opportunities of realizing great profits. Two of the letters are written on Union Pacific stationary or forms and all three are in fragile condition with tearing along the folds.

mssHM 84048

Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter (page 1 of 3)

Manuscripts

Black and white photograph. First page of three of Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter, (photo of) photocopy. Letter contains advice regarding "the conduct of The Times for those who shall succeed... in its management."

mssLAT 01441

Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter (page 2 of 3)

Manuscripts

Black and white photograph. Second page of three of Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter, (photo of) photocopy. Letter contains advice regarding "the conduct of The Times for those who shall succeed... in its management."

mssLAT 01442

Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter (page 3 of 3)

Manuscripts

Black and white photograph. Third page of three of Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter, (photo of) photocopy. Letter contains advice regarding "the conduct of The Times for those who shall succeed... in its management."

mssLAT 01443

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George Schuknecht letter to "Dear Brother Julian,"

Manuscripts

In this 8-page letter, George Schuknecht is describing his trip from Buffalo to Dyea, Alaska (with a stop in Seattle). He also talks briefly about his camp at Dyea near the Chilkoot Pass, the Alaskan landscape and his preparation to "start down the river" to begin mining for gold. Schuknecht and three friends were in Dyea, awaiting the arrival of some of their equipment and provisions, which had to be shipped separately from Seattle.

mssHM 70413

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Robert Lewis Harris letters to Lucy W. Kimball

Manuscripts

Series of letters written by Robert L. Harris to his fiancée Lucy W. Kimball in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The letters begin with Harris' stay in Boston in early 1861 while awaiting instructions to travel to California as a railroad engineer. While in Boston Harris writes of his attendance of meetings held by the Franklin Club and the Freemasons, of an Easter service and festival, and of early Civil War fervor, particularly around the Lynn Armory (he writes that "I never before witnessed such perfect wildness of enthusiasm as was manifested in the streets today"). In late April Harris sailed for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and he writes extensively of both life aboard the ship and of the scenery in Dominican Republic, Panama, and Mexico, particularly Acapulco. He also writes of stopping "mid-ocean" to exchange letters and parcels with the Northern Light (and also to "put them on their guard against Jeff Davis' pirates"). Harris arrived in San Francisco in mid-May 1861 and was "stupefied, overwhelmed, [and] confounded by my first vision of the Golden State." Once in California Harris writes of his plans for a horse-drawn railway, of climbing the Sierra Nevada mountains in a snowstorm, of the possibility of a railroad near Washoe City, Nevada, and of his visits to the Ophir Silver Mining Company and encounters with Captain George Blunt Wendell, San Francisco and San Jose Railroad president Timothy Dame, and Jerome Lincoln (brother of Harris' mentor Ezra Lincoln). He also writes of his dismay at the news of the Battle of Fredericksburg and of his religious views (he notes visiting Roman Catholic cathedrals, Jewish synagogues, and "African camp meetings," but that "I have not so strong sectarian feelings as most people.") Also included are three sketches of pastoral life in California.

mssHM 74761-74783, HM 83852-83853

Joe A.Y. letter to Harry

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W. H. Wheeler letters to his father

Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter (page 1 of 3)

Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter (page 2 of 3)

Harry Chandler & Marian Otis Chandler's "To our children" letter (page 3 of 3)

George Schuknecht letter to "Dear Brother Julian,"

Robert Lewis Harris letters to Lucy W. Kimball