Last (Jay T.) Collection of Travel and Exploration Prints and Ephemera, 1814-1937, bulk 1840-1909

Summary

Title:

Jay T. Last collection of travel and exploration prints and ephemera

Dates:

1814-1937, bulk 1840-1909

Creators:

Last, Jay T.

Abstract:

The Jay T. Last collection of travel and exploration prints and ephemera contains about 1,190 printed materials related to the history of hotels, resorts, luggage companies, and maps in the United States. The materials date from approximately 1814 to approximately 1937, although the bulk of the materials date from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The collection consists of 50 large-sized items, and over a thousand smaller-sized items, including trade cards, postcards, booklets, billheads, and letterheads. Images include views of hotels and resorts, pictorial and regional maps, and examples of different luggage models sold by manufacturers.

Extent:

21.29 Linear Feet (10 binders, 2 boxes, 3 flat-file drawers)

Language:

Materials are in English.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Jay T. Last collection of travel and exploration prints and ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The Jay T. Last collection of travel and exploration prints and ephemera contains about 1,190 printed materials related to the history of hotels, resorts, luggage companies, and maps in the United States. The materials date from approximately 1814 to approximately 1937, although the bulk of the materials date from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The collection consists of 50 large-sized items, and over a thousand smaller-sized items, including trade cards, postcards, booklets, billheads, and letterheads. Many of the prints include views and promotional maps created by hotel and resort proprietors from New York City, Boston, and Chicago.

Images on some of the prints trace the history of vacation destinations in the United States, predominately of beaches near Coney Island, ranging from Locust Grove to Starin's Glen Island, Dreamland, Luna Park, and more. The prints also contain images of elevated street views, storefronts, pedestrians traveling to hotels, and people at their leisure at beaches and amusement parks. A few prints also include promotional information about amenities, services, medical treatments, and local excursions offered by the various establishments.

A large portion of materials in this collection are printed maps, varying from ornamental pictorial maps about U.S history and western expansion, to pocket maps created by hotel proprietors, real estate agents, government departments, and local businesses. While predominantly mapping locations within New York and Massachusetts, many of the maps also cover regions in California, documenting land development, fire-safety plans, and real-estate advertisements in Fresno, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. A few of the maps in this collection also provide exploration routes and information on locating gold mines in California, Colorado, and Alaska. Information on the maps include topographic details, timetables for travel destinations, and document travel routes by rail or ferry.

A smaller portion of this collection also consists of images of luggage, trunk, travel bag, and valise products advertised by manufacturers from Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Newark, and more.

Biographical / historical:

The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social, and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when, physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer, Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew, Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history, and he expanded his collection to include other forms of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of mostly nineteenth and early twentieth century American origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Jay T. Last, 2005.

Custodial history:

This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last collection of graphic arts and social history, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the travel and exploration materials were transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2012. Additional materials were transferred in 2017.

Processing information:

Processed by Mari Khasmanyan in October 2021.

Arrangement:

The collection is physically arranged according to the general size of the item with smaller printed materials in ten binders (approximately 1,125 items), medium-sized prints in one flat-box (approximately 12 items), booklets in a half-size document box (approximately 2 items), and large and oversized prints are stored in three flat-file drawers (approximately 50 items). Materials in binders are arranged alphabetically by location, and then by name of establishment or company.

Organized in two series:

• Series I. Small size prints and ephemera, 1814-1909
• Series II. Large size prints and ephemera, 1828-1937

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Alternative form available:

Selected items from this collection have been digitized. Digital reproductions are available in the Huntington Digital Library.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Advertising -- Tourist trade.
Advertising -- Transportation.
Beaches -- Pictorial works.
Billheads.
Boats and boating -- Pictorial works.
Broadsides.
Carriages and carts.
Chromolithography.
Cities and towns -- Pictorial works.
Coaching (Transportation).
Commercial streets -- Pictorial works.
Dwellings -- Pictorial works.
Health facilities -- Pictorial works.
Horse-drawn vehicles -- Pictorial works.
Hotels -- Pictorial works.
Landscapes -- Pictorial works.
Leisure -- Pictorial works
Letterheads.
Locomotives -- United States -- Pictorial works.
Luggage -- Pictorial works.
Luggage industry--United States.
Pictorial maps.
Pictorial maps--History.
Railroad travel.
Resorts -- Pictorial works.
Tourism -- Pictorial works.
Travel -- Marketing.
Travel posters.
Travel posters, American.
United States--Maps.
World maps.
Engravings.
Ephemera.
Lithographs.
Maps.
Postcards.
Posters.
Prints.
Trade cards.
Views.

