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CALIFORNIA S T A T E LIBRARY FOUNDATION Number 102 2012 CALIFORNIA S T A T E LIBRARY FOUNDATION Number 102 2012 EDITOR 2 � � � � � � � � � � � � Louise�Clappe’s�Own�Copy�of�The Pioneer�Acquired�by�the�Library Gary F. Kurutz SidebAr:�The�Louise�A �K �S �Clapp[e]�Collection�� EDITORIAL ASSISTANT By Marlene Smith-Baranzini Kathleen Correia COPY EDITOR 6 � � � � � � � � � � � � bandido:�The�Countless�Love�Affairs�of�Tiburcio�Vasquez�� M. Patricia Morris By John Boessenecker BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kenneth B. Noack, Jr. 12�� � � � � � � � � � � S �i �Hayakawa:�A�remembrance�of�an�enigmatic�Life� President By Dr. Gerald Haslam George Basye Vice-President 16 � � � � � � � � � � Yosemite�on�Glass:�Two�New�Orotones�Presented�to�the�Library� Thomas E. Vinson By Gary F. Kurutz Treasurer Donald J. Hagerty 22 � � � � � � � � � � Foundation�Notes� Secretary Requiescat In Pace�robert�M �dickover Stacey Aldrich State Librarian of California Current�doings�at�the�braille�&�Talking�book�Library�� by�Sandra�Swafford Robert M. Dickover JoAnn Levy New�Treasures�Added�through�the�Generosity�of�the�Foundation Allan E. Forbes Sue T. Noack The�benevolence�of�Historian�Joe�Nardone,�� Herbert J. Hunn Marilyn Snider Phillip L. Isenberg Thomas W. Stallard Pony�express�Master�Historian Mead B. Kibbey Sandra Swafford Gifts�from�don�Hagerty�and�Mead�b �Kibbey Quentin�L �Kopp�Papers�and�Clark-burr�Family�Archive� Gary F. Kurutz Julia Schaw Executive Director Administrative Assistant Projects�Completed Shelley Ford Presidio Soldiers.�The�Windgate�Press�Publishes�� Bookkeeper New�Photography�book�based�on�the�Collections�� of�the�Sutro�Library The California State Library Foundation Bulletin is published when we are able. © 2004-2012. 28 � � � � � � � � � � recent�Contributors Opinions of the authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their institutions, Front Cover: Orotone of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley by A. C. Pillsbury. See pp. 17-21. the California State Library or the Foundation. Back Cover: The steamship Selkirk “wooding up at the mouth of the White River one The Bulletin is included as a membership benefit day from Dawson City, Yukon Territory.” Photograph by C. Tucker Beckett in Presidio to Foundation members and those individuals Soliders. See pp. 26-27. contributing $40.00 or more annually to Foundation Programs. Membership rates are: Illustrations / Photos: Pages 2-11, 17-21, and 23-25 are from the California History Associate: $40-$99 Section and special collections of the California State Library; pages 12-15 are courtesy Contributor: $100-249 of Gerald Haslam, and pages 26-27 are from the C. Tucker Beckett Collection, Sutro Sponsor: $250-$499 Library Branch of the California State Library and the Windgate Press. Patron: $500-$999 Institutional: $500 Design: Angela Tannehill, Tannehill Design Corporate: $750 California State Library Foundation Lifetime Member: $1,000 1225 8th Street, Suite 345, Sacramento, CA 95814 Pioneer: $5,000 tel: 916.447.6331 Subscription to Libraries: $30/year web: www.cslfdn.org | email: [email protected] bulletin 102 1 Louise Clappe’s Own Copy of The Pioneer Acquired�by�the�Library By Marlene Smith-Baranzini The complete four-volume set of The Pioneer, California’s first monthly magazine. Editor’s NotE. When the State Library acquired this remarkable set of The Pioneer, I immediately thought of Marlene Smith-Baranzini to write this article. She graciously accepted my invitation. Marlene is the editor of the The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 1851–1852 published by the Heyday Press (1998–2001). It includes a superb introduction by her. For many years she was associate editor of California History, the quarterly magazine of the California Historical Society. In addition, she has written several children’s books with an historical theme and a guidebook on horse racing in California. She is currently working on a biography of Louise Clappe. This complete set of The Pioneer came from the distinguished collection of James S. Copley, the publisher of the San Diego Union Tri- bune. Copley had built an impressive private library of Americana in La Jolla. The collection was sent to Sotheby’s for auction in 2010. he State Library has acquired a sig- Pacific Coast’s cousin to New York’sKnick - captures the interests and energies of a city nificant addition to its collection erbocker Magazine, The Pioneer was a liter- and a region establishing their roots at mid- of early American Californiana: ary journal promoting California voices. It nineteenth century. Louise Clappe’s own copy of The Pioneer, published fiction, poetry, and travel writing, But the element that makes The Pio- California’s first monthly magazine. This along with political and social commentary, neer especially sought after today, its one little periodical, founded by the talented news, notices of ship arrivals, and more, regular feature, is its series “California, in