Finding Aid for the Frances Long Holt Journal, 1872

Cataloged by Jonathan Naito, with assistance from Jain Fletcher and Laurel McPhee, August 2004; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
UCLA Library Special Collections staff
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
© 2008
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.


Descriptive Summary

Title: Frances Long Holt Journal
Date (inclusive): 1872
Collection number: 170/135
Creator: Holt, Frances Long
Extent: 88 leaves : ruled paper ; 155 x 100 mm. bound to 162 x 109 mm.
Abstract: Journal documenting Frances Long Holt's pleasure trip to North America in 1872. The author also describes a weeklong stay in Havana, Cuba and a brief stop in Quebec.
Language: Finding aid is written in English.
Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored at YRL Special Collections Stacks. Advance notice is required for access to the material. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Administrative Information

Restrictions on Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition

Ex libris C. K. Ogden, his bookplate on upper pastedown.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Frances Long Holt Journal (Collection 170/135). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.

UCLA Catalog Record ID

UCLA Catalog Record ID: 5358567 

Processing Note

Cataloged by Jonathan Naito, with assistance from Jain Fletcher and Laurel McPhee, August 2004,in the Center For Primary Research and Training (CFPRT).

Biography

Little is known about Frances (Long) Holt other than that she was the second wife of Alfred Holt (1829-1911), an entrepreneur and engineer who helped to introduce and advance steamship technology in the late nineteenth century. The company that he founded, Ocean Steam Ship Company (later Alfred Holt & Co.), first rose to prominence by sending steam-powered ships on Asian trade routes. The Holts resided in Liverpool, England.

Scope and Content

Frances Long Holt's journal entries describe tourist spots such as New Orleans, San Francisco's Chinatown, Yosemite Valley, Niagara Falls, and New York's Central Park, as well as a number of less prominent tourist destinations including the growing cities of Denver, Colorado Springs, and the Mormon community in Salt Lake City. Daily events within her family, as well as her personal impressions, are also recorded. She discusses the manufacture of cigars in Cuba, a journey up the Mississippi on a riverboat, a Chinese opera in San Francisco's Chinatown, and a trip on horseback through Yosemite Valley. Then, traveling east, she observes Niagara Falls and tours New York City's Central Park, happening upon Fredrick Law Olmstead in the park that he designed. Other notable experiences include a brief visit with Brigham Young during a stopover in Salt Lake City, a trip to the mills in Lowell, Massachusetts (which gives her the opportunity to compare working conditions in America with those in England), and a short stay in Quebec. The journal ends upon the family's return to Liverpool. Throughout the journal, she offers the perspective of a wealthy woman from Victorian England.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

Holt, Frances Long --Travel --North America --Diaries.
Transatlantic voyages --Diaries.

Related Material

Bound Manuscripts Collection (Collection 170)  . Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.

Note

Binding: Half leather binding, decorative paper-covered boards and endpapers; exposed spine. Brown leather slipcase with gold stamping on spine.
 

ff. 2r-2v: list of hotels visited

 

ff. 3r-3v: blank

 

ff. 5v-7v: St. Thomas

 

ff. 8r-16r: Havana, Cuba

 

ff. 16v-23r: New Orleans

 

ff. 23r-25r: traveling up the Mississippi River

 

ff. 25r-30v: St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Colorado Springs

 

ff. 30v-33v: by train from Denver to California

 

ff. 33v-39r: San Francisco; Chinatown and Chinese Opera; geysers outside of Calistoga

 

ff. 39r-49r: Yosemite Valley

 

ff. 49v-53r: Salt Lake City

 

ff. 53r-56r: Chicago

 

ff. 56r-57v: Niagara Falls

 

ff. 58r-63v: New York City, Brooklyn

 

ff. 64r-70r: Boston, Lowell

 

ff. 70v-75v: Montreal, Kingston, Quebec City.