Jay T. Last Collection of Travel and Exploration Prints and Ephemera priJLC_TRAV

Mari Khasmanyan

The Huntington Library

October, 2021

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Business Number: (626) 405-2191

reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Contributing Institution: The Huntington Library

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

Creator: Last, Jay T.

Identifier/Call Number: priJLC_TRAV

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

Date (inclusive): 1814-1937, bulk 1840-1909

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.

Language of Material: Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

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

Conditions Governing Use

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.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

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.

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.

Scope and Contents

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.

Processing Information

Processed by Mari Khasmanyan in October 2021.

Existence and Location of Copies

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

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

Subjects and Indexing Terms

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.

Engravings.

Ephemera.

Health facilities -- Pictorial works.

Horse-drawn vehicles -- Pictorial works.

Hotels -- Pictorial works.

Landscapes -- Pictorial works.

Lithographs.

Leisure -- Pictorial works

Letterheads.

Locomotives -- United States -- Pictorial works.

Luggage -- Pictorial works.

Luggage industry--United States.

Maps.

Pictorial maps.

Pictorial maps--History.

Postcards.

Posters.

Prints.

Railroad travel.

Relief prints

Resorts -- Pictorial works.

Tourism -- Pictorial works.

Trade cards.

Travel -- Marketing.

Travel posters.

Travel posters, American.

United States -- Discovery and exploration -- Sources.

United States--Maps.

Views.

West (U.S.) -- Description and travel.

World maps.

A. Hoen & Co. (Baltimore, Md.)

Albert Krebs & Bro. Lith. (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Austin, Margaret, B.

Baillie, James S., 1838-1855

Baker & Godwin (New York, N.Y.)

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

City of Los Angeles (Calif.) (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Cleveland Directory Co.

Cooper, H.P (Henry Poolly)

D.S. Walton & Co. (New York, N.Y.)

Darley, James M. (Morrison)

Dawson, W. W. (William Wirt), 1828-1896

Dayton & Wentworth (Boston, Mass.)

Donaldson Litho. Co. (Newport, Ky.)

Donaldson Brothers (Firm) (New York, N.Y.)

Dripps, M. (Matthew)

Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning

Ensign, Thayer & Co (New York, N.Y.)

Fishbourne, R.W., 1836-1862

Fisk & Russell

Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company (Boston, Mass.)

Fox, William F. (Freeman), 1840-1909

Fresno County (Calif.). Board of Trade (Fresno, Calif.)

G.T. Brown & Co. Lith. (San Francisco, Calif.)

Gower, S.J.

H.S. Crocker & Co.

Hamlin, Homer, 1864-1920

Hart, Chas. (Charles), active 1870-1880

Hayward, George, approximately 1800-

Heger, F.

Hogan, Thomas , 1843-1890

J. Ottmann Lithographic Company (1885-1906) (New York, N.Y.)

J.H. Bufford's Lith. (Boston, Mass.)

Joesbury, Joseph

John (Jno) F. Waite Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)

Krebs Lithographing Company (Cincinnati, Ohio)

L. Prang & Co. (Boston, Mass.)

Lane, Fitz Henry, 1804-1865

Magnus, Charles, 1850-1900

Marquand, Moore & Co. (New York, N.Y.)

McCloskey, Henry

Middleton, Strobridge & Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Moore & De Pue (San Francisco, Calif.)

Moore Brothers

Moore, Thomas, 1798-1842

Moorman, J. J. (John Jennings), 1802-1885

National Geographic Society (U.S.) (Washington D.C.)

New York (State). Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests

Orr, John William, 1815-1887

P.S. Duval & Co.

Peters, W.C. (William Cumming), 1805-1866

Phelps, Humphrey, active 19th century

Puck Publishing Co. (1877-1918) (New York, N.Y.)

Rightmyer, L.

Robison, Savage and Co. (Cleveland, Ohio)

Roepper, W. Th. (William Theodore)

Rowan, V. J. (Valentine James)

Russell & Richardson (South Carolina)

Saalburg, C.W. (Charles William), 1865-1950

Sackett & Wilhelms Litho. & Prt. Co (New York, N.Y.)

Sage, Sons & Co. (Buffalo, N.Y.)

Schell, Francis H. , 1834-1909

Schlegel & Smart (1849-1957) (New York, N.Y.)

Schmidt Label & Litho. Co (San Francisco, Calif.)

