New Acquisition 
Image: Hand-painted wood cover of booklet titled A Glimpse of Pasadena, 1905. 5.5 x 3.5 in. Donated by Earl and Marie Barrett, Osawatomie, Kansas (Ephemera Collection)
The Archives recently received a donation of a 1905 booklet titled "A Glimpse of Pasadena," which extols the virtues of "Peerless Pasadena" and includes images of imposing residences and other civic buildings. Booklets and pamphlets of this type - part advertising, part informative - were a popular way to disseminate information about communities in the late nineteenth century. The Archives has a strong civic advertising collection, including many nineteenth century Board of Trade publications.
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About the Collections
PMH maintains the area's largest and most comprehensive collection of documents and artifacts relating to the history of Pasadena and neighboring communities.
The ever-expanding collection spans the years 1834 to the present and contains well over one million historic photographs, rare books, manuscripts, maps, architectural records, art, costumes and textiles, and objects.
The Mission of the Museum is to promote an appreciation of history, culture, arts, and sciences relevant to Pasadena and adjoining communities.
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The Collections Quarterly, sent out four times a year, features new acquisitions as well as select items from the Archives, art and artifacts collection, and the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collections.
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Archives Feature
Discovery of a Note Handwritten by John Muir
Click her to view larger image & the back of the photo with Muir's note
We recently discovered another little piece of history in the Archives. Our oldest, most knowledgeable, and tech savvy Archives volunteer, Sid Gally, found a note written by John Muir on the back of a photograph. In the photo, John Muir is standing in front of a sugar pine tree holding a pine cone. The note says, "The grandest tree in the world, the Sugar Pine, and the grandest mountaineer in the world, John Muir." According to Sid, the handwriting matches known examples of Muir's writing. A historian at the Huntington Library who has read Muir's letters to Theodore Parker Lukens says they often exchanged humorous letters with information on trees. And thanks to Sid, we now know that we also have an example of Muir's writing.
Image: A Sugar Pine and John Muir (People - Muir, John a sugar pine cone)
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Collections Feature
Commemorative Belt Buckle Celebrating Pasadena's Centennial  The object collection at PMH is nothing if not varied. In addition to exemplary art, decorative art, and textiles, the Museum houses a wide variety of artifacts relevant to major events in Pasadena's history.
One example is this commemorative belt buckle, which was made in 1986 in celebration of the city's centennial. There were only 2,500 limited-edition belt buckles made, and anyone who wanted one was required to pay fifty dollars in advance. The donor of the belt buckle in the Museum's collection worked for the city's engineering department. All of the belt buckles were given serial numbers (the belt buckle shown is no. 501 of 2,500) and came with a certificate of authenticity, which lists the name of the original owner. Image: Metal belt buckle. Designed by Garth Hyde, manufactured by Lewis Buckle Company, La Mesa CA, 1986. Gift of Arthur Krieger (2009.010.01) |
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Fenyes Feature
"Red Sketchbooks" Project Completed
Click here to see before and after images
Early last October, the Archives staff welcomed the return of the final group of Eva Scott Fenyes' sketchbooks, which were being conserved at The Huntington Library. Funded by a grant from the Paloheimo Foundation, book and paper conservationists Marieka Kaye and Holly Moore assessed the condition of each volume and recommended the work necessary to preserve the books with their thousands of drawings and paintings. Gradually, over a period of three years, the fifteen folio volumes were taken to the Library Conservation Center in the Munger Research Center, where they received such treatment as new acid free interleaving tissue, repair of hinges and bindings, replacement of degraded leather corners with new goatskin corners, and new bindings for several of the volumes. The sketchbooks, now housed in microclimate boxes in PMH's Archives, are preserved for future research.
In addition to The Huntington Library's conservation work, the Paloheimo Foundation also funded the photography and cataloging of each sketch. The entire collection of over 3,800 sketches, dating from 1866 to 1928, is now fully accessible on computers via the Past Perfect database. All are welcome to come to the Reading Room, browse the database, and explore an astonishing journey through the artistic life of Eva Scott Fenyes.
Image: Volume 2 of the Eva Scott Fenyes' watercolor diaries before conservation (Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers)
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