Keepsake 56

Beyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries

By Susan Snyder, 2011

Beyond Words is a collection of excerpts from fifty illustrated diaries spanning two hundred years of adventure and contemplation. From the records of eighteenth-century Spanish explorer Pedro Font to those of a young David Brower first encountering the wilderness, these unfolding stories reveal as much about the times in which they were written as they do the diarists’ particular inner worlds. Whether filled with chicken-scratch sketches or gilded illuminations, these diaries have become objets d’art that expand our understanding of the uniquely compelling experiences of their creators—from anonymous writers to luminaries like LeConte and Muir, and from Beat poets to twelve-year-old girls. Beyond Words is a fascinating and intimate collection that will inspire you to pull out pen and paper to capture the fleeting images and experiences of your own life.

Keepsake 55

A Beaux-Arts Education: The Architectural Education of Arthur Brown Jr. at the École des Beaux-Arts Paris, France 1897 - 1903

Edited by Hans Baldauf, 2011

Arthur Brown Jr. was San Francisco's most successful architect in the first half of the twentieth century. Educated at UC Berkeley under the tutelage of Bernard Maybeck and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Brown, along with his partner John Bakewell, gave the Bay Area many of the built landmarks that continue to define the region. In this wonderfully illustrated portfolio we can trace Brown’s education at the École, see through the example of one talented student its program and methodology, and trace the impact of this education on his career.

Keepsake 54

California as an Island: Maps from the Library

Edited by Glen McLaughlin, 2009

This reproduction of six early maps of California, selected and with an introduction and notes by Glen McLaughlin, Bancroft Friend and the world’s leading expert on the subject, shows how European cartographers struggled to resolve conflicting evidence about California's geography from the end of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth.

Keepsake 53

The Chinese Experience in California: Through Western Eyes, 1878 - 1902

By The Friends of The Bancroft Library, 2008

This portfolio of six prints, watercolors, and oil paintings, selected and with an introduction and notes by Theresa Salazar, Curator of the Bancroft Collection of Western Americana, shows how western artists depicted the Chinese in California at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. This Keepsake presents a very small selection from The Bancroft Library’s holdings of visual representations of the lives and livelihoods of Chinese immigrants and their descendants in California.

Keepsake 52

Personal Memoranda: Samuel Hopkins Willey: The Journal of His Voyage to California, 1848-1849

By Samuel Hopkins Willey and edited by James M. Spitze, 2007

Samuel Hopkins Willey was a leading force in the founding of California’s educational structure, helping to establish various institutions that include today's The University of California. For over a hundred years, The Bancroft Library has possessed both his on-the-spot diary of his voyage on the steamer California and a much longer recollection (written in 1877) of his entire trip to California - first on the steamer Fulton, then via canoe and mule-back across the Isthmus of Panama, and then via the steamer California up the coast to Monterey. Published for the first time, these two fascinating documents are interspersed with numerous period illustrations from the Bancroft Library’s vast collections. This Keepsake is a long overdue tribute to Cal's long-forgotten founder.

Keepsake 51

Past Tents: The Way We Camped

By Susan Snyder, 2006

From the award-winning author of Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly comes this lighter look at Americans’ infatuation with the great outdoors. Mining once again the vast archives at The Bancroft Library, Susan Snyder has mapped out this cheeky yet accurate history of camping in the West. Full of photographs and descriptions of family outings in the first years of the automobile, of campgrounds and campfires against the familiar backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, of the remarkable gear and "helpful" hints that accompanied outings to our newly minted state and national parks and forests, this Keepsake is a humorous romp through one of our favorite pastimes.

Keepsake 50

Exploring The Bancroft Library

Co-edited by Charles Faulhaber and Stephen Vincent, 2006

In this centennial guide, readers are introduced to the day-to-day life of an institution devoted to the collection, preservation, and study of original documents. From an in-depth look at the way material is acquired and conserved to chapters by individual curators on the history and highlights of the collections entrusted to their care, this Keepsake celebrates Bancroft's one hundred years on the Berkeley campus.

