A tenderfoot in southern California,
Mina Deane Halsey (b. 1873) was a New York writer. A tenderfoot in southern California (1909) is her spoof of accounts of California travel and recounts a "tenderfoot's" rail journey west, stays in Los Angeles and Pasadena, Mount Lowe, Hollywood, and Catalina.
Contributor:
Halsey, Mina Deane
Date:1909
Book/Printed Material
A truthful woman in southern California;
New England humorist Kate Sanborn (1839-1917) wrote widely and taught at Smith College. A truthful woman in southern California (1893) offers sage and amusing advice to tourists planning a rail trip to Southern California, ranging from recommendations for one's wardrobe to suggestions for the itinerary. She shares her personal experiences in visiting Coronado Beach, San Diego, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Mount Wilson, San Bernardion, Riverside,...
Contributor:
Sanborn, Kate
Date:1893
Book/Printed Material
Happy days in southern California,
Frederick Hastings Rindge (1857-1905) moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles in 1882 and bought the famed rancho at Malibu, which he dubbed "Laudamus Farm." Happy days in southern California (1898) opens with a history of the region, followed by chapters dealing with different lifestyles in the area: "seaside life" at Redondo, Santa Monica, and Santa Catalina, and the fish and animals of the...
Contributor:
Rindge, Frederick Hastings
Date:1898
Book/Printed Material
Sixty years in Southern California, 1853-1913, containing the reminiscences of Harris Newmark,
Harris Newmark (1834-1916), son of a modest Prussian Jewish merchant, sailed to America in 1853 to join his older brother in Los Angeles. He made a fortune in real estate, the wholesale grocery business, and hides and wools, becoming a leader in the local Jewish community and the city at large. Sixty years in Southern California (1916) begins with his description of Los Angeles...
Contributor:
Newmark, Marco Ross - Worden, James Perry - Newmark, Harris - Newmark, Maurice Harris
Date:1926
Book/Printed Material
Life in the open; sport with rod, gun, horse, and hound in southern California,
Charles Frederick Holder (1851-1915), a founder of Pasadena's Tournament of Roses, came from a wealthy Massachusetts Quaker family. After working as a curator at New York's American Museum of Natural History, Holder moved to Pasadena in 1885. A passionate naturalist throughout his life, he became known in Pasadena as a businessman, philanthropist, and conservationist/sportsman. Life in the open (1906) is Holder's account of hunting...
Contributor:
Holder, Charles Frederick
Date:1906
Book/Printed Material
California copy,
George F. Weeks (b. ca. 1852) was a young reporter in New York City in 1876, when tuberculosis drove him to the healthier climate of California, where he spent his first months at a sanatorium near San Bernardino. He then worked on the San Francisco Chronicle and later published papers in Bakersfield and Alameda. California copy (1928) contains Week's memoirs of his journey west,...
Contributor:
Weeks, Geo. F. (George F.)
Date:1928
Book/Printed Material
Letters from California.
Harriet Harper of Maine paid a six-month visit to California with another young woman in 1888. Letters from California (1888) describes their travels within California via rail and coastal steamship to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Tijuana, and the San Pedro wineries.
Contributor:
Harper, Harriet
Date:1888
Book/Printed Material
Old Californian days
James Steele visited California in the 1880s. Old Californian days (1889) is the book Steele based on that trip. He provides a sketch of the history of California before the Gold Rush and surviving remnants of that history: the mission churches (San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano), Spanish-American culture in modern California, and Native American tribes.
Contributor:
Steele, James - Steele, James W. (James William)
Date:1889
Book/Printed Material
Addresses, reminiscences, etc. of General John Bidwell.
John Bidwell (1819-1900) was born in Chautaugua County, New York, and lived in Ohio when he decided to seek his fortune in California in 1841 and journeyed west as part of the first emigrant train going overland from Missouri to California. There he found work at Fort Sutter. He sided with governor Micheltorena in the 1844 revolt but aided the Bear Flag rebels in...
Contributor:
Bidwell, John - Royce, Charles C.
Date:1907
Book/Printed Material
Eldorado; or, California as seen by a pioneer, 1850-1900.
David Augustus Shaw left Marengo, Illinois, in 1850 for the overland trail to California, where he settled in Pasadena and was an active member of the local Society of Pioneers. Eldorado (1900) records Shaw's first stay in the West, 1850-1852, when he worked as a miner and rancher; his return to Illinois and second overland journey west, 1853, this time bringing a herd of...
Contributor:
Shaw, David Augustus
Date:1900
Book/Printed Material
A Frenchman in the gold rush : the journal of Ernest de Massey, argonaut of 1849
Ernest de Massey was the younger son of a well-to-do French family that sailed to America and the Gold Rush in the spring of 1849. He eventually settled in San Francisco, where he lived until his return to Europe in 1857. A Frenchman in the gold rush (1927) is a translation of de Massey's journal covering his voyage to California, gold mining on the...
Contributor:
Wilbur, Marguerite Eyer - Massey, Christophe-Ernest De
Date:1927
Book/Printed Material
Los Angeles in the sunny seventies. A flower from the golden land,
Flower from the golden land
Ludwig Salvator (1847-1915), Archduke of Austria, was the son of the Duke of Tuscany. Raised in Florence and Rome, Archduke Ludwig had already published several German-language travel books when he visited Los Angeles in the winter of 1876, not long after the city was linked directly by rail to the East. Los Angeles in the sunny seventies (1929) is an English translation of the...
Contributor:
Wilbur, Marguerite Eyer - Ludwig Salvator
Gold and sunshine, reminiscences of early California
James J. Ayers left St. Louis, Missouri for California in 1849. He remained to carve out a career for himself in journalism. Gold and sunshine (1922) was completed by Ayers in retirement at Azusa in 1896 but not published until after his death. He recalls his 1849 voyage to California and brief career as a miner in Calaveras County, newspaper publishing in Mokelumne Hill...
Contributor:
Ayers, James J.
Date:1922
Book/Printed Material
Echoes of the past about California,
John Bidwell (1819-1900) was born in Chautaugua County, New York, and was living in Ohio when he decided to seek his fortune in California in 1841. He journeyed west as part of the first emigrant train going overland from Missouri to California, where he found work at Fort Sutter. He sided with governor Micheltorena in the 1844 revolt but aided the Bear Flag rebels...
Contributor:
Quaife, Milo Milton - Bidwell, John - Steele, John
Contributor:
Allen, Clifford P. (Clifford Paynter)
Date:1904
Book/Printed Material
The argonauts of 'forty-nine, some recollections of the plains and the diggings,
David Leeper (1832-1900) left South Bend, Indiana, for an overland trip to the California gold fields in February 1849. The argonauts of forty-nine (1894) details Leeper's journey west and his life in California, 1849-1854: prospecting at Redding's Diggings, Hangtown, and the Trinity River; lumbering around Eureka; and early Sacramento and Humboldt Bay. Leeper shows special interest in the Digger Indians, illustrating the book with...
