Frances Long Holt Journal, 1872

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Summary

Creators:
Holt, Frances Long
Abstract:
Journal documenting Frances Long Holt's pleasure trip to North America in 1872. The author also describes a weeklong stay in Havana, Cuba and a brief stop in Quebec.
Extent:
88 leaves : ruled paper ; 155 x 100 mm. bound to 162 x 109 mm.
Language:
Finding aid is written in English.

Background

Scope and content:

Frances Long Holt's journal entries describe tourist spots such as New Orleans, San Francisco's Chinatown, Yosemite Valley, Niagara Falls, and New York's Central Park, as well as a number of less prominent tourist destinations including the growing cities of Denver, Colorado Springs, and the Mormon community in Salt Lake City. Daily events within her family, as well as her personal impressions, are also recorded. She discusses the manufacture of cigars in Cuba, a journey up the Mississippi on a riverboat, a Chinese opera in San Francisco's Chinatown, and a trip on horseback through Yosemite Valley. Then, traveling east, she observes Niagara Falls and tours New York City's Central Park, happening upon Fredrick Law Olmstead in the park that he designed. Other notable experiences include a brief visit with Brigham Young during a stopover in Salt Lake City, a trip to the mills in Lowell, Massachusetts (which gives her the opportunity to compare working conditions in America with those in England), and a short stay in Quebec. The journal ends upon the family's return to Liverpool. Throughout the journal, she offers the perspective of a wealthy woman from Victorian England.

Biographical / historical:

Little is known about Frances (Long) Holt other than that she was the second wife of Alfred Holt (1829-1911), an entrepreneur and engineer who helped to introduce and advance steamship technology in the late nineteenth century. The company that he founded, Ocean Steam Ship Company (later Alfred Holt & Co.), first rose to prominence by sending steam-powered ships on Asian trade routes. The Holts resided in Liverpool, England.

Acquisition information:
Ex libris C. K. Ogden, his bookplate on upper pastedown.
Physical location:
Stored at YRL Special Collections Stacks. Advance notice is required for access to the material. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Transatlantic voyages --Diaries.

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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