California History articles from March 2004

California History archives from March 2004

R. P. Effinger's excellent adventure: the unknown letters of a young Ohio lawyer.
March 22, 2004... Little did Robert Patterson Effinger know, when in March 1849 he threw in with thousands of other ordinary American men, that he was propelling himself from home, family, and a good life into an extraordinary adventure. Yes, the Gold Rush was...

The adventure begins: down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
March 22, 2004... February 28th 1849 Planter's Hotel, New Orleans Dear Brother, * I have purposely delayed writing until I had finally completed all my arrangements for leaving this city. This having been done I shall give a brief account of myself...

Steaming Off for Panama.
March 22, 2004... Just appointed U.S. Boundary Commissioner, Colonel John B. Weller arrived in New Orleans en route to California while Effinger and his fellow Ohio travelers were enjoying the city. A number of the men Effinger refers to later as the "Lancaster...

Panama.
March 22, 2004... March 27th 1849 Panama, Nueva Granada Dear Brother, I wrote to you by return of the steamship Alabama, giving you an account of my voyage across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and I was in hopes that I would have it in my...

San Diego.
March 22, 2004... August 1st 1849 Camp Riley near San Diego Dear Brother Mike, Since my arrival at San Diego my time has been so much employed seeking adventure and fun that I have scarcely allowed myself a spare moment either for recreation or...

San Francisco.
March 22, 2004... January 1st 1850 San Francisco My Dear Sister, I believe I have never as yet addressed you a letter personally, although in fact all the letters that I have written home are as much intended for one member of the family as...

The Gold Rush Diary of Ramon Gil Navarro.
March 22, 2004... By Ramon Gil Navarro, edited and translated by Maria del Carmen Ferreyra and David S. Reher (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. 305 pp., $50 cloth.) The reader who has perused the published diaries of William Perkins, J. D....

Art/Women/California 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections.
March 22, 2004... Edited by Diana Burgess Fuller and Daniela Salvioni. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 389 pp., $65 cloth, $35 paper.) Art/Women/California is a collection of twenty essays that examine the role of women artists in post-World...

Golden State, Golden Youth.
March 22, 2004... Golden State, Golden Youth By Kirse Granat May (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002, 256 pp., $18.95 paper.) Imagine Nation Edited by Peter Braunstein and Michael William Doyle (New York: Routledge, 2002, 398...

Race and Homicide in Nineteenth-Century California.
March 22, 2004... Race and Homicide in Nineteenth-Century California By Clare V. McKanna, Jr. (Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 2002, xii, 141 pp., $29.95 cloth.) Rebel and a Cause: Caryl Chessman and the Politics of the Death Penalty in...

Silence at Boalt Hall: the Dismantling of Affirmative Action.
March 22, 2004... By Andrea Guerrero (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 262 pp., $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.) Affirmative action in higher education admissions was a controversial policy from its inception in the late 1960s until its...

Checklist.
March 22, 2004... Apostol, Jane. Duncan Gleason: Artist, Athlete, and Author. Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California, 2003. $32 (cloth); $22 (paper); both prices include tax and shipping. "The story of a remarkable fourth-generation Californian...

Spotlight.
March 22, 2004... Just as R. P. Effinger reported on the conditions of Californians in his letters home in the mid-nineteenth century, Japanese American artist Mine Okubo (1912-2001) commented on social conditions in twentieth-century California in her artwork....

From the editor.
March 22, 2004... Times change; you might say that it is in the very nature of this world of ours to be a scene of changes. And so it is with California History. We are pleased to introduce not only a new look, designed by Melanie Doherty and Associates, but...

The emperor's cane.(Collections)(Joshua A. Norton)
March 22, 2004... The eccentric and much-loved Emperor Norton lives on as his story is recounted frequently and with affection as an example of San Francisco's tolerance. Joshua A. Norton, born in London (in 1811, 1818, or 1879, depending on the source), arrived...

A village romance: San Juan Capistrano offers a window to California's storied past.(California Journeys)
March 22, 2004... Throughout California, only a handful of monuments or markers link us to our earliest settlements. The town of San Juan Capistrano is an exception, however. For it is not one building, not even the bougainvillea covered chapel and ruins of the...

