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Journals of a Pioneer Argonaut, Daniel Jenks

Detail of illustration by Daniel JenksMeet Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art in the Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art in the Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, uses unique drawings in the Library of Congress and other archival materials to tell the story of a pioneer who went west to search for gold in the mid-nineteenth century.

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Library of Congress Web Sites of Interest

Prints & Photographs

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

To view the twenty drawings by Daniel Jenks, click the "Search the Catalog" button. Enter Daniel Jenks (do not put quotation marks around the words) in the search field under Searching All Catalog Records. Then click the "Search" button.

Other collections of the Prints & Photographs Division that relate specifically to California and Colorado during the 1849 and 1859 gold rushes:

LOT 3504 (F) Placer gold mines in California, 1859, 22 photographic prints
LOT 3986-2 (G) U.S. Pacific railroad exploration and surveys--California--Geology, ca. 1855, 14 lithographs, color
LOT 3986-8 (G) U.S. Pacific railroad exploration and surveys--41st parallel, ca. 1855, 7 prints
LOT 4392 (R) (G) Photocopies of miscellaneous historical lithographs and other graphic representations depicting the role of the pioneers, miners, cattlemen, fortune hunters, etc. in the opening of the western United States, 1800-1900
LOT 9414 (G) California pictorial lettersheets 1849-1859, Reynard Press, Inc., publisher, 1961 (reproductions)

Pictorial Americana (Library of Congress, 1955): Gold Rush
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paGold.html 

Exhibitions

American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Wagon Train to the West
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm192.html

Four of Daniel Jenks's drawings of his westward journey are reproduced in color.  Click on each image for a larger view.

American Memory

American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lhtnhtml/lhtnhome.html

American Women
Women on the Move: Overland Journeys to California
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/aw06e/aw06e.html

"California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/

The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/cichome.html

History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/codhtml/hawphome.html

Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/upbhtml/overhome.html

Westward by Sea: A Maritime Perspective on American Expansion, 1820-1890
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/mymhihtml/mymhihome.html

Today in History

January 24: Gold!
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan24.html

August 5: Holmes Reaches Pikes Peak!
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug05.html

September 28: Early Impressions of California
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep28.html#cabrillo

October 20: Westward Ho!
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct20.html

November 25: Business Is Booming [in early California]
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov25.html#business

December 20: First American Cotton Mill [Pawtucket, Rhode Island]
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec20.html

Today in History archive
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/archive.html

Search the Today in History archives on terms such as California, Colorado, Kansas, and others from Daniel Jenks's story to find additional entries related to his journey.

Other Library of Congress Sites

The Learning Page, Immigration -- Chinese: Searching for the Gold Mountain
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/chinese2.html

The Learning Page, Collection Connections: Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/utah/langarts.html

The Learning Page, Collection Connections: "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/cab/index.html

The Learning Page, Collection Connections: The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/chinese/index.html

The Learning Page, Collection Connections: California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/cagold/index.html

Meeting of Frontiers -- Alaska, "Gold Rush and Transformation | Золотая лихорадка и последующие перемены"
http://memory.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfak/mfakgld.html

disclaimerOther Web Sites of Interest

Art of the Gold Rush, Oakland Museum of California
http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/index.html

The Gold Rush, The American Experience, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/, including a bibliography for further reading http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/filmmore/fr.html

Elizabeth J. Johnson Pawtucket History Research Center
http://www.pawtuckethistoryresearchcenter.org/

The Journal of an 1859 Pike's Peak Gold Seeker, from the Kansas Historical Quarterly
http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1956/56_4_lindsey.htm

The Pike's Peak Gold Rush, by Richard Gehling
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Falls/2000/index.html

An extensive Web site by an amateur historian.

Other Materials of Interest

Baird, Joseph Armstrong. California's Pictorial Letter Sheets 1849-1869. San Francisco:  David Magee, 1967.
LC call number: NE215.U5B3 fol.

Blodgett, Peter J. Land of Golden Dreams: California in the Gold Rush Decade, 1848-1858. San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1999.
LC call number: F865.B6523 1999

Driesbach, Janice T., Harvey L. Jones, and Katherine Church Holland.  Art of the Gold Rush. Oakland, Calif.: Oakland Museum of California, Crocker Art Museum, and University of California Press, 1998.
LC call number: N6530.C2D75 1998

Holliday, J. S. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.
LC call number: F865.H69

Hoover, Catherine, and Robert Sawchuck. "'From the Place We Hear About . . .': A Descriptive Check List of Pictorial Lithographs and Letter Sheets in the CHS Collection." California Historical Quarterly 36, no. 4 (Winter 1977/78): 346-67.
LC call number: F856.C24

Hutton, William Rich. California, 1847-1852: Drawings by William Rich Hutton, Reproduced from the Originals in the Huntington Library.  San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1956.
LC call number: NC1075.H9 1956

Kurutz, Gary. "'California is Quite a Different Place Now': The Gold Rush Letters and Sketches of William Hubert Burgess." California Historical Quarterly 56, no. 3 (Fall 1977): 210-29. 
LC call number: F856.C24

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  October 9, 2008
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