Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Access Points
Contents
Biography
Correspondents
Material Transferred from the Collection
Descriptive Summary
Title: Louise A. K. S. Clapp Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1834-1849
Box Number: 151-153
Creator:
Clapp, Louise A. K. S., 1819-1906
Extent: 3 boxes
Repository:
California State Library
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