California Business Ephemera Collection, 1849-2000

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Summary

Title:
California Business Ephemera collection
Dates:
1849-2000
Abstract:
Consists of a variety of ephemera pertaining to California businesses, mainly from San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, with large portions from Sacramento, Stockton, and Los Angeles. The bulk of the material dates from the mid 19th century through the early 20th century. Businesses range from major companies to small enterprises. Types of business represented include: mining, manufacturing, financial, utilities, import, transportation, travel, restaurants, and retail. Contains ephemera related to many aspects of business, including: advertisements, promotional and sales material, manufacturers sales catalogs, brochures, trade cards, forms, business cards, annual reports, stock certificates, theatrical playbills, travel guides, menus, tickets, invitations, newsletters, directories, receipts, letterhead, newspaper clippings and magazine articles.
Extent:
69 Linear feet (172 manuscript boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[identification of item, date], California Business Ephemera Collection (BUS EPH), California Historical Society Collection at Stanford, Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Consists of a variety of ephemera pertaining to California businesses, mainly from San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, with large portions from Sacramento, Stockton, and Los Angeles. The bulk of the material dates from the mid 19th century through the early 20th century. Businesses range from major companies to small enterprises. Types of business represented include: mining, manufacturing, financial, utilities, import, transportation, travel, restaurants, and retail. There are significant holdings for longstanding businesses, including Gump's, Emporium, Orpheum Theatre, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Palace Hotel, Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and Standard Oil Company.

Contains ephemera related to many aspects of business, including: advertisements, promotional and sales material, manufacturers sales catalogs, brochures, trade cards, forms, business cards, annual reports, stock certificates, theatrical playbills, travel guides, menus, tickets, invitations, newsletters, directories, receipts, letterhead, newspaper clippings and magazine articles.

Individual ephemera files can contain a single item or more extensive amounts of material, ranging from commercial print material to handwritten documents.

Acquisition information:
Artificial collection, acquired through numerous, often undocumented gifts, throughout the California HIstorical Society's years of collecting and acquiring materials, circa 1920s-2020s. Transferred to Stanford University Libraries in 2025.
Processing information:

Processed by California Ephemera Project staff, funded by a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources, in 2009-2010.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged alphabetically by business name.

Physical location:
Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged three business days in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: https://library.stanford.edu/libraries/special-collections.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Finding aid prepared by California Ephemera Project staff.
Sponsor:
California Ephemera Project, Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Grant, 2008
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-09-22 12:15:32 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish.

Some materials may be in the public domain, for which there is no restriction on use.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item, date], California Business Ephemera Collection (BUS EPH), California Historical Society Collection at Stanford, Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California.

Location of this collection:
Department of Special Collections, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
chscollection@stanford.edu
Website