Keepsake 49

A Honeyman Portfolio: Images of Early California

By The Friends of The Bancroft Library, 2005

The impressive array of 2,371 items comprising the Robert B. Honeyman Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western Art is a treasury of the works of artist-adventurers, surveyors, scientists, sailors, soldiers, and seekers of fortune and fame. The Honeyman Collection anchors The Bancroft Library’s pictorial holdings, augmenting and enhancing the library’s core collections of primary manuscript and printed sources of Western and Latin Americnana. Based on the broad themes of Drawn West - Inhabitants and Travelers, The Land Beheld, By Land By Sea, Incident and Accident, Enterprise, and Wonder and Curiosity - the selection of six images for this Keepsake is not meant to be representative of the entire collection. Rather they are a personal choice, based, in part, on their uniqueness to the collection.

Keepsake 48

Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly

By Susan Snyder, 2003

Once arguably the most powerful and terrifying animal in the California landscape, the grizzly now lives in the imagination, a disembodied symbol of the romantic West. More than 150 images from the Bancroft Library's collections--newspaper illustrations, paintings, photo albums, sheet music, settler's diaries, fruit crate labels, and more--accompany the bear stories of Indians, explorers, vaqueros, forty-niners and naturalists. The result is a uniquely compelling natural history, a grand book worthy of its subject.

Keepsake 47

Mark Twain, Press Critic

By Mark Twain with an introduction by Thomas C. Leonard, 2003

In two previously unpublished essays, "Interviewing the Interviewer" and "The American Press," Twain illuminates his lifelong worry over the American press.

Keepsake 46

Songs of the Cowboys

Edited by Connie Loarie, 2001

This new edition of N. Howard "Jack" Thorp's Songs of the Cowboys, first published in 1908, includes a cd rom with a musical interpretation of selected songs by George Smith. This volume also contains a glossary of cowboy terms that first appeared in a 1921 edition.

Keepsake 45

Uncertain Country

Edited by Stephen Vincent, 2000

This selection of letters which span from 1851 -1854, culled from more than 200 original documents in the Wingate Family Papers, illuminates the personal experiences of a father and a New Hampshire family separated during the California Gold Rush. Filled with extraordinary detail, these letters offer a dramatic and telling story of one of the epic periods in American history.

Keepsake 44

The Recipe Book of Lillie Hitchcock Coit

Introduction by Carol Hart Field; edited by John C. Craig, and transcribed by Barbara Hoddy, 1998

The original volume is a bound notebook of lined paper with 46 unnumbered leaves, and serves as an important artifact of a leading figure in San Francisco society during the 1870s and 1880s. To assist the reader, section headings and a table of contents have been added, as well as an index. The recipes collected by Mrs. Coit reflect the influence of French, Spanish, Mexican, and English traditions in cookery of the period.

Keepsake 43

The Poet's Eye: A Tribute to Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books

Edited by Richard Ogar, 1997

This volume includes works and poetry from several authors, including Hettie Jones, Joanne Kyger, Andrew Hoyem, Michael McClure, S. A. Griffin, David Meltzer, Jack Micheline, Tom Clark, Ron Loewinsohn, Michael Palmer, Jack Foley, and Ariel and Ianthe Brautigan. Publication of this tribute coincided with a symposium, "Ferlinghetti, City Lights, and the Beats in San Francisco: From the Margins to the Mainstream," and an exhibition at The Bancroft Library in 1996.

Keepsake 42

Frontier Reminiscences of Eveline Brooks Auerbach

Edited and with an introduction by Annegret S. Ogden, 1994

The publication of these memoirs, supported by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation, offer the reader an exemplary sample of nineteenth century American Life in the frontier West. With chapter headings such as "Pony Express," "Our Life Among the Mormons," and "Salt Lake City, 1877" Auerbach paints an intimate portrait of life.

