Description
In addition to Henderson/Drown family documents and Pond/McHenry family
correspondence and photographs, the Inez Pond Collection consist of Inez
Henderson Pond's research notes, drafts and published articles on Stockton, San
Joaquin County, the Mother Lode and California, with particular emphasis on the
Gold Rush period. Another prominent element in the collection is a group of
writings, clippings and documents pertaining to William Keith and his family.
These materials were probably collected by Mrs. Mary McHenry Keith and Miss
Elizabeth Keith Pond, Mrs. Keith's niece and IHP's sister-in-law. Many
photographs in the collection represent Henderson/Drown and Pond/McHenry family
members. There is a large group of photographs of Admiral Pond in many of the
locations in which he served, notably in China, Alaska, and Guam, as well as in
the laying the Trans-Pacific Cable off Midway (1903), and, in the clean-up work
following the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire (1906). Another important group
of photographs is identified as having been taken by William Keith---rare
snapshots of his wife, dog, and portrait subjects, as well as of landscape
motifs.
Background
Inez Henderson Pond was the granddaughter of R.W. Henderson who came to
Stockton (Calif.) in 1860. Henderson practised dentistry there until his death
in 1911. Her father, Walter R. Henderson, also practised dentistry in Stockton.
He died in 1918. Her mother, Elizabeth Drown, was a descendant of Shem Drowne,
the coppersmith who created the brass grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall in Boston.
One of her cousins, W. Moran Drown, a well-known academic painter of the late
19th c., exhibited works at the Paris Exposition of 1900.