Manuscripts
Diary of a trip to California
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Journal of a trip to California
Manuscripts
The journal chronicles a couple's six-month trip from Waukegan, Illinois through Colorado, Utah, and Mexico, to California, August 1920 to February 1921. The entries discuss: train travel, automobile travel, the couple's activities between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, California, visits to Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico, San Diego, Long Beach, Venice, Hollywood, and Pasadena, California (with a visit to Busch Gardens). The journal contains 40 gelatin silver photographs taken during the trip. Following the trip narrative, the journal includes a listing of houses they bought from 1921 to 1926.
mssHM 84009
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Sheldon Young diaries of his trip to California
Manuscripts
Two diaries kept by Sheldon Young as he traveled from Illinois to California in 1849. The first, brief diary covers March 19-28 and begins with Young's departure from Joliet, Illinois, with Hiram White and Pears G. Pearson. It records their travels as far as Galesburg, Illinois. The second diary picks up on May 19 (the pages for March 29-May 18, June 21-July 1, and October 14-November 8 are missing). The near daily entries record miles traveled, buffalo hunting, deaths from cholera, and the lack of food and water. The diary specifically mentions stopping at Fort Kearney, seeing Castle Rock, crossing the Platte River on a raft, following the Green River, stopping at Fort Bridger, encountering Snake and Piute Indians, traveling through Little Salt Lake City, the departure of the Bug Smashers, the abandonment of wagons after Christmas 1849, arriving in the Mojave Desert, a cattle stampede, and the arrival in San Francisquito on February 4, 1850. The final few pages of the diary recount Young's arrival in San Francisco on February 26, 1850, reaching Sacramento in early March, and departing San Francisco on board the Swift on October 13, 1850. Young recounts the shipboard deaths of several passengers, including his traveling companion Wolfgang Tauber, who had also been with Young in Death Valley. He concludes with the Swift's arrival in Panama in December 1850.
mssHM 75663-75664
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California trip
Manuscripts
Diary kept by an unnamed Massachusetts man during his travels by train from Chicago to Los Angeles and his subsequent stay in California. The first half of the diary includes colorful descriptions of scenery and local people as the author traveled through St. Louis, Little Rock, New Orleans (which he called "the most foreign looking American city I know of and with the exception of Chicago, the most filthy"), El Paso, much of Arizona, and through the San Gorgonio Pass to the San Gabriel Valley. In this section the author also writes of racial segregation in the Southern states, his observance of stage actress Maud Granger and "her actor lover" on a train in Arizona, and his tour of the Arizona Territorial Prison. The second half of the diary covers his stay in California, where he had gone to see his mother and sister for the first time in 13 years. He writes of his impressions of Los Angeles as "a bright town...clean and new," of traveling up the coast to Santa Barbara, camping in Dos Pueblos Canyon, a trip to San Francisco, and his awe at seeing Mt. Shasta.
mssHM 75026
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L. Benedict diary of a trip to California and the Pacific Northwest
Manuscripts
In the diary, Benedict describes his travels by train through the American West and Canada. He begins in Chicago, travels to San Diego, then heads north along the Pacific Coast to Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia, and finally travels through Canada back to Ontario. Benedict talks about the different regions he passes through and the various scenic attractions, and the populations found in western cities, including Chinese districts and Mormons in Salt Lake City. He also makes comments on the large numbers of gold seekers in San Francisco, Portland, and Tacoma, waiting to depart for the Klondike gold rush. Loose in the diary are three items including notes, Benedict's business card, and a promotional booklet for Riverside, California entitled "The Greatest Orange Growing City in the World."
mssHM 84028
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A trip from England to California
Manuscripts
The journal, which is made up of letters Cowan wrote back to friends in England, covers her voyage from Liverpool to New York City on the ship Etruria, and her train trip across the country to Loomis and Monterey, California. Cowan writes in great detail about her fellow passengers and the scenery around her. She also describes the ship Etruria and the train on which she travels and often makes comments regarding the odd cultural behavior of Americans. Cowan also gives detailed descriptions of the events that take place around her including a fire that stopped her train near Truckee, California; Cowan and her fellow passengers eventually had to hike to another train. The handwritten journal is illustrated with clippings from magazines and Cowan's hand-drawn sketches.
mssHM 66797
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Diary
Manuscripts
St. Albans, Vermont; San Francisco; Alameda, California; San Rafael, California.
mssHM 31060