This collection consists of photos and notes Taverner gathered in the course of her research on the relationship between the real and fictional landscapes in the California writings of Mark Twain and Bret Harte (1940-1960).

Margaret Taverner was an educator in Stockton, Calif.From the late 1940s through 1961 she was a counselor, then Associate Dean of Women at Stockton [Junior] College. During most of that time Miss Taverner carried out research on the Gold Rush era writings of Bret Harte and Mark Twain. She was particularly interested in the relationship between the prose of these two writers and the locales which inspired it. Miss Taverner died in 1961 or 1962. Her mother, Mrs. G.M. Taverner, and a friend, Miss Ina Marmon, gave Margaret Taverner's notes to Holt Atherton in 1967.

Collection is open for research.