PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY BY THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 4, CALIFORNIA Number 12 • MAY 1 955 Annual Meeting of Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota, Mrs. Florence Skaug of Atlan­ THE CHAIRMAN AND OFFICERS of the Friends tic, Iowa, and the El Paso County Pioneers' of the Bancroft Library announce that the Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mrs. Annual Meeting (our Eighth) will be held Stella D. Hare of Manchester, N. H., a de­ on Sunday afternoon, May 22, 4:30 p.m. at scendant of Jedediah's eldest sister, Sally Smith Jones, added to the collection a large the Bancroft Library, Library Annex, on the group including the papers of her grandfather University campus at Berkeley. (Sally's youngest son, Peter Jones), which are Mr. Carl I. Wheat, author, bibliophile, ex­ interesting not only for the glimpses they plorer and humorist, will speak on the "Riches afford of Smith family history but for Cali­ and Poverty of the Bancroft Library," on the fornia and Civil War letters written by a namesake nephew, Jedediah Jones. Mrs. 50th anniversary of its acquisition by the A. C. Bondurant and Mrs. William Bondu- University of California. rant of Hillsboro, 111., contributed papers of their grandfather, Ira G. Smith, Jedediah's younger brother who was also the admin­ Jedediah Smith Family istrator of his estate —a responsibility with which his papers are primarily concerned. Pap ers Photocopies of letters and a family Bible THE COLLECTION of Jedediah Smith Family were added by Mrs. A. J. Sturzenegger of Papers founded at the Bancroft Library in Los Angeles, a great-granddaughter of Jede­ March, 1954, with the gift of the papers of diah's elder sister, Eunice Smith Simons. Jedediah's younger brother, Peter, by his Other accessions may further enlarge this col­ grandson, Mr. F R. Bacon of South Pasadena, lection of the papers of a remarkable Ameri­ has grown apace during the past year, and is can family. now an archive numbering more than 500 pieces, of high interest to students of the ex­ ploration and development of the early West. A Reminiscence Miss Lura Smith and her brother, the late Ira PERC S. BROWN —a good Friend indeed—has Delos Smith of Meade, Kansas, contributed given us thirty copies of A Reminiscence by a large group of the papers of their father, Samuel Hopkins Willey, member of the Class E. D. Smith (including the manuscript of his of 1845 at Dartmouth College, which he had pioneer biography of the explorer who first prepared for a meeting of Dartmouth Alumni traveled overland from the Missouri to Cali­ in San Francisco in 1898. Dr. Willey, who fornia) , and of their great-grandfather, Ralph came to California in February, 1849, organ­ Smith, Jedediah's elder brother. Other papers ized the movement which led to the found­ from the Ralph Smith branch of the family ing of the University of California. Copies of were given Bancroft as originals or photo­ this pamphlet will be mailed to Friends on a copies by Dr. Matthew D. Smith, President first-come first-served basis. home until his death in 1881. The Bancroft Carl I. Wheat Wyoming manuscript, notes of conversations in sandstone, regarded as a "soft" rock, sur­ Library acquired fourteen volumes of Judge with the Shoshoni chief, Washakie, by Capt. vive better than those in granite, owing to CARL I. WHEAT, Chairman of the Friends of Carter's daybooks and ledgers eighteen years P H. Ray, made on the Wind River Reserva­ exfoliation of the latter. the Bancroft Library, who will deliver the ago, picked up another seven volumes of cor­ tion in the 1890's. In giving all these papers The venturous hobbyist reports that most address at the Annual Meeting on May 22, respondence and papers in the second Auer- to the library, Dr. Corson confessed that had of the early inscriptions on the northern trail makes history faster than we can record it. bach sale in 1948, and within the last year he not made medicine his career, he might to California, by way of South Pass, have Our outpaced shorthand notations for the now re has received many valuable papers from mem­ have liked to be a research librarian or an weathered away, few before 1849 ~ past year, his first as Chairman, yield memo­ bers of the family. archeologist. On the spot we commissioned maining. randa that he spoke before the Roxburghe Mr. Edgar N. Carter of South Pasadena, him an Honorary Research Librarian and an Club, the American Antiquarian Society, the California, now in his 83rd year, the only sur­ Honorary Ethnologist of the Bancroft Li­ Microfilm Guide Zamorano Club, and the California Historical viving child of Judge Carter, who has been brary. Assuming these new dignities with Society, on various aspects of a ruling passion, working on a biography of