Keepsake 41

Harriet Martineau and America: Selected Letters from the Richard S. Speck Collection

Edited and with an introduction by R.A. Burchell, 1995

This collection of letters written by Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) gives considerable insight to the inner mind of this remarkable woman. A prolific writer, her work most frequently appeared in newspapers where she frequently took it upon herself to explain complex social and political issues to those she saw as less sophisticated than herself. An intellectual in her own right, her mind ranged freely from the theoretical to the practical, and she wrote on subjects as diverse as the philosophy of Auguste Comte, and the keeping of cows.

Keepsake 40

The Diary of Captain Luis Antonio Arguello, 1821: The Last Spanish Expedition in California

Translated by Vivian C. Fisher with an introduction by Arthur Quinn, 1992

This brief but informative diary chronicles the last expedition conducted under Spanish Rule in California. Captain Arguello's diary, published here in translation, dates from October 17 to November 17, 1821.

Keepsake 39

The Legacy of James D. Hart at the Bancroft Library

Edited by Anthony S. Bliss, 1991

This illustrated volume celebrates an exhibit prepared to mark the accomplishments and contributions of former Director of The Bancroft Library, James D. Hart. The catalog offers a brief selection of acquisitions from the 1970 through 1990, and demonstrates the scope and quality of scholarly research materials in the collection.

Keepsake 38

A Yosemite Camping Trip, 1889

By Joseph N. LeConte, 1990

Joseph N. Le Conte wrote this journal of a trip to Yosemite in 1889 as a nineteen year old in the company of his father, Joseph Le Conte, Professor of Geology and Natural History of Berkeley. The elder Le Conte was 66 years old at the time of this trip and had relocated from South Carolina in 1869 to join the University in the year of its founding. Both Le Contes enjoyed mountain climbing and joined the Sierra Club as charter members. The younger Le Conte served as president and honorary leader of the Sierra Club from 1931 until his death in 1950. The account of this trip is illustrated by photographs taken with an early Kodak camera.

Keepsake 37

Kipling in California

Edited by Thomas Pinney, 1989

On May 28, 1899, the noted author Rudyard Kipling arrived in San Francisco aboard the Pacific Mail Company steamship S.S. City of Peking. At this time Kipling was not yet twenty-four years old and though a newspaper editor he was a largely unknown figure in international circles. This volume publishes a series of letters Kipling composed during his eighteen days in San Francisco, and a group of three short stories he wrote about California.

Keepsake 36

Three Memoirs of Mexican California

By Carlos N. Hijar, Eulalia Perez, and Augustin Escobar, and translated by Vivian C. Fisher, 1988

These three memoirs were created in 1877 by Hubert Howe Bancroft and Thomas Savage, one of his chief assistants. Each memoir is presented in the facsimile (in the original Spanish handwriting) and with an English translation. The translations seek to retain the style of the original speaker.

Keepsake 35

Through The Black Curtain

By Maxine Hong Kingston, 1987

The author presents a series of annotated excerpts from several of her popular writings on the Chinese-American experience in the United States. The volume includes passages from The Woman Warrior (1976), China Men (1980), and Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1987).

Keepsake 34

Nineteenth Century Illustrators of California Sights and Scenes

By Lawrence Dinnean, 1986

The author divides nineteenth century illustrations of California into three categories: the output of official artists/draftsmen who accompanied scientific and exploring expeditions; the personal sketches and drawings of travelers and settlers; and the professional work of journal and print illustrators. The publication includes biographical sketches of prominent California illustrators and reproductions of notable works.

Keepsake 33

The Grangerford-Shepherdson Feud

By Mark Twain, 1985

This reproduction of the Century Magazine publication of Twain's writing on the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud (essentially chapters 17 and 18 of Huckleberry Finn), published in December, 1884, is joined by his writings on the Darnell v. Watson feud. The editors place Twain's writings in their historical context, to illuminate Twain's use of historical fact in his fictional writings.