Adventures in nature: the Merry Tramps of Oakland.
March 22, 2004... DURING THE 1880s, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, WAS POISED TO BECOME A HUB FOR MANUFACTURING AND TRANSPORTATION ON THE WEST COAST. The young city, founded in 1852, could boast of having six banks, three carriage manufacturers, a handful of successful...

California's recall: adoption of the "Grand Bounce" for Elected Officials.
March 22, 2004... From the completion of the intercontinental railroad system in 1869 until 1910, political life in California was dominated by the railroad industry, and its biggest conglomerate, the Southern Pacific Railroad (popularly known as the "Espee" or...

Golden gate castaway: Joseph Heco and San Francisco, 1851-1859.
March 22, 2004... Late in October 1850, the Japanese junk Eirikimaru, after delivering its cargo to Edo (Tokyo), departed for its return trip to Hiogo (now part of Kobe). On the evening of the fourth day, rain began to fall, engulfing the ship in a gale. There...

Where I Was From.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... WHERE I WAS FROM By Joan Didion. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. 240 pp., $23, cloth.) In Where I Was From, Joan Didion undertakes the rare task of trying to discover the shape and meaning of her place of origin. She seeks to cast...

Japanese Pride, American Prejudice: Modifying the Exclusion Clause of the 1924 Immigration Act.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... JAPANESE PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE: MODIFYING THE EXCLUSION CLAUSE OF THE 1924 IMMIGRATION ACT By Izumi Hirobe. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001, 327 pp., $49.50.) In Japanese Pride, American Prejudice, Izumi Hirobe has...

Voting At the Political Fault Line: California's Experiment with the Blanket Primary.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... VOTING AT THE POLITICAL FAULT LINE: CALIFORNIA'S EXPERIMENT WITH THE BLANKET PRIMARY Edited by Bruce E. Cain and Elisabeth R. Gerber. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002, 384 pp., $22.50 paper, $55 cloth.) ...

Mi Raza Primero! Nationalism, Identity, And Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... MI RAZA PRIMERO! NATIONALISM, IDENTITY, AND INSURGENCY IN THE CHICANO MOVEMENT IN LOS ANGELES, 1966-1978. By Ernesto Chavez. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 166 pp., $18.95 paper) The Chicano Movement, that temblor...

Rush For Riches: Gold Fever And the Making of California.(Riches for All: The California Gold Rush and the World)(American Alchemy: The California Gold Rush and Middle-class Culture. Cultural Studies of the United States)(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... RUSH FOR RICHES: GOLD FEVER AND THE MAKING OF CALIFORNIA By J. S. Holliday. (Oakland Museum of California and University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1999. 355 PP., $34.95, paper) RICHES FOR ALL: THE CALIFORNIA GOLD...

The Gold And Silver of Spanish America, C. 1572-1648.(Esteban Jose Martinez: His Voyage in 1779 to Supply Alta California)(Guide to the Manuscripts Concerning Baja California)(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... THE GOLD AND SILVER OF SPANISH AMERICA, C. 1572-1648 By Engel Sluiter. (Berkeley: Bancroft Library, 1998, 188 pp., $50 cloth). GUIDE TO THE MANUSCRIPTS CONCERNING BAJA CALIFORNIA By Rose Marie Beebe and Robert Senkewicz. (Berkeley:...

Checklist.
March 22, 2004... The Checklist provides notice of publications that portray the diverse and exceptional nature of California. Readers and publishers who wish to call attention to recent works, including reprints, are requested to send the...

Individuals.(Donors)(California Historical Society)
March 22, 2004... The California Historical Society is deeply grateful to the following individual donors for their contributions received between July 1, 2003, and March 31, 2004: $10,000 TO $24,999 Mr. Jay D. McEvoy, San Francisco $5,000 TO $9,999 Mr....

Corporate and foundation support.(California Historical Society)
March 22, 2004... The California Historical Society is deeply grateful to the following organizations for their contributions received between July 1, 2003, and March 31, 2004: $50,000 TO $100,000 The Barkley Fund, Corona Del Mar Louise M. Davies...

Spotlight.(Rondal Partridge)
March 22, 2004... Photographer Rondal Partridge captured a less-than-idyllic view of California's wilderness when he traveled to Yosemite National Park to work on a film for San Francisco public television station KQED. "I went to Yosemite with a producer,"...