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Percival (Olive) Collection
mssHM 79260-79378
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Olive Percival collection
Identifier/Call Number: mssHM 79260-79378
Physical Description:
8 Linear Feet
(14 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1741-1965
Date (bulk): 1899-1946
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of
Olive Percival (1869-1945), a Southern California author, gardener, book and art collector,
photographer, and activist, dating chiefly from 1899 to 1946 and consisting of manuscripts,
diaries, correspondence, and ephemera. Some of the subjects represented in the collection
are life in Los Angeles, Pasadena, the Arroyo Seco, and Chinatown; descriptions of travel;
book and art collecting, and gardening.
Language of Material: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.
For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library retains the literary rights to the material.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Olive Percival Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
The majority of this collection was a gift from Florence G. Moore Kreider from 1945-1946,
the executrix of Olive Percival's estate.
1. Olive Percival's handwriting appears on material throughout the collection, so it was
decided not to note each instance on the folder fronts.
2. Manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera relating to Anna Held Heinrich, Max Heinrich,
and Ellen Terry were transferred from the Lynden Ellsworth Behymer Papers. These items
originally belonged to Olive Percival when acquired by Dawson's.
Olive May Graves Percival (1869-1945) was an American author, gardener, artist, poet, book
collector, photographer, suffragist, designer, and toy and paper doll maker. She was born
July 1, 1869, near Sheffield, Illinois, and moved to Los Angeles in 1887 with her mother,
Helen Percival, and sisters, living initially in the Women's Christian Temperance Union
building at Temple and Broadway and working as a sales clerk at Hamburger's Department
Store. In 1891, she began her 38-year career in the insurance industry to support herself
and her mother while engaging in her many interests, working initially for fire insurance
agents McLellan and Golsh and then, from 1895 until her retirement in 1929, as a sub-agency
clerk with the Home Insurance Company.
In the 1890s, Percival built a modest cottage along the Arroyo Seco in Los Angeles County,
a dwelling without electricity, but with a wood stove and windmill, that she named "Down-hyl
Claim." The home, which she filled with her collections of ten thousand books, hats, dolls,
daguerreotypes, porcelain, silver, textiles, quilts, fans, bookplates, Lalique glass, and
Asian art, became the site of frequent gatherings for artists, writers, bibliophiles, and
gardeners. An avid gardener herself, who grew over 250 varieties of plants, Percival wrote
The Children's Garden Book: Instructions, Plans and
Stories: A Voice from a Gentle Age (published posthumously by the
Huntington Library in 2005). She was especially fond of roses, a cherry red variety of which
was patented as the Olive Percival Rose; this rose has been planted in the White House
Garden.
An avid amateur photographer, Percival was particularly interested in documenting scenes
of Southern California including San Pedro, Chinatown in Los Angeles, and her own garden, as
well as her visits to Mexico in 1899. She used her own photographs to illustrate her book,
Mexico City: An Idler's Notebook, as well as a series of
articles by this name for the
Los Angeles Times, in 1900-1901.
She was a member of many clubs, including the Friday Morning Club, the Society of Mayflower
Descendants, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the American Society of Colonial
Families. Percival spoke out against the California Alien Land Law of 1913 and was also a
member of the Japan Club in London and New York. She died in Pasadena on February 19,
1945.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- Olive Percival Collection of Photographs (Call number: photCL 217)
- Hildegarde Flanner papers (Call number: mssHM 49977-50166) (Includes recollections of Olive Percival, 1983, and correspondence with Percival, 1923-1944)
- Friday Morning Club papers (Friday Morning Club Scrapbook Collection, Albums 38-40, 1903-1941, belonged to Olive Percival, who pasted in program notices and added comments on speakers)
- Joseph C. Sasia letter to Olive Percival, 1919, August 16. (Call number: mssHM 16373)
- Father Joseph O'Reilly letter to Olive Percival, 1919, August 19. (Call number: mssHM 16374)
This collection contains the papers of Southern California author, gardener, book and art
collector, photographer, and activist Olive Percival (1869-1945), dating chiefly from 1899
to 1946 and consisting of manuscripts (including biographical sketches, diaries, notebooks,
poems, and short stories), correspondence, and ephemera.
