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Guide to the The Papers of Theodore Hittell
M000002  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Administrative History:
  • Access Terms
  • Administrative Information
  • Arrangement of Materials:
  • Scope and Contents

  • Overview of the Collection

    Collection Title: The Papers of Theodore Hittell
    Dates: 1845-1913
    Identification: M000002
    Physical Description: 2.00
    Language of Materials: English Spanish;Castilian French German
    Repository: Sutro Library, California State Library
    1630 Holloway Avenue
    5th floor
    San Francisco, CA, 94132-4030
    URL: http://www.library.ca.gov/about/sutro_main.html
    Email: sutro@library.ca.gov
    Phone: 415-469-6100

    Administrative History:

    Biographical Note:
    Theodore Henry Hittell was born in Marietta, Pennsylvania on April 5, 1830 to Jacob Hittell and Catherine (maiden name Shertzer) Hittell. He spent the majority of his adolescence in Ohio's Miami Valley, where he later attended college at Miami University. After participating in what was called the "Snowball Rebellion," Hittell was expelled from school, and ended up finishing his education at Yale, where he graduated in 1849. After college, Hittell moved to Cincinnati, where he spent three years practicing law.
    In 1854, after receiving a letter from his brother who was living in San Francisco, Hittell decided to follow in his footsteps and headed out West to the Bay Area. He was first hired to work for several newspapers, including the California Chronicle and the San Francisco Bulletin. In 1858, he married Elise Christian Wiehe, with whom he had four children. In 1860, he published his first book, The Adventures of James Capen Adams. The stories in this book were recounted by Adams himself, and featured many stories about the early history of California (the book was later republished in 1911). In 1862, Hittell returned to his law practice. His affinity for writing never left him however, and he ended up publishing ten volumes on California and Nevada state law. Hittell also had a brief political career. In 1879 he ran and was elected to be a member of the California State Senate. He served there for two years before once again returning to practice law.
    His true passion was History, and it was in 1885 that the first two volumes of his most famous work, History of California were published. The final volume of the series was released in 1897.  Mr. Hittell extensively used  the archives of California, a set of documents thought to contain over two hundred and fifty thousand pages of documents on California history, for the earlier half of his work. These documents were at the office of the United States surveyor-general in San Francisco and later destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and Fire.  Hittell's History of California in its entirety, totals around three thousand and sixty pages, and covers the earliest recollections of California's history, to around 1890.
    In his later years, Hittell was known to present papers on his research findings to various institutions and societies, including the California Academy of Sciences, Stanford University, The Sierra Club, The Society of California Pioneers, and several others. By 1900, Hittell was given the title of "The Historian of California" for his contribution toward uncovering California's earliest histories. He died of a stroke on February 22, 1917 at the age of 86.

    Access Terms

    This Collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

    Geographic Name:

    California -- History
    Hawaii -- History
    Miami River Valley (Ohio) -- History
    Yosemite Valley (Calif.)

    Personal Name:

    Alvarado, Juan Bautista 1809-1882
    Field, Stephen Johnson, 1816-1899
    Sutter, John Augustus, 1803-1880.
    Walker, William, 1824-1860

    Administrative Information

    Acquisition Information:

    Given to the Sutro Library by the Estate of Theodore Hittell, 1918.

    Processing Information:

    When this collection was donated to the Sutro Library, some individual items were catalogued separately and given Dewey call numbers. Other material in the collection was never cataloged.
    In Spring 2017, a graduate student intern brought all of items together again for processing but by then the original order of the collection was lost. The intern placed the materials in archival boxes and produced the collection's first-ever finding aid.

    Conditions Governing Use:

    Property rights reside with the repository. Any applicable literary rights  would reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please email sutro@library.ca.gov .

    Conditions Governing Access:

    The collection is open for research. Please page materials three business days in advance of your visit by email: sutro@library.ca.gov .

    Preferred Citation:

    [Identification of item] Papers of Theodore Hittell, M000002, Sutro Library, California State Library, San Francisco, Calif.

    Related Materials:

    Guide to the Hittell Family Papers, 1855-1916, BANC MSS C-B 405, U. C. Berkeley Bancroft Library.
    Information about related materials is available at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2d5n99d4/?query=Theodore+Hittell

    Physical Characteristics or Technical Requirements:

    2 linear feet.

    Arrangement of Materials:

    Sections are ordered chronologically or alphabetically, depending on their contents within each series:
    series 1: Hittell family documents
    series 2: Correspondence
    series 3: Historical and geographical writings and research notes
    series 4: Scientific and historical speeches and related documents
    series 5: Government documents - State Senate notes and other government-related papers
    series 6: Remembrances and memoir notes
    series 7: Fictional works
    series 8: Legal papers
    series 9: Unidentifiable Notes
    series 10: Other authors

    Scope and Contents

    This collection consists of primarily papers of lawyer and author Theodore H. Hittell pertaining primarily to his writings on California and his speeches. There are letters, research notes, legal papers, and manuscripts of his writings (including unpublished account of Walker's Nicaragua filibuster).