his father, con­ characteristic humor, Dr. Corson quipped IN RECENT YEARS the Library has added many the mapping of the American West; that he tributed an extensive collection of letters writ­ that he was pleased to accept "the Honoraries thousands of film reproductions of its great had published by the American Antiquarian ten to W A. Carter by an uncle, W H. Foote, sans Honoraria." collection of original materials for historical Society a long and striking monograph, Map­ in the 1830's and 1840's, a journal kept on research. Microfilming programs have been ping the American West, i^/j.o-i8^y, and fol­ the overland trail in 1866 by James Van Allen carried on in the archives of France, Great lowed it up immediately with a book written Carter (no blood relation, but subsequently Emigrant Register Britain, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, in collaboration with Dale L. Morgan of the the Judge's son-in-law), an 1879 letter by Jim and Spain, and additions are constantly be­ Bancroft staff, Jedediah Smith and His Maps Bridger, and numerous other items of interest. Given to Bancroft ing made to the Library's microfilm collec­ of the American West; that, himself bitten Mr. Carter Corson Camp of Napa, Califor­ A UNIQUE "Emigrant Register" of names and tion. These new sources provide information by the bug of exploration, for the third suc­ nia, the son of Roberta Carter Camp, donated dates of the pioneers who inscribed their for studies on many topics relating to Cali­ cessive year he participated in reconnaissances several diaries, many letters and miscellane­ names in stone along the overland trails to fornia and the entire Pacific slope of North of the Navaho Canyon area in Arizona; that ous papers, and a hundred early photographs. California has been presented to the Bancroft America, Mexico, parts of Central and South he has just been named president of the Book Dr. Charles L. Camp, well-known University Library by Mr. Charles Kelly of Torrey, America, and the Hawaiian Islands. Club of California; that he is a director of the of California paleontologist, bibliographer, Utah. To inform users about these resources the California Historical Society; that he has been and writer on Western themes, a cousin of Mr. Kelly, custodian at Capitol Reef Na­ Library has issued a "Preliminary Guide to appointed a member of the Advisory Board C. C. Camp though not a descendant of the Microfilm Collection in The Bancroft of the National Park Service; and that all tional Monument, is the author of Salt Desert Judge Carter, contributed still other Carter Trails, Old Greenwood, Outlaw Trail, andLibrary, " prepared by Mary Ann Fisher, who the while he has carried on a very busy and papers acquired at Fort Bridger nearly 40 has the responsibility for keeping order in our successful law practice. No better qualified other works on Western history. For nearly years ago. And from beyond the limits of 20 years he has pursued his hobby of visit­ vast store of films. The 28-page, mimeo­ person could be found to take a good long California, Dr. Edward F Corson of Plymouth graphed report is designed to present a gen­ look at the Bancroft Library, and on the oc­ ing sites along the overland trails and copy­ Meeting, Pa., son of Judge Carter's eldest ing for his register all names that have sur­ eral summary of the character and scope of casion of its fiftieth year at the University of daughter Ada, has given Bancroft an extraor­ the Library's microfilm holdings. The guide California, offer a broadscale cultural inven­ vived the ravages of erosion. The results of dinary number of family papers. These in­ this effort, nearly 3,000 names, have been describes briefly the various archives from tory, with wise and witty comment, of the clude more than a hundred letters by Judge which film has been received; gives an indi­ Library's strengths and weaknesses. recorded in alphabetical order in the "Emi­ Carter and his wife to Ada and her husband, grant Register." cation of the extent, subject matter, and in­ Dr. Joseph K. Corson, and letters by promi­ clusive dates of material from each source; The oldest markings recorded by Mr. nent personalities to the Judge and his son-in- and lists a few bibliographic aids which have Kelly are those at Inscription Rock in New The Fort Bridger Story law, including F V Hayden, R. B. Marcy, been found helpful in working with the film. W S. Harney, and Edward D. Cope. W A. Mexico, where the Spanish carvings date THE MOST significant addition to Bancroft's from 1605, when Don Juan de Onate, first collection of manuscript Wyomingana yet Carter went overland to California during the Gold Rush, not then dreaming of the place governor of the province, left his name on the Congratulations made, more significant than anything gath­ cliff.