and ambitious young journalists W. H. offering a regional portrait that eclipsed 1851: A Trip into the Mines.” This series Brooks and Ferdinand Ewer, debuted in the state’s rough-and-tumble gold scram- of twenty-three “letters” (or perhaps they San Francisco in 1854. Envisioned as the bling days and reflected an environment were essays written in the epistolary style that embraced familiar American sensibili- of the period), composed at Indian Bar In addition to editing The Shirley Letters ties as well as emerging trends and ideas. during 1851 and 1852 and published in (Heyday, 1999, 2001) and continuing to It regularly included sketches of faraway The Pioneer, was the literary masterwork uncover the life of Louise Clappe, Ms. Smith- places, essays on the natural sciences, a of Amherst-born Louise Clappe, who Baranzini is the author, co-author, or editor sort of social calendar, and much poetry. signed them “Shirley.” “Letter First” was of several books and reviews on California, For all this, The Pioneer can be enjoyed — dated September 13, 1851. “Letter Twenty- American, and western women’s history. or studied — as a collection of writing that Third,” dated November 21, 1852, coin- 2 California State Library Foundation The presentation inscription on Volume I of The Pioneer reads: “[To] Mrs. Louise A. K. S. Clapp, with the Kind Regards of W. H. Brooks & F. C. Ewer.” The inscription on Volume II reads: “Mrs. Louise Clapp; from her sincere friend, F. C. Ewer/ Christmas Eve, 1854.” (Left) Bookplate of noted collector James S. Copley, publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune and previous owner of The Pioneer. cided with the final issue of The Pioneer, plete set of the magazine, gathered into a time, is of a similar style. Two of the vol- which was issued in December 1855. four-volume bound edition, is a rarity. The umes have “Mrs. Louisa Clapp” stamped in Authentic, far-reaching, compassionate, State Library’s acquisition is, unarguably, gilt on the cover (as she also did for bound insightful, and spontaneously witty, the the rarest of the rare. The volumes it now volumes of her later lectures). The inscrip- “Shirley Letters,” as they are now famil- holds are the set originally owned by the tion in volume one reads: “[To] Mrs. Louise iarly called, portray daily life in a mining letters’ own author, Louise Clappe. Because A. K. S. Clapp, with the Kind Regards of W. camp in 1851 and 1852, during the six- they are from Clappe’s own collection, this H. Brooks & F. C. Ewer.” Volume two: “Mrs. teen months that Louise and her husband treasured addition to the Library’s Louise Louise Clapp; from her sincere friend, F. C. lived, in the main, in their crude log cabin Clappe Manuscript Collection carries an Ewer/ Christmas Eve, 1854.” Volume three at Indian Bar, on California’s northern, unrivalled provenance. The four volumes is not inscribed; volume four reads, “Mrs. wild, and remote Feather River. were inscribed and given, as each was fin- Louise Clapp/from her sincere friend/F. C. Because The Pioneer was the original ished, as a gift from her editor and lifelong Ewer/New Years Day 185[6]” publisher of the “Shirley Letters,” this friend Ferdinand Ewer. Three of the four A useful review of early California publi- little periodical’s legacy as California’s volumes — one, two, and four — are uni- cations, including The Pioneer, appeared in earliest literary magazine is unspeakably formly bound in calfskin and cloth, with 1888 by Charles H. Shinn, then the busi- greater than the sum of its parts. A com- gilt spines. Volume three, bound at a later ness manager of the Overland Monthly — bulletin 101 3 Reproduced here are pages from Clappe’s closely written lecture notes. The Louise A. K. S. Clapp[e] Collection The�Clappe�Manuscript�Collection�of� diplomatic�and�political�figure�Alexander� and�suggesting�a�woman�who�treasured�her� the�Library’s�California�History�Section,� Hill�everett,�as�well�as�from�Clappe’s�legal� relationships �Few�are�identified,�though� a�gift�of�Carl�i �Wheat,�September�1933,� guardian,�her�at-home�younger�siblings,�an� it�is�fair�to�assume�many�are�of�her�family� consists�of�three�boxes:�letters�written� uncle,�a�cousin,�former�school�mates,�and� members,�students,�and�San�Francisco� between�1834�and�1850;�Clappe’s�art�and� others �behind�each�letter�stands�a�larger� friends �One�is�identified�as�“Mr �Clapp ”� architecture�lectures,�written�circa�1875;� untold�story,�of�course,�but�collectively� Some�photographs�from�the�collection�were� and�photographs �A�two-page�finding� each�helps�construct�the�framework—with� long�ago�removed�to�other�files,�particularly� aid�summarizes�the�collection,�and� many�details—of�Clappe’s�life�in�Amherst,� to�those�of�prominent�San�Francisco� includes�a�short�biography �it�names�her� Massachusetts,�at�boarding�schools,�and� photographers �Again,�however,�rarely�is� 28�correspondents�and�describes�how�the� on�outings�with�friends the�subject�identified �This�is�true�of�Louise� contents�of�the�three�boxes�are�organized.