Names:

A. Hoen & Co. (Baltimore, Md.)
Albert Krebs & Bro. Lith. (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Baker & Godwin (New York, N.Y.)
City of Los Angeles (Calif.) (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Cleveland Directory Co.
D.S. Walton & Co. (New York, N.Y.)
Dayton & Wentworth (Boston, Mass.)
Donaldson Litho. Co. (Newport, Ky.)
Donaldson Brothers (Firm) (New York, N.Y.)
Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning
Ensign, Thayer & Co (New York, N.Y.)
Fisk & Russell
Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company (Boston, Mass.)
Fresno County (Calif.). Board of Trade (Fresno, Calif.)
G.T. Brown & Co. Lith. (San Francisco, Calif.)
H.S. Crocker & Co.
J. Ottmann Lithographic Company (1885-1906) (New York, N.Y.)
J.H. Bufford's Lith. (Boston, Mass.)
John (Jno) F. Waite Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Krebs Lithographing Company (Cincinnati, Ohio)
L. Prang & Co. (Boston, Mass.)
Marquand, Moore & Co. (New York, N.Y.)
Middleton, Strobridge & Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Moore & De Pue (San Francisco, Calif.)
National Geographic Society (U.S.) (Washington D.C.)
New York (State). Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests
P.S. Duval & Co.
Puck Publishing Co. (1877-1918) (New York, N.Y.)
Robison, Savage and Co. (Cleveland, Ohio)
Russell & Richardson (South Carolina)
Sackett & Wilhelms Litho. & Prt. Co (New York, N.Y.)
Sage, Sons & Co. (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Schlegel & Smart (1849-1957) (New York, N.Y.)
Schmidt Label & Litho. Co (San Francisco, Calif.)
Senefelder Lith. Co (Boston, Mass.)
Sowle & Ward (Boston, Mass.)
United States Pacific Railroad Expeditions and Surveys
W. Endicott & Co. (New York, N.Y.)
W.J. Morgan & Co. (Cleveland, Ohio)
Waddle, Fetter & Co.
Moore Brothers
Austin, Margaret, B.
Baillie, James S., 1838-1855
Baker, Geo. H. (George Holbrook), 1827-1906
Baker, Joseph E, approximately 1837-1914
Barritt, William, approximately 1822-
Bien, Julius, 1826-1909
Blanchard, Rufus
Bowes, John R.
Brown, Arthur
Bumstead, Albert H. (Hoit), 1875-1940
Campbell, Thomas, 1790-1858
Carrigain, Philip, 1772-1842
Chillas, David
Cooper, H.P (Henry Poolly)
Darley, James M. (Morrison)
Dawson, W. W. (William Wirt), 1828-1896
Dripps, M. (Matthew)
Fishbourne, R.W., 1836-1862
Fox, William F. (Freeman), 1840-1909
Gower, S.J.
Hamlin, Homer, 1864-1920
Hart, Chas. (Charles), active 1870-1880
Hayward, George, approximately 1800-
Heger, F.
Hogan, Thomas , 1843-1890
Joesbury, Joseph
Lane, Fitz Henry, 1804-1865
Magnus, Charles, 1850-1900
McCloskey, Henry
Moore, Thomas, 1798-1842
Moorman, J. J. (John Jennings), 1802-1885
Orr, John William, 1815-1887
Peters, W.C. (William Cumming), 1805-1866
Phelps, Humphrey, active 19th century
Rightmyer, L.
Roepper, W. Th. (William Theodore)
Rowan, V. J. (Valentine James)
Saalburg, C.W. (Charles William), 1865-1950
Schell, Francis H. , 1834-1909
Squire, Bela S., Jr., 1810-1882
Strong, Thomas W. (Thomas Whaley), 1817-1892
Valentine, D.T. (David Thomas), 1801-1869
Waddle, Thomas
Ward, Joseph
Warren, G. K. (Gouverneur Kemble), 1830-1882

Places:

Relief prints
United States -- Discovery and exploration -- Sources.
West (U.S.) -- Description and travel.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:

Mari Khasmanyan

Date Encoded:

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-01-13 10:08:31 -0800 .

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Jay T. Last collection of travel and exploration prints and ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:

Huntington Library, Prints and Ephemera Collections

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, CA 91108, US

Contact:

(626) 405-2191

reference@huntington.org

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