Manuscripts
There are 376 pieces of manuscripts, the majority of which are by Olive Percival. The
manuscripts comprise of biographical sketches, diaries, notebooks, poems, short stories,
typescripts, and miscellaneous notes. The manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by author
then title. Many of Olive Percival's unpublished short stories are set in Chinatown, Los
Angeles.
Percival's notebooks, diaries, and sketchbooks are semi-cataloged and are arranged
chronologically. The subjects covered in Percival's diaries and notebooks include life in
Los Angeles, Pasadena, the Arroyo Seco, Chinatown; descriptions of travel in California and
United States; museums and libraries; the Friday Morning Club (Los Angeles, Calif.); the
collecting of books, bookplates, prints, hats, dolls, Japanese art, Chinese art, and Chinese
porcelain; and gardening.
Notable people mentioned in Olive Percival's diaries are: Ruth St. Denis, Mrs. George M.
Millard, Max Heinrich, Hildegarde Flanner, Grace Nicholson, Charles Fletcher Lummis, W.
Irving Way, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jack London, and Wilbur Macey Stone.
Correspondence
There are 122 pieces of correspondence, the majority of which are by Ellen Dame Terry
writing to Anna Held. It is arranged alphabetically then by date. Correspondence relating to
Olive Percival mainly concerns letters from her friends and publisher. Notable authors
include: Ellen Dame Terry, Anna Held, Anna Blake Mezquida, and Max Heinrich.
Ephemera
There are 341 pieces of ephemera. It is arranged by type and subject, and consists of an
appointment book, bookmarks, bookplates, bulletins, empty envelopes, fliers, invoices, legal
documents, military records, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, excerpts of periodicals,
receipts, scrapbooks, tracts, and miscellaneous United States permits and a passport. The
majority of the ephemera relates to Sheffield, Illinois, where Olive Percival was born.
Additional newspaper clippings were added in May 2017. The clippings primarily relate to
the Nuestro Pueblo column for the Los Angeles Times from 1937 through 1939. These clippings
are in Box 14.
This collection is arranged in the following order: Manuscripts (Boxes 1-9); Correspondence
(Box 10); and Ephemera (Boxes 11-13).
The manuscripts and correspondence are catalogued at item level, while the diaries,
notebooks, and ephemera are semi-catalogued. Manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by
author and title. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by author and ephemera is
arranged alphabetically by type and subject.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art, Chinese -- Collectors and collecting.
Art, Japanese -- Collectors and collecting.
Book collecting -- California -- Los Angeles
Bookplates -- Collectors and collecting.
Dolls -- Collectors and collecting.
Gardening -- California -- Los Angeles
Hats -- Collectors and collecting.
Libraries -- United States
Museums -- United States
Porcelain, Chinese -- Collectors and collecting.
Porcelain, Japanese -- Collectors and collecting.
Prints -- Collectors and collecting.
Women book collectors -- California -- Los Angeles
Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County, Calif.) -- Social life and customs
-- 20th century
California -- Description and travel
California -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Chinatown (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- 20th century
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th
century
Pasadena (Calif.) -- History -- 20th century
Pasadena (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th
century
San Diego (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th
century
United States -- Description and travel
Biographies (documents) -- United States.
Clippings (information artifacts) -- United States.
Diaries -- United States.
Excerpts -- United States.
Legal documents -- United States.
Letters (correspondence) -- United States.
Letters (correspondence) England.
Manuscripts -- United States.
Military records -- United States.
Notebooks -- United States.
Periodicals -- United States.
Poems -- United States.
Short stories -- United States.
Sketchbooks -- United States.
Typescripts -- United States
Lummis, Charles Fletcher, 1859-1928