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Go directly to the collection, "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.
The diversity of materials in the collection gives teachers the ability to
cover a wide range of reading and writing skills. Stories, sketches,
journalism, autobiography, and other forms of personal expression can
all be found in California as I Saw It. The narratives offer
an exciting view of history through the filter of life stories, from
many different points of view.
1) Descriptive Writing
The natural beauty of California inspired many of the narrators in
the collection to write descriptions of the region.
Search
on travel and natural history for text such as:
A little further,
and we struck to the left up a mountain road, and for two hours threaded
one valley after another, green, tangled, full of noble timber, giving
us every now and again a sight of Mount Saint Helena and the blue,
hilly distance, and crossed by many streams, through which we splashed
to the carriage-step. ... |
EN ROUTE FOR THE YOSEMITE, p. 231
California: A Pleasure Trip from Gotham to the Golden Gate, April,
May, June, 1877, by Mrs. Frank Leslie |
But we had the society of
these bright streams--dazzlingly clear, as is their wont, splashing from
the wheels in diamonds, and striking a lively coolness through the sunshine.
And what with the innumerable variety of greens, the masses of foliage
tossing in the breeze, the glimpses of distance, the descents into seemingly
impenetrable thickets, the continual dodging of the road which made haste to
plunge again into the covert, we had a fine sense of woods, and spring-time,
and the open air.
Robert Louis Stevenson,
The Silverado Squatters, Chapter I, p. 13
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The new state of California aroused the curiosity of many living in the Eastern
and Midwestern states of the U.S. Several authors wrote detailed
descriptions of their travels in the region for tourists and the curious.
Search
on description, surveys, and guidebooks for text
such as:
The country is low and flat, much of it uncultivated, and all for sale.
Some newly planted orange groves and apricot trees are seen, as well as vast
fields of mammoth cabbage and beet gardens. The road leaves the main line at
Saugus and descends through the lovely valley of Santa Clara until the coast
is reached at San Buenaventura, and for thirty miles you run along the sea.
How salty and bracing the air smells, and what a change from the flower-scented
breezes we have left behind! The approach at night is a weird and beautiful
sight. There is light enough to distinguish the overhanging presence of the
Santa Ynez mountains. The harbor gleams with myriad lights, the town bristles
with electric sparks, and opens eyes, arms and doors to give hospitable welcome
to its best patron, the stranger. Mary H. Wills,
A Winter in California, Chapter IV, p. 48
2) Journal Writing
The journals in the collection offer poignant accounts of human emotions
and strengths in the face of adversity. These journal entries document the
difficulties of travel to California, and the further struggles of raising
a family and making a living in the new frontier.
Search on
journal, voyage, journey, and family
for texts such as:
Sabbath Morning, April 21 st ...At seven o'clock I reached
camp so exhausted, that I was compelled to go immediately to bed, when a
feeling of sadness came over me. I thought of home, my mother, sister, and
friends. Oh! how gloomy my thoughts ran. I could no more control them than I
could hold the wild horse Mazeppa.James Abbey,
California. A Trip Across the Plains, 10 miles from St. Joseph, April
24, 1850, p. 10
and
March 29 . Lat. 29.42, long. 42. For the past four days we have not gone over
50 miles a day, and today we have not gone at all. That is, we have gone back just
as fast as we have gone forward. I dislike these calms, for the ship rolls about
and It makes me dizzy. I have had two seasick times, one pretty bad one, since I
last wrote. A gale commenced on Tuesday at noon and lasted till Friday, and we
tossed about in fine order. We could neither stand nor sit and of course must lie
down. ...I went to the table once, and my tumbler turned over, and rolled down
and upset the salt, and cavorted against a plate, and was at last caught by the
steward. You can't keep hold of your things-they will move off. And you can no more
walk, if you are on your feet and there comes a sudden lurch, than you can fly.
Down, down you slide till you land against the wall, and there you are fast at last
and must try it over again.
Records of a California Family; Journals and Letters of Lewis C. Gunn and
Elizabeth Le Breton Gunn, The Voyage Around Cape Horn, p. 104
3) Tall Tales and Humor
The collection is strong in the presentation of local color sketches and
vernacular forms, including the tall tale.
Search on
humorist and sketches for texts such as:
Crossing the Platte in '58, p. 35
California Revisited, T.S. Kenderdine, 1898 | The Platte
was "up," they said--which made me wish I could see it when it was down, if it
could look any sicker and sorrier. They said it was a dangerous stream to cross,
now, because its quicksands were liable to swallow up horses, coach and passengers
if an attempt was made to ford it. But the mails had to go, and we made the attempt.
Once or twice in midstream the wheels sunk into the yielding sands so
threateningly that we half believed we had dreaded and avoided the sea all
our lives to be shipwrecked in a "mud-wagon" in the middle of a desert at last.
But we dragged through and sped away toward the setting sun. Samuel
Clemens, (Mark Twain),
Roughing It, Chapter VII, p. 61 |
and
CALIFORNIA is called the land of flowers, and the
first fellar that called it so, was no liar. He must have been a native--a
truthful man, and likewise a "Booster." You never heard a native knock
California--no--sir--ree. They're always a boosting, and crowing, and
swelling out like pouter pigeons, as soon as they begin to see us sit up and
take notice. Huh! dont they love to see our eyes stick out, and our mouths
come open, while we gap at some of the glories of California--the land of
sunshine--the land of gold. And when we get homesick and say "Good bye,
we're going home," they only laugh at us--and Bill, its a kinder mean
laugh, too--and they'll say "Oh, you'll come back, they all do. I'll
give you just six months at the most, and I'll bet you'll come back with
all your relations, and stay next time for good." Mina Deane
Halsey,
A Tenderfoot in Southern California, Chapter XVII, p. 147
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