Senefelder Lith. Co (Boston, Mass.)

Squire, Bela S., Jr., 1810-1882

Sowle & Ward (Boston, Mass.)

Strong, Thomas W. (Thomas Whaley), 1817-1892

United States Pacific Railroad Expeditions and Surveys

Valentine, D.T. (David Thomas), 1801-1869

W. Endicott & Co. (New York, N.Y.)

W.J. Morgan & Co. (Cleveland, Ohio)

Waddle, Fetter & Co.

Waddle, Thomas

Ward, Joseph

Warren, G. K. (Gouverneur Kemble), 1830-1882

Series I: Small size prints and ephemera 1814-1909, bulk 1840-1909

Physical Description: 11.29 Linear Feet (approximately 1,139 items in 10 binders, 1 half-size document box, and 1 flat-box)

Arrangement

Items smaller than 8 x 10 inches are housed in 10 binders. They are arranged alphabetically by location or name of establishment and company.

Items that are between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size are arranged in one flat-box. They are arranged into folders labeled hotels and resorts (Folder 1-2), and maps (Folder 3). Within these folders they are organized numerically by call number.

Materials cataloged at the item-level are described in the following format: Title of print. Date. Call number. Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s).

Binder 1

Hotels and resorts, A-L, by state 1853-1908

Physical Description: Approximately 100 items.

Binder 2

Hotels and resorts, M (not including Massachusetts), by state 1840-1903

Physical Description: Approximately 50 items.

Binder 3

Hotels and resorts, Massachusetts 1834-1897

Physical Description: Approximately 115 items.

Binder 4

Hotels and resorts, New York City 1834-1900

Physical Description: Approximately 130 items.

Binder 5

Hotels and resorts, New York Islands 1856-1909 1905-1909

Physical Description: Approximately 195 items.

Binder 6

Hotels and resorts, New York State 1839-1909

Physical Description: Approximately 150 items.

Binder 7

Hotels and resorts, N-O, by state 1838-1907

Physical Description: Approximately 135 items.

Binder 8

Hotels and resorts, P-V, by state 1814-1909

Physical Description: Approximately 120 items.

Scope and Contents

Researchers might be interested in a letter located within the Vermont materials, signed by Luke Potter Poland, a Republican U.S. Senator and Representative from Vermont.

Binder 9

Hotels and resorts, W-Z, by state 1823-1893

Physical Description: Approximately 115 items.

Binder 10

Luggage, by company 1852-1899

Physical Description: Approximately 35 items.

Box 1, Folder 1

Massasoit House, Springfield, Mass. : M. & E.S. Chapin, proprietors priJLC_TRAV_001201 approximately 1857

Scope and Contents

Artist: Moore Brothers.

Box 1, Folder 1

View of the Neptune House, New Rochelle, West Chester Co. N.Y. priJLC_TRAV_001205 approximately 1845

Scope and Contents

Printer: Baillie, James S., fl. 1838-1855, New York (N.Y.). Publisher: Baillie, James S., fl. 1838-1855, New York (N.Y.).

Box 1, Folder 1

American Hotel priJLC_TRAV_006081 1848

Scope and Contents

Artist: Strong, Thomas W., 1842-1865.

Box 1, Folder 1

Broadway Central Hotel priJLC_TRAV_006082 approximately 1892

Scope and Contents

Printer: Sackett & Wilhelms Lithography Co., New York (N.Y.).

Box 1, Folder 2

Dey Street House, New-York priJLC_TRAV_006083 approximately 1855

Scope and Contents

Printer: Marquand, Moore & Co., New York (N.Y.).

Box 1, Folder 2

Prattsville House priJLC_TRAV_006084 approximately 1864

Scope and Contents

Printer: Joesbury, Joseph, Catskill and Prattsville (N.Y).

Box 1, Folder 2

Comfort and convenience. The Old United States Hotel, Boston priJLC_TRAV_006085 1889

Scope and Contents

Artist: Russell & Richardson. Printer: Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company, Boston (Mass.).

Box 1, Folder 2

View of Concord in 1746, by P. Carrigan priJLC_TRAV_006086 approximately 1828

Scope and Contents

Author: Carrigain, Philip, 1772-1842. Printer: Senefelder Lith. Co., Boston (Mass.)

Box 1, Folder 3

Map of the central gold region of Colorado priJLC_TRAV_002257 approximately 1862