Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Dana and Ginger Lamb Papers
Dates: 1824-2004
Collection Number: 2008_03
Creator/Collector:
Lamb, Dana
Lamb, Ginger
Extent:
118 document boxes.
10 flat boxes.
7 cartons.
2 oversize flat file drawers.
41 oversize bound volumes.
312 reels of film.
19 oversize rolled items.
10 flat boxes.
7 cartons.
2 oversize flat file drawers.
41 oversize bound volumes.
312 reels of film.
19 oversize rolled items.
Repository:
Sherman Library & Gardens
Corona del Mar, California 92625
Abstract: The collection consists of the personal papers of the
adventurers and explorers Dana and Ginger Lamb. The collection contains an extensive
amount of material which meticulously documents their travels, personal lives, and
family history.
Language of Material:
English
Collection is open for research.
Dana and Ginger Lamb Papers. Sherman Library & Gardens
The collection was donated to the Sherman Library by Maria Fellin Lamb in 2006 and
2007. The DVD copies of the films, Flying to Baja and
Quest
for the Lost City
, were donated by Jerry Klinkowitz and Julie
Huffman-klinkowitz in 2008 and 2009.
Dana Upton Lamb was born in Tustin, California, on January 18, 1901 to John Charles
Lamb and Emma Mary Holderman Lamb. J. C. Lamb served as the Orange County Tax
Collector for thirty-three years and also raised groves of oranges, lemons and
avocados. A 1923 graduate of Santa Ana High School, Dana joined the crews of the
steamer
W. M. Irish and the
S. S.
Carenco
, traveling to the Eastern United States and Morocco, Egypt,
Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Syria in 1924-1925. Active in the Boy Scouts at an early
age, Dana Lamb served as field executive for the Orange County Council and as
assistant scout executive, Greater Providence Council, Rhode Island, from 1926-1927.
He also served as chief of the Laguna Beach lifeguard service, which likely provided
him with the training and expertise to begin the Orange County Coast Patrol in the
late 1930s.
Virginia Marshall Bishop (later Ginger Lamb) was born in Santa Ana, CA, to
watchmaker-optometrist Vernon M. Bishop and Nancy Cutler Bishop on September 22,
1912. The family moved to El Centro, California, shortly following Ginger’s birth
but returned to Santa Ana sometime around 1921. She graduated from Santa Ana High
School in 1930.
Dana and Ginger married February 19, 1933. In August, they embarked on what became a
three year, 16,000 mile voyage in their homemade, sixteen-foot canoe, the
Vagabunda, from Southern California down the Pacific
coasts of Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, and culminated in their crossing of the
Panama Canal in September 1936. They chronicled their adventures in a book,
Enchanted Vagabonds (1938), and went on the lecture
circuit to capitalize on the great public interest in their journey and lives as
adventurers. They continued their travels in Mexico and Central America during the
1940s, during which time they did some research for the Federal Government as
special agents and produced a substantial report titled
Report
on Mexico
in 1943. Their second book,
Quest for the
Lost City
(1951), detailed their continued adventures in the 1940s and
was the basis for a feature length film of the same name produced by Sol Lesser in
1954.
Having made the seaside village of Corona del Mar their home base during their years
of adventure travel, the growing population explosion in Orange County in the
postwar era prompted the Lambs to move to the former mining town of Hillsboro, in
the southwestern mountains of New Mexico, in 1962. The Lambs continued to camp and
explore Baja California and deliver the occasional lecture, until Ginger Lamb passed
away on February 25, 1967. The ensuing years for Dana Lamb were not idle, as he had
to deal with the ramifications of a disastrous flood in Hillsboro in September 1972
and traveled to Micronesia in 1975-1976 before his death on June 11, 1979.
| 1/18/1901 | Dana Upton Lamb born in Tustin, CA, to John Charles Lamb and Emma Holderman Lamb |
| 9/22/1912 | Virginia Marshall Bishop born in Santa Ana, CA, to Vernon M. Bishop and Nan Cutler Bishop |
| 1926-1927 | Dana Lamb serves as assistant scout executive, Greater Providence Council, Rhode Island |
| 12/18/1929 | Dana Lamb marries Ethel Catherine Stuart, Yuma Co., AZ |
| 8/20/1931 | Separation of Dana Lamb and Ethel Catherine Stuart Lamb |
| 2/10/1933 | Divorce of Dana Lamb and Ethel Catherine Stuart Lamb |
| 2/19/1933 | Dana Lamb and Virginia "Ginger" Marshall Bishop marry |
| 8/1933 | Voyage of the Vagabunda begins |
| 9/1936 | End of the voyage of the Vagabunda |
| 1938 | Harper & Brothers publishes Enchanted Vagabonds |
| 1940 | Dana and Ginger Lamb begin their Quest |
| 1951 | Harper & Brothers publishes Quest for the Lost City |
| 12/1954 | Sol Lesser’s production of Quest for the Lost City previews |
| 1961 | Dana Lamb travels on Amazon River with Romain Wilhelmsen and Herman Jesson |
| 1962 | Dana and Ginger Lamb move to Hillsboro, NM |
| 2/25/1967 | Ginger Lamb dies |
| 4/14/1972 | Dana Lamb marries Becky Taylor |
| 9/2/1972 | Hillsboro, NM experiences devastating flood |
| 1972 | Divorce of Dana Lamb and Becky Taylor Lamb |
| 1975 | Dana Lamb meets Maria Fellin |
| 1975-1976 | Micronesia trip |
| 6/11/1979 | Dana Lamb dies |
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of the personal papers of the adventurers and explorers Dana
and Ginger Lamb. The collection contains an extensive amount of material which
meticulously documents their travels, personal lives, and family history in the form
of diaries, manuscripts, correspondence, financial records, legal documents, maps,
photographs and photographic negatives, ephemera and clipping files, and motion
picture films.