Keepsake 32

The Year of the Young Rebels Revisited

By Stephen Spender, 1984

This publication celebrates The Bancroft Library's collection of modern literary manuscripts, and presents a new text by Sir Stephen Spender, one that illuminates his previous writings on the student uprisings of the 1960s, a movement that had its home on the Berkeley Campus.

Keepsake 31

The Show of Science

By Robin E. Rider, 1983

Rare and unique scholarly research materials, a strength of The Bancroft Library, serve as the source for this work. Four areas of scientific interest are explored: Demonstration Experiments, Ceremonies and Celebrations, Wonderful Machines, and Displays of Nature. Illustrations from historical works accompany the text.

Keepsake 30

The Story of a Story & Three Stories

By Jessamyn West, 1982

A total of four stories are compiled in this work. "The Story of a Story," was first published in Pacific Spectator (Summer, 1949); "Horace Chooney, M.D.," appeared in Mademoiselle (February, 1947); and subsequently in West's Love, Death, and the Ladies Drill Team (1955). "A Man Like a Mule" and "Babes in the Woods" are believed to be unpublished prior to their appearance in this volume.

Keepsake 29

Wapping Alice

By Mark Twain, 1981

Wapping Alice, a short story by Mark Twain, is printed here for the first time. This Keepsake also contains another of his short stories, The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm, as well as three letters he wrote to Livy and his autobiographical dictation from April 10, 1907.

Keepsake 28

Nine Classic California Photographers

Edited by William Hively, 1980

This volume includes the work of Robert H. Vance, Carleton Emmons Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, Adam Clark Vroman, Arnold Genthe, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, and Ansel Adams. The evolution of photography in California parallels the development of the state within the cultural and historical panorama of the United States. Images of California, including its landscapes, people, and structures illuminate the factual and mythical place of this region in the American experience.

Keepsake 27

The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake

By Helen Wallis, 1979

This publication honors the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Sir Francis Drake, and his discovery of and visit to Nova Albion in 1579.

Keepsake 26

Telling Stories

By Joan Didion, 1978

Joan Didion, a UC Berkeley graduate, gathers three short stories she wrote in 1964 and introduces these works with personal insights concerning the creative process of writing. Didion muses that the genesis for these works lay in the fact that her first novel was recently published and she was "suffering a fear common among people who have just written a first novel: the fear of never writing another."

Keepsake 25

The Actor from Point Arena

By Frederick G. Ross and edited by Travis Bogard, 1977

Frederick G. Ross (1858-1942) was an actor from Point Arena, California. Although not a featured perfomer, Ross worked with such notable actors as James O'Neil, Thomas W. Keene, and Edwin Booth. His memoirs and letters recount the world of the stage, and his passages on San Francisco theaters from 1878-1881 are rich in detail.

Keepsake 24

Una and Robin

By Mabel Dodge Luhan and edited by Mark Schorer, 1976

The author Mabel Dodge Luhan enjoyed an close friendship with Una and Robinson Jeffers. In this previously unpublished tribute to her friends, Luhan offers an intimate portrait written with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Jeffers.

Keepsake 23

California Indian Characteristics

By Stephen Powers with a preface by N. Scott Momaday, 1975

"California Indian Characteristics," was first published in Overland Monthly in April, 1875. A second Powers' essay, "Centennial Mission to the Indians of Western Nevada and California," is also reprinted and joins a brief essay by Robert F. Heizer, "Stephen Powers as Anthropologist," to offer an interesting and informative perspective on nineteenth century attitudes toward American Indians.

Keepsake 22

Recollections of Old Times in California

By William Thomes and edited By George R. Stewart, 1974

William Henry Thomes was one of many subjects whose life's memories were transcribed for posterity by Hubert Howe Bancroft and his staff of interviewers. Thomes, a successful businessman, author, and entrepreneur, made several visits to California throughout the mid-to-late nineteenth century.

