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Jesse Smart Correspondence: Finding Aid
mssHM 63842-63881
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Title: Jesse Smart Correspondence
Dates (inclusive): 1852-1866
Collection Number: mssHM 63842-63881
Creator: Smart, Jesse.
Extent: 40 items in 1 box.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This small collection chiefly contains letters from California farmer and nurseryman Jesse Smart (died 1861) to his sons,
as well as some other
Smart family correspondence.
These letters mostly discuss Smart's experience in California mining for gold and running his nursery in the Sacramento Valley
in the 1850s.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
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]. Jesse Smart Correspondence, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Purchased from Dawson's Book Shop, March 4, 1969.
Jesse Smart, a farmer and nurseryman from Troy, Maine, came to California in 1852 and settled in the Sacramento Valley.
Although Smart did some mining in California, most of his income came from his nursery where he raised and sold both fruit
and ornamental trees. He died in California in 1861.
The collection contains two documents and 38 pieces of correspondence, 23 of which are letters by Jesse Smart to his sons.
These letters mostly discuss Smart’s experience in California mining for gold and running his nursery. He often asks his sons
to send him seeds of plants that are not available in California. He also comments on the prices of produce in California
and the effects of the weather and insects on his crops. The remaining correspondence is written by other Smart family members
and often discusses life in California, and more specifically, Sacramento. One letter, which is written by Jesse’s daughter
Charlotte, discusses her voyage to California from Maine.
Items are arranged chronologically
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Smart,
Jesse.
Agriculture -- California -- History --
19th century -- Sources.
Gold mines and mining -- California --
History -- 19th century -- Sources.
Nurseries (Horticulture) -- California
-- History -- 19th century -- Sources.
Nursery growers -- California --
Correspondence.
Voyages to the Pacific coast.
Sacramento (Calif.) --
Description and travel.
Letters (correspondence) -- California
-- 19th century.