Vol. 14, No. 2 Winter 1994
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PUBLIC HISTORY NEWS Volume 14, Number 2 Winter 1994 California Welcomes the NCPH The NCPH's sixteenth annual meeting erty became a pig is just around the comer: March 17-20 in farm. Restored to Sacramento, California. Under the theme, its earlier grandeur "Public History and the Environment", we by the state park meet jointly this year with the Southwest system, it is open Oral History Association and Northwest to visitors from 10 Oral History Association in the capital city a.m.t05p.m.daily. of the Golden State. Ina crucible of In 155 years Sacramento has grown change during the from a remote western outpost to the capi 1850's, people who tal of the nation's most populous state. It had come and began in 1839, when Swiss immigrant failed at mining John Augustus Sutter obtained a land settled toeama liv grant at the confluence of the American ing in commerce, and Sacramento Rivers from the governor industry,andmost of Mexican California. There he built a importantly to fort named "New Helvetia," and it be California's future, came a trading post and haven for Ameri agriculture. The can immigrants. In less than a decade city expanded Sutter was prosperous enough to build a along a prosper sawmill in the nearby foothills at Coloma, ous waterfront. It and in January 1848 James Marshall, the became the state's mill's construction foreman, found gold in capital in 1854, the the tailrace. western terminus Gateway to the mines for the 49'ers, for the transconti Sacramento quickly became the hub for nental railroad a people seeking their fortune in California's decade later, and gold fields. While discovery of gold had the marketing an immense impact on the nation, indeed and distribution the world, nowhere was its effect so pro center for the pro found as where it occurred. The well es duce grown in the tablished and thriving Native American GreatCentral Val population was drastically reduced by ley. Today's Old disease and conflict wrought by an on Sacramento,adja slaught of immigrants. Within a few years cent to the NCPH Restoration o/the California State Capitol was completed in 1982. Sutter's Fort was destroyed, and the prop- conference head- quarters at the Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn, captures this exciting era. One of Program, Special Events, and America's best examples of historical re Sponsors Volume 14, Number 2 construction, Old Sacramento is home to Winter 1994 The 1994 joint NCPH-SOHA Program the California State Railroad Museum - Committee, chaired by Alan Newell, His the world's largest; the Sacramento Mu A Quarterly Publication of the National torical Research Associates, Inc., has as seum of History, Science, and Technology; Council on Public History in cooperation sembled an array of stimulating with the Department of History, Indiana and the Sacramento Waterfront, depicting workshops, sessions, and tours under the an 1870 riverside scene. University at Indianapolis. general theme of "Public History and the In recent decades, Sacramento has Environment." Highlights include work grown with California. With high-rise Philip V. Scarpino, President shops in environmental investigations and office buildings and Gold Rush era build issues facing Department of Energy labo Patricia Mooney-Melvin, Vice-president ings occupying tree-lined streets together, ratories, tours focusing on environmental Martin V. Melosi, Past-president the city blends history and progress. Ideal issues in CRM and hazardous waste climate, great location, and interesting Rachel P. Maines, Secretary-treasurer cleanup at the Royal Mountain King Mine attractions make Sacramento a "destina and McClellan Air Force Base, and ses Elizabeth B. Monroe, Executive Director tion for all reasons and all seasons." sions on water resources, fisheries, oral history and environmental research, and Conference Registration and short walk from historic Old Sacramento historic landscape interpretation. and is adjacent to the new downtown Several special events also mark the Hotel Information shopping mall. NCPH has booked a large sixteenth annual meeting. A special stu Conference program and registration block of rooms at a conference rate of $74, dent symposium, "Careers in Public His information were sent to NCPH members single or double; $82, triple. For reserva tory," helps start the meeting on Thursday in January. If you have not received your tions telephone (916) 446-0100, and be Sure afternoon, March 17, by bringing college program and registration form, please to mention that you are with the National students and their advisors face to face contact Jim Williams, local arrangements Council on Public History. with practicing public historians. Two chair, at (408) 864-8964. The Vagabond Inn, 909 Third Street, banquets are open to all conference partici The conference headquarters hotel is located across the street from the Holiday pants. The Southwest Oral History Associa the Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn, 300 "J" Inn, offers rooms at normal rates. Tele tion sponsored banquet will be held