Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Additional Formats
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection of 1,622 items consists of letters, manuscripts, documents, and maps (1830-1946, bulk 1872-1877), in English and Spanish, related to the business affairs of Lewis Wolfskill. There are land papers concerning various California ranchos, legal papers and bills related to property in both the county and city of Los Angeles, mining papers (San Bernardino County), papers related to Henry Dalton and the Mexican government, papers related to the Centinela Orchard, and papers related to the estate of Francisca Wolfskill Shephard. Correspondents in the collection include: Arizona Superior Mining Company, Robert Burnett, Burnoel Petroleum Company, Charles Cabot, William Cardwell, Francisco Contreras, Manuel Franco Coronel, Još Carman Cos, Henry Dalton, Winnall Augstin Dalton, Victoria Pedrorena de Magnee, Gas̤tn Oxarart, Fraṅois Louis Alfred Pioche, Još Rubio, Herbert Wolfskill, John Reid Wolfskill, and William Wolfskill. The California ranches which are part of the land papers in this collection include: Rancho Aguaje de Centinela, Rancho Azusa, Rancho la Ballona, Rancho la Cąada, Rancho C̜̤an de Santa Ana, Ranco Rin̤cn de los Bueyes, Rancho San Francisquito, Rancho San Jacinto, Rancho San Jacinto Nuevo, Rancho San Još, Rancho San Pedro, Rancho San Rafael, Rancho San Vicente, Rancho Santa Anita, Rancho Santa ̤Mnica, Rancho Sausal Redondo, Rancho Suscol, Rancho Temecula, and Rancho Wolfskill.
mssWO
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection contains letters, letterbooks, documents, records, and manuscripts that document Barlow's legal, business, and political career, and his cultural and social pursuits. Barlow's legal and business papers constitute the bulk of the collection and cover 1855 to 1889. This portion of the collection deals with financing, building and management of railroads -- both Eastern and Western divisions of the Ohio and Mississippi, the Atlantic & Great Western, the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio, the Little Miami, the Columbus and Xenia, the Erie, and the New York, Erie & Western; Barlow's lobbying on behalf of Texas and Pacific Railroad Company and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; his involvement in the affairs of the Tehuantepec railroad route in Mexico, mining promotions and operations, including the notorious Arizona diamond hoax; land speculation (farm lands in Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio and urban properties in St. Louis, Mo.); his patronage of the New York subway and telephone enterprises, and his part ownership of the New York World. Political and military correspondence and manuscripts cover Barlow's involvement in Democratic politics at both national and state levels, that started in 1856 and continued until his death. The papers deal with Barlow's role in the nomination of James Buchanan for President, 1856, and his administration; Democratic National Convention at Charleston, 1860; George McClellan's presidential bid, the National Union Club, congressional elections, Tilden, Hancock, and Cleveland campaigns, 1876 to 1886. This portion of the collection also contains reports from the Eastern theater of the Civil War that Barlow received from his agents in the field. Among the correspondents are William T. Sherman, and T.J. Barnett, a minor official at the Department of the Interior and the Washington correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce, who provided an insight into Lincoln's White House. Also included are items reflecting Barlow's role in social and cultural life of New York -- his friendship with William Cullen Bryant and Bret Harte, patronage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Academy of Music, and the New York Historical Society, his collections of colonial Americana and rare books, etc. Correspondents include William Henry Aspinwall, Henry Douglas Bacon, T.J. Barnett, James Asheton Bayard, Jr., August Belmont, Judah Philip Benjamin, Montgomery Blair, William Montague Browne, Benjamin Franklin Butler, Roscoe Conkling, George Ticknor Curtis, John Henry Dillon, William Maxwell Evarts, Henry Harrisse, Ben Holladay, Hugh Judge Jewett, Clarence King, George Brinton McClellan, James McHenry, Manton Malon Marble, Thomas Alexander Scott, Horatio Seymour, William Davis. Materials created by US presidents in this collection include James Buchanan autograph letters signed to Samuel L.M. Barlow, 1867 May 2 and May 22; Grover Cleveland autograph letter signed to Samuel L.M. Barlow, 1884 October 12; Millard Fillmore autograph letter signed to Charles Day, 1870 October 12; Andrew Jackson autograph letter to Mahlon Dickerson, 1835 June 9; also present is a contemporary copy of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee special order to Thomas Mann Randolph Talcott regarding Confederate soldiers paroled at Appomattox, 1865 April 10.
mssBW