Manuscripts
Joseph Goldsborough Bruff and W.H. Gatliff sketchbook
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Joseph Goldsborough Bruff letter to James Tyler Ames
Manuscripts
Letter from Bruff to James Tyler Ames in which he describes his intentions to travel west in search of gold. Focuses on financial arrangements for Bruff's family while he is away, as well as travel expenses and supplies necessary for his trip west, which he anticipates will last at least a year. Bruff asks Ames for any assistance, financial or in supplies, that he can give and promises to repay him as soon as his gold mining endeavors are successful.
mssHM 43068
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J. Goldsborough Bruff journal and drawings
Manuscripts
The collection contains J. Goldsborough Bruff's oversize revised version of his journal (c. 1853) which documents his journey across the American plains in 1849 by way of Lassen's Trail. Also included in the collection are 264 drawings of scenes from his overland journey, of various places he visited in California, and of his sea voyage to the Eastern United States via Mexico and Panama. Many of Bruff's drawings are in pencil, but thirty-eight of them were drawn with pastels and are in color.
mssHM 8044
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Joseph Goldsborough Bruff letter to the "President of the United States" with a poem "To the promoters of disunion,"
Manuscripts
In this letter to the "President of the United States With the Compliments of His very Humble and Obdt. Servant J. Goldsborough Bruff," is a 28-line poem entitled "To the Promoters of Disunion. E. Pluribus Unum. One and inseparable; United we stand, but divided we fall." There is also a 16-line "Invocation" and a sketch by Bruff of a man with a cannon. It is written on a pictorial lettersheet with an image of Washington, D.C. entitled "View of Washington City." The poem is dated 1860, December 10 while a note about the sketch is dated 1860, December 17.
mssHM 72872
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J. Goldsborough Bruff manuscript history of Sonora and Alta California
Manuscripts
An apparently unpublished history of the states of California and Sonora, found among the papers of J. Goldsborough Bruff, the noted artist of the Gold Rush, though it may or may not be in his hand. A densely-written and substantial contemporary history of California during a transitional time for the region, containing accounts of gold in Sonora, the types of stories that helped spark the great California Gold Rush just a few years later. The manuscript begins with the "discovery of the Gulf of Cal" and contains much about the early discovery and exploration of California and Sonora. There is also a detailed account of gold mining in Sonora. The manuscript concludes with the Mexican-American War.
mssHM 82520
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J. Goldsborough Bruff poems and drawings
Manuscripts
Photocopies of four poems and two drawings by J. Goldsborough Bruff. Poems include "Invitation" (1850); an untitled poem about the SS Central America disaster, a steamship carrying gold prospected from California and several hundred passengers that sunk in a hurricane (1857); "Life's Voyage" (1884); and "Recovering from the Small-pox" (undated). Drawings include "A Delicious Bit of Scandal," depicting two women talking (1849); and an undated sketch of a house entitled "Genevese, Lake of Geneva."
mssBruff
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J. Goldsborough Bruff poems and drawings
Manuscripts
Photocopies of four poems and two drawings by J. Goldsborough Bruff. Poems include "Invitation" (1850); an untitled poem about the SS Central America disaster, a steamship carrying gold prospected from California and several hundred passengers that sunk in a hurricane (1857); "Life's Voyage" (1884); and "Recovering from the Small-pox" (undated). Drawings include "A Delicious Bit of Scandal," depicting two women talking (1849); and an undated sketch of a house entitled "Genevese, Lake of Geneva."
mssBruff