Friday Street, Sacramento CA 95814. It is just a phone (916)446-1481 or (800)522-1555. evening in the unique venue of the Califor nia State Railroad Museum's locomotive roundhouse. The NCPH sponsored banquet on Saturday night kicks off the establishment of a special fund to honor public history pioneer Robert L Kelley. Top: The Sacramento waterfront depicted hy all artist in the 1870's. Sacramento Museum of History, Science, and Technology. Public historians in California wel come the NCPH. Local planning and Bottom: John Augustus Sutter's Fort, "New Helvetia." banking is being handled by the secre tariat of the California Council for the Promotion of History. Graduate students in the Capitol Campus Public History Program at CSU Sacramento as well as some CCPH members will be staffing the conference. Receptions, breakfast rolls, hospitality suites, and program printing are being sponsored by a number of public history organizations. They include public history graduate programs at Arizona State University, u.c. Santa Barbara, and CSU Sacramento and a number of other organizations and private firms, including the Center for California Studies, the Wells Fargo Bank History Department, Foothill Resources Ltd., and Historical Research Associates, Inc. The National Council • on Public History II promotes the applica tion of historical scholarship outside the university in government, business, historical societies, preservation organizations, archives, libraries, professional associations, and public interest groups. For details contact NCPH President Philip V. Scarpino, Department of History, IUPUI, 530 Cavanaugh Hall, 425UniversityBlvd.,Indianapolis,IN46202- 5140; Vice-president Patricia Mooney Melvin, Department of History, Loyola University-Glicago,820N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611; or Elizabeth B. Monroe, 327 Cavanaugh Hall-IUPUI, 425 Univer sity Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46202-5140; (317)274-2716. Forchangeofaddress, write UCPress, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720. SubmissionstoPublicHistory News should be sent to Elizabeth Monroe, Editor, at the address above. 2 - - Business as Usual: Trade Literature as Historical Resource by Leigh Darbee Trade literature comes in many shapes past five years or so, IHS has been con side, "Catalogue of Fruit Trees, Cultivated and sizes-from single sheets to extensive centrating on developing its collection of and for sale by Benjamin and Jesse White, volumes. It can be published or unpub catalogs from any businesses that have at their Nursery, Near Mooresville, Mor- lished, though this article will focus on existed in the state. Like many states, - See Business as Usual pg. 12 published sources. Regardless of format, Indiana is known to most the common goal of publications that fall people for its current and under this designation is to sell products. recent major areas of pro The first person to pay much attention duction: com and soy to trade catalogs as a genre was Lawrence beans, pharmaceuticals, B. Romaine, who published A Guide to hogs, steel. A brief look at American Trade Catalogs, 1744-1900 in 1960. the small amount of litera Arguing that trade literature is vital to the ture that we have collected study of American business, Romaine so far, however, reveals the compiled a list of several thousand cata wide variety of commodities logues, divided into broad subject areas that have come out of the ranging from "Agricultural implements state, from small towns as and machinery" to "Windmills." He at well as cities. Products tempted to provide at least one location available from Indiana firms for each catalog, though for some no cop ranged widely; well repre ies are known to survive and they exist sented areas include furni only as citations in bibliographies. Ro ture, musical instruments, maine is still the standard reference in the hardware, medical instru field of trade literature, and many book ments and supplies, archi sellers' catalogs today show the Romaine tectural components, reference or indicate that a certain title is ceremonial garb for secret "not in Romaine." We know now that societies, horticultural prod Romaine's effort only scratched the sur ucts, and caskets. face of available trade literature, but he The earliest item (so himself pointed out that many institutions far) in the collection that he contacted had collections of these mate can be viewed as trade rials that were not organized or cataloged literature is an 1841 broad- to any great extent. Romaine's focus on the utility of trade Right: Chilrles Mayer & Co .• 1888 catalogs for the study of business history indicates only one aspect of their impor Bottom: Wayne Works. 1923 tance. They are also indispensable to the history of consumerism, artifact study and dating, architectural history, fashion history, and so on, practically ad infinitum. They are a far underused historical resource. Collections that exist have varying overarching philosophies. In 1984, the Winterthur Library in Delaware published a guide to its collection of catalogs, ar ranged by subjects similar to those used by Romaine.