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Banning Co. Records Addenda II
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Table of contents
Title: Banning Co. Addenda II
Dates: 1841-1989
Bulk: 1854-1944
Collection Number: Consult
repository.
Creator:
Banning, Katharine Stewart.
Extent:
Approx. 1,683 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: manuscripts@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection consists of correspondence, business and financial papers, family notes, bound volumes, and ephemera related
to the Banning family and collected by Katharine Stewart Banning.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the
Reader Services Department. For more information, please go to following
web
site
.
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual
materials, researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the
Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as
owner of the physical property rights only, and researchers must also obtain
permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances, the
Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights.
Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further information.
[Identification of item], Banning Company records addenda II, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
The collection was acquired in 1996 as an addenda to the Banning Company Records.
Phineas Banning (1830-1885) was born in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1861 he arrived in San Pedro, California, and worked as
a store clerk and stagecoach driver before starting his own staging and shipping company, which rapidly expanded throughout
California as well as to Arizona and Utah. In the late 1850s, he joined a group of investors who purchased 640 acres of land
near San Pedro to expand the port. This land was later named Wilmington after Banning’s birthplace. By the 1860s Banning was
heavily involved in most of the operations of San Pedro Harbor. During the Civil War he was given the honorary title of Brigadier
General of the California First Brigade, and continued to use the honorarium “General” for the rest of his life. In the 1870s
he became a California state senator and campaigned for more elaborate transportation connections between Los Angeles and
San Pedro port. Banning’s first wife was Rebecca Sanford, with whom he had three children who survived to adulthood: William,
Joseph Brent, and Hancock. After Rebecca’s death he married Mary Hollister, and they had two surviving daughters, Mary Banning
Norris (1871-1953) and Lucy Tichenor Banning (1873-1929). By 1880 Banning had scaled back his business ventures, and after
several years of illness died in San Francisco.
In 1888 Joseph Brent Banning (1861-1920) married his cousin Katharine Stewart Banning (1866-1954), the daughter of Phineas
Banning’s older brother William Lowber Banning (1814-1893), a railroad executive and politician from Minnesota. Katharine
was a co-founder of the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and was actively involved in war relief efforts during World War I.
She died in Los Angeles
The collection consists of correspondence, business and financial papers, family notes, bound volumes, and ephemera related
to the Banning family and collected by Katharine Stewart Banning. It includes most of her original notes on the Banning family,
focusing on family traditions (particularly Christmas), genealogy, and the organization of their homes. The correspondence
consists primarily of Banning family letters and correspondents include Ellen Banning Ayer, Frederick Ayer, Elizabeth Lowber
Banning, George Hugh Banning, Hancock Banning (1865-1925), Joseph Brent Banning (1861-1920), Katharine Stewart Banning, Phineas
Banning, William Banning, William Lowber Banning, William Phineas Banning, Beatrice Ayer Patton, and George Hugh Smith. The
legal, land, and financial papers include contracts, deeds, titles, and statements of account for Banning properties. The
miscellaneous manuscripts include sewing instructions from the American Red Cross, notes on Santa Catalina Island, and some
photographs, as well as copies of printed articles on the life of Phineas Banning. Volumes include "Memories of Phineas Banning"
(c.1895-1909), a Yale scrapbook belonging to Joseph Brent Banning (1889-1969) with accompanying ephemera, a Virginia Military
Institute yearbook (1914) owned by Hancock Banning (1892-1982) with accompanying photographs, embossed volumes used to copy
stories and poems and owned by Ellen Barrows Banning (Ayer) and May Alice Banning (1876), a Banning Rancho log book (1889-1894),
various family scrapbooks assembled by Katharine Stewart Banning, various notes on "Bills' Comfort Bag for Soldiers and Sailors"
(c.1917-1941), and Katherine Banning's Los Angeles Children's Hospital notebooks, as well as a diary kept by Katharine Banning
aboard the Lusitania in 1914. Also included in the collection are various published books owned by the Bannings and miscellaneous
ephemera.
Arrangement
The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by author. The collected notes and ephemera are arranged chronologically. The
original arrangement of the volumes has been maintained. They are not organized alphabetically or chronologically.
A detailed container list is available through the Manuscripts Department.
Ayer, Frederick, 1822-1918.
Banning family.
Banning, Hancock, 1865-1925.
Banning, Hancock, 1892-1982.
Banning, Joseph Brent, 1861-1920.
Banning, Phineas, 1830-1885.
Banning, William Lowber, 1814-1898.
Smith, George H. (George Hugh).
American Red Cross--History--Sources.
Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
Virginia Military Institute--History--20th century.
Yale University--History--20th century.
Domestic relations--California.
Land use--California.
Lusitania (Steamship)
Transatlantic voyages.
World War, 1914-1918--Civilian relief.
California--History--19th century.
California--History--20th century.
England--Description and travel.
Santa Catalina Island (Calif.)
Family papers--California--19th century.
Family papers--California--20th century.
Letters (correspondence)--California--19th century.
Letters (correspondence)--California--20th century.
Scrapbooks--20th century.
Ephemera--20th century.