Manuscripts
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Who's the Dupe
Manuscripts
A father wishes to marry his daughter to the most educated man he can find, but she is in love with another. The two potential lovers square off, and the daughter's preferred husband wins over her father by speaking fake Greek.
mssLA 475
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The love pavilion
Rare Books
In Bombay in the 1930s a young British clerk named Tom Brent is persuaded by a botanist named Saxby to stay on in India. Saxby is that rare Englishman who really understands Indian culture, but he's also elusive and deeply flawed. Years later, after Tom has become a soldier and been wounded in Burma, he is sent on a mission to Malaya to track down Saxby, now suspected of murder. The second half of the novel, set in 1945 (a time when Scott was in Malaya), is a strange brew of exotic romance, tensions between army officers, and the mystery of the jungle: its cultures, religions, and fauna. The love pavilion is where Tom meets his Eurasian lover and imagines he can escape the constraints of British colonial notions of manhood.
654988
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Humphrey Griffith letters to family
Manuscripts
Letters from Humphrey Griffith to his mother Mary and brother Reece, written from 1849 to 1857 and covering Griffith's travels to California and his life and experiences there. The letters begin in St. Louis, where Humphrey was waiting to depart for California with a large number of other immigrants ("the merchants do know a Californian as soon as they see him," he wrote), and trace his travels through Indian Territory (he wrote to his mother of his well-being and religious faith, noting that "God is great - he is the same God on the prairie or in the Temple"), his stops at Scott's Bluffs, Castle Bluffs, and Chimney Rock (where he inscribed his name "some 200 feet up"), and his encounters with Sioux Indians near Chimney Rock, where they "came in and we had a village of fifty lodges containing near a thousand Indians." The rest of the letters were written from California, and Humphrey specifically writes of his initial situation in Washington, agriculture, the price of goods, the uncertain nature of his business ventures, damaging rain and flooding (1852), his election to the California legislature (1853), and his canvassing activities for James Buchanan (1856). He also writes of family matters, including his love for his fiancé Helen, whose parents opposed her moving to California, his marriage to a woman named Cordelia (1852), and his grief over the death of their 2-year-old daughter Laura from typhoid in 1857. The final letter was written by Humphrey's friend Joseph J. Underhill to Mary Griffith following Humphrey's death in 1865.
mssHM 74800-74815
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Moore family papers, (bulk 1850-1930)
Manuscripts
Boxes 1-3 contain correspondence, organized alphabetically by the last name of the sender. The correspondence contains letters sent to Rebecca Lash Miller by J. A. Heagy, her longtime suitor. The correspondence, dated between 1861 and 1865, describes the couples courtship, secret engagement, and break up. Heagy was studying to be a minister, and Miller's parents actively discouraged their relationship, possibly on the grounds that Miller possessed little wealth. The letters could be of use to a scholar interested in the culture of 19th-century courtship, perhaps particularly the interesting literary genre of the love-letter. Heagy's demonstrative and lengthy missives negotiate a fine balance between making love with paper and pen and confronting the practical, business side of marriage. The correspondence also includes letters from Maria N. James to Dr. John P. Moore, dated between 1869 and 1871. The correspondence between James and Moore is that of friends, though perhaps not strictly. James' letters betray her jealousy over Moore's time spent with mutual female friends in company, and James' laments that the two of them will never be more than friends. James works in secretarial positions, and often wishes she had more time to be sociable and be seen. Again, these letters might be of use to scholars interested in the history of 19th century courtship and love (though this was strictly flirtation, it is clear that James feels deeply for Moore).
mssMoore family papers
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Sweep out cottage
Rare Books
"Although taken over a five-year period, the photographs in Sweep Out Cottage timelessly evoke one single summer's day in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Here, with the wistful sense of an earlier era, is evidence of two people who love the simple things in life: gardening, reading, eating and drinking in their beautiful holiday surroundings. For some years now Peter Jones and his wife have rented the sweep out cottage every July, and in this quiet colonial hamlet they have realized a dream of summer as it should be, with the breeze off the water, the fragrance of flowers and soft fruit, a good book, a favorite chair, and the breakfast table set for another idyllic day. Jones has been involved with many aspects of photography all his adult life, but it is here in Sweep Out Cottage that he has found his own true artistic inspiration. The work in this, his first monograph, is not only a celebration of a place and a way of life; it is also an homage to a happy marriage and a time of blissful serenity"--Publisher's description.
653185
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Miscellaneous California Material
Manuscripts
This group of material contains a random assortment of correspondence and pieces of ephemera regarding California. There is one letter from 1850 which discusses the various steamboat lines and mail services from California and potential routes for future services. A postcard from a child to her parents regarding her stay in Little Shasta has a photo of the area. The bill of lading is for Levi-Strauss regarding a shipment of overalls to San Francisco. The carte-de-visite is of a young woman and it was taken by the S.S. Noble studios. The envelope has a stamp from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. There is a marriage announcement for Augustus C. Cabel and Mrs. Nellie E. Smith of San Francisco. There is also a 1942 issue of Ghost Town News published by Knott's Berry Farm. The photographs are of Mono County, California and include images of cabins in Masonic and Bodie and an avalanche in Lundy and Jordan which destroyed the hydraulic power plants. The telephone directory contains contact information for actors in San Francisco. The title documents are for parcels of land in San Bernardino. There is also one printed book: Reports of cases: Supreme Court of California.
mssHM 75060-75076