Of particular note in the collection are the many diaries kept by both Dana and
Ginger Lamb, which document not only their various travels and activities at home
but also record financial transactions, addresses, and were frequently summarized on
an annual basis. The earliest of these begins with Dana Lamb’s 1924-1925 travels
about the
W. M. Irish and the
S.
S. Carenco
, to the Eastern United States and Morocco, Egypt, Greece,
Italy, Cyprus and Syria and ends with the final diary he was keeping at the time of
his death in 1979. Ginger Lamb’s diaries are fewer in number, mostly covering
travels during the 1930s through the early 1950s.
The collection also contains manuscripts for several of the Lambs’ published works,
including drafts of
Enchanted Vagabonds and
Quest for the Lost City. Their 1943
Report on Mexico is also represented in the collection, including an
earlier draft, and various short stories and articles (both published and
unpublished) are also in the collection. An extensive amount of correspondence, the
bulk of which is from the 1930s through the early 1970s, documents the Lambs’
activities, appointments, and friendships as well as their activities on the lecture
circuit, with film industry executives, and with other adventurers. Correspondents
of note in the collection include: President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza, J. Edgar Hoover, and Sol Lesser.
Also included in the collection is an extensive amount of photographs (both black and
white and color), negatives, and slides. The Lambs took a large amount of photos
while traveling, and while many of them are not individually labeled, some photos
and negatives were individually numbered and/or labeled by the Lambs, and their
identification systems were maintained whenever possible. A large selection of
photographs was arranged in several oversize scrapbooks. Along with the still
pictures, the collection also contains 256 reels of 16mm motion picture film taken
by the Lambs, much of which was filmed from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Other materials in the collection include family papers and photographs, financial
records, land records, and contracts. There are also items related to Dana Lamb’s
involvement in the Boy Scouts, materials related to aviation, drawings, an extensive
array of maps, and items related to the Adventurers’ Club in Los Angeles,
California. There are also various printed editions of
Enchanted Vagabonds and
Quest for the Lost
City
in a myriad of languages, including Japanese, Spanish and Dutch. The
collection also contains materials (correspondence, publicity, and artwork, for
example) related to the creation of the 1954 film adaptation of their book,
Quest for the Lost City, by Hollywood producer Sol
Lesser.
The collection also contains a large amount of artifacts, including the oars of the
Vagabunda, Dana and Ginger Lamb’s pith helmets and
machetes, a blow gun, and various treasures collected during their journeys.
The collection is in fairly good, stable condition; the exceptions are various
documents, photographs and other papers which were affected by water and mud from
the 1972 flood in Hillsboro, New Mexico. Many of these have been cleaned or dusted,
but some trace evidence of mud and water damage remains.
Arrangement
- Manuscripts (Boxes 1-19)
- Diaries (Boxes 20-24)
- Correspondence (Boxes 25-51)
- Family Papers (Boxes 52-55)
- Legal Records (Box 56)
- Address Books (Box 57)
- Financial Records (Boxes 58-60)
- Land Papers (Box 60)
- Lists and Notes (Box 61)
- Lectures and Publicity (Boxes 61-62)
- Organizations (Boxes 63-64)
- Subject Files (Boxes 65-67)
- Television (Box 68)
- Film (Boxes 69-73)
- Publications (Boxes 74-88, 147 titles)
- Visual Materials (Boxes 89-118, 296 reels)
- Audio Materials (Boxes 119-122)
- Oversize Materials (Box 123, 2 drawers, 41 volumes)
Vagabunda (ship).
Adventure and adventurers – United States – Archival resources.
Lecturers – United States – Archival resources.
Motion picture producers and directors – United States.
Baja California (Mexico: Peninsula) – Photographs.
Baja California (Mexico: Peninsula) – Description and travel.
Cocos Island (Costa Rica) – Description and travel.
Cocos Island (Costa Rica) – Photographs.
Guatemala – Description and travel.
Guatemala – Photographs.
Lamb, Emma Holderman
Lamb, John Charles
Lesser, Sol
Hillsboro (N. M.)
Orange County (Calif.)
Correspondence - 20th century
Diaries - 20th century
Manuscripts - 20th century
Photographs - 20th century