This collection contains documents relating to various aspects of retired Pasadena, California, physician Henry Warren Johnson (1854-1942). The bulk of the documents are notes for his manuscript, "The Story of Placerville Road," which chronicles his experiences traveling around California in the 1920s.

Henry Warren Johnson (1854-1942) was a retired doctor who traveled around California and the Pacific Northwest in his automobile during the 1920s with his sister Harriet “Hattie” L. Johnson. He was born in 1854 and raised in Berlin, New Hampshire, and graduated from Harvard University in 1879 with a bachelor’s degree. From there, he entered Boston University where he graduated in 1888 with an MD. He traveled to Europe in order to do his residency in a Dublin hospital. By 1901, he returned to Berlin and became the Chairman of the City’s Board of Education, with Hattie as the city librarian. Afterwards, he and his sister moved to Pasadena, California, from Berlin. They began to travel during the 1920s, while Johnson worked for the Department of Agriculture under the authority of the Biological Survey making regular reports about the number and types of birds he branded. He also held permits from the State Fish and Game Commission and the State Ornithological Club. Towards the end of his life, he took a class by Loye Miller at the University of California, Los Angeles about birds. He also began several manuscripts about literature and California history, publishing “A collection of genealogical tables of the reigning houses of Europe from the 10th century to the present time,” through a local press in 1940. He died at the age of 88 on October 19, 1942.

80 items in 1 box

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