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Register of the John Muir Papers,
1849-1957
Mss48
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Table of contents
Title: John Muir Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1849-1957
Collection number: Mss48
Creator: Muir-Hanna Trust
Extent: 75 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], John Muir Papers, Mss48, Holt-Atherton
Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Muir, John (1838-1914)
Muir family
Strentzel family
Bade, William F. (1871-1936)
Wolfe, Linnie Marsh (1881-1945)
Carr, Jeanne C. Smith
Carr, Ezra S. (1819-1894)
Burroughs, John (1837-1921)
Pinchot, Gifford (1865-1946)
Harriman, Edward Henry (1848-1909)
Sierra Club
Wildlife conservation
Environmentalism -West (U.S.)
National parks and reserves -United States -History
Glacial landforms -West (U.S.)
Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) -Description and
travel
West (U.S.) -Description and travel
Yosemite National Park (Calif.) -History
Hetch Hetchy Valley (Calif.)
Naturalists -California -Diaries
Naturalists -California -Correspondence
Naturalists -California -Drawings
Muir, Louisa Wanda Strentzel
Hanna, Annie Wanda Muir
Muir, Helen Lillian
A Scottish-born journalist and naturalist, John Muir (1838-1914) studied
botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin (1861-1863). He worked for
awhile as a mill hand at the Trout Broom Factory in Meaford, Canada
(1864-1866), then at an Indianapolis carriage factory (1866-1867), until an
accident temporarily blinded him and directed his thoughts toward full-time
nature study. Striking out on foot for South America, Muir walked to the Gulf
of Mexico (September 1867-January 1868), but a long illness in Florida led him
to change his plans and turn his interests westward. Muir arrived by ship at
San Francisco (March 1868), walked to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and began a
five year wilderness sojourn (1868-1873) during which he made his year-round
home in the Yosemite Valley. Working as a sheepherder and lumberman when he
needed money for supplies, Muir investigated the length and breadth of the
Sierra range, focusing most of his attention on glaciation and its impact on
mountain topography. He began to publish newspaper articles about what he saw
in the California mountains and these articles brought him to the attention of
such intellectuals as Asa Gray and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom sought him
out during their visits to California. Encouraged by Jeanne Carr, wife of his
one-time botany professor, Ezra S. Carr, Muir took up nature writing as a
profession (1872). He set up winter headquarters in Oakland and began a pattern
of spring and summer mountaineering followed by winter writing based upon his
travel journals that he held to until 1880. His treks took him to Mount Shasta
(1874, 1875 & 1877), the Great Basin (1876, 1877, 1878), southern
California and the Coast Range (1877), and southern Alaska (1879). Muir found
that he could finance his modest batchelor lifestyle with revenue from
contributions published in various San Francisco newspapers and magazines.
During this period he launched the first lobbying effort to to protect Sierra
forests from wasteful lumbering practices (1876).
In 1880 he married Louisa Strentzel, daughter of a prominent physician
and horticulturist in Martinez, Calif. Quickly learning the fruit business,
Muir soon found himself caught up in the full-time management of his
father-in-law's orchard properties. Two daughters (Annie Wanda, b. 1881 and
Helen Lillian, b. 1886) added to his domestic responsibilities. His writing
diminished both in quantity and quality during this decade, with only one
lengthy project completed (Picturesque California, 1888).
Prompted by the persistent urging of Robert Underwood Johnson, an editor
of Century Magazine, and freed from many business obligations by his
father-in-law's death and the subsequent sale of much of Strentzel's property
by Louisa Strentzel Muir, John Muir launched a major writing and lobbying
campaign that culminated in the creation of Yosemite, Sequoia and General Grant
National Parks (1890). He also helped found the Sierra Club (1892) and used its
collective influence to protect the boundaries of Yosemite (1895) from lumber
interests. During the 1890s Muir again began to travel, visiting Alaska, 1890;
Europe, 1893; Arizona & Oregon, 1896; Canada & Alaska, 1897,
1899; the Midwest and New England, 1898) and also published his first
important book, The Mountains of California (1894).
During Muir's final fourteen years, he was hounded by a variety of
family difficulties and political failures that probably hastened his death.
Louisa, Muir's wife, died in 1905. In the same year his younger daughter,
Helen, contracted tuberculosis and Muir shepherded the young woman to various
spas ultimately settling her Daggett in the Mojave Desert (1905). Meanwhile,
the naturalist found himself at odds with "utilitarian" conservationists like
Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, who were less interested in the
preservation of wilderness than in the controlled "harvesting" of forest
resources. Pinchot also favored conversion of the Hetch Hetchy Valley to a
reservoir for the city of San Francisco, an idea which ultimately became a
reality despite Muir's dogged opposition (1908-1913). Still, John Muir found
time and energy both for travel and for writing. In 1903 he ushered President
Theodore Roosevelt up Half Dome, then shortly afterward took a year's voyage
around the world (1903-1904). In 1906 Muir spent much time with daughter Helen
in Arizona, the following year he summered in the Hetch Hetchy with California
painter, William Keith and in 1909 visited the Grand Canyon and the Colorado
River with John Burroughs and E.H. Harriman. His most extended trip during
these years was a six month tour of South America and Africa (1911-1912). Muir
somehow found time during the same years to publish Stickeen (1908), My First
Summer in the Sierra (1910) and Yosemite (1912).
The Muir Papers are arranged in seven series. Series I consists of John
Muir's correspondence and related papers (1856-1914). Series 2 contains Muir's
journals and sketchbooks (1867-1913). Series 3 consists of Muir's notebooks
(1856-1912) and working notes (1864-1914). Series 4 contains Muir's sketches
and photograph collection, while Series 5 consists of Muir Family papers as
well as materials relating to Muir collected and generated by his biographers
William Badé and Linnie Marsh Wolf. Series 6 contains John Muir's clippings
files. Series 7 consists of Muir memorabilia, including maps, calling cards,
brochures, pamphlets and other like materials collected by Muir during his
travels.