Keepsake 21

Some Treasures of the Bancroft Library

Edited by J.R.K. Kantor, 1973

Prepared in honor of the move of The Bancroft Library to its present quarters, this volume highlights a selection of rare and unique items in such area as "California and the West," "Early Printing," "History of Science," "Illuminated Manuscripts," "Literary manuscripts and Publications," "The Mark Twain Papers," "Mexico and Central America," "The University of California," and "Pictorial Collections."

Keepsake 20

The Great Landslide Case

By Mark Twain amd edited by Frederick Anderson and Edgar M. Branch, 1972

This volume reproduces three differing texts of a popular story by the noted American humorist and author, Mark Twain. The Mark Twain Papers Project, located in The Bancroft Library, houses the largest gathering of original Mark Twain letters, manuscripts, and documents. The three variant stories first appeared in print in 1863, 1870, and 1872. This publication provides the opportunity to read and study the writings and re-writings of a great American author and speaker, one who carefully refined and crafted his own words and those of his characters.

Keepsake 19

A Sailor's Sketch of the Sacramento Valley in 1842

By John Yates with an introduction by Ferol Egan, 1971

With essays entitled "The Bidwell Map of 1844 of the Sacramento Valley" and "Yates Sketch of the Sacramento Valley," this publication highlights two important documents on the mid-nineteenth century history of the Sacramento region.

Keepsake 18

A Visit to California 1841

An interview with Joseph B. Chiles, 1970

Joseph B. Chiles was one of the more colorful of the California pioneers - he was an assiduous fiddle player, a lover of jokes and joking, a devoted hunter of grizzlies, and notable pathfinder on the California Trail. His interview is one of the scores that Bancroft collected through his agents when he was working on his history. It is obviously unfinished, broken off almost between sentences, but there is no indication of the reason. This Keepsake also contains an interview with one of Chile’s sons by a highly inexperienced interviewer who did not know how to spell Chiles.

Keepsake 13

GPH: An Informal Record of George P Hammond

By The Friends of The Bancroft Library, 1965

Prompted by the retirement of Director George P. Hammond, this volume contains a series of essays and reminiscences by several individuals with intimate knowledge of The Bancroft Library and its history. These writings illuminate the life and career of Hammond and the evolution of The Bancroft Library.

Keepsake 12

A Journey to California, 1841

By John Bidwell with an introduction by Francis P. Farquhar, 1964

The original journal kept by Bidwell during the 1841 migration to California by wagon train was never found. The printed account that was later acquired by H.H. Bancroft is, by Bidwell’s own statement, an abridgment. Both the facsimile of the printed version and its edited transcript are presented in this Keepsake.

Keepsake 9

The Ralston-Fry Wedding

Edited by Francis P. Farquhar, 1961

This publication reproduces an account of a wedding and the wedding journey to Yosemite on May 20, 1858. The original text is found in the diary of Miss Sarah Haight (Mrs. Edward Tompkins).

Keepsake 8

American Image of Spanish California

By James D. Hart, 1960

First delivered in 1959 as the Charles Mills Gayley Lecture, sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English, this lecture offers a review of the literary images of California's transition from Spanish and Mexican domination to that of "American domination."

Keepsake 7

Stockton Boyhood

By Carl Ewald Grunsky and edited by Clotilde C. Taylor, 1959

These essays were written from 1925 to 1934, and document the life of Carl Ewald Grunsky, a graduate of the first high school class of Stockton High School in 1870. Grunsky later became a distinguished engineer and his career included service as the first City Engineer in San Francisco and as a member of the first Isthmian Canal Commission appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Keepsake 6

The Mariposa Indian War 1850-1851: Diaries of Robert Eccleston

Edited by C. Gregory Crampton, 1957

This is the second published volume of the diaries of Robert Eccleston. The first appeared under the title Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, 1849. Like many another in the gold rush, Robert Eccleston kept an excellent record of the journey to California only to break it off on arrival, December 28, 1849. But after ten months in California, he returned to his diary. And the narrative of this book is the record he kept of his experiences in the Southern Mines during the years 1850 and 1851, centering on a war provoked when the miners intruded upon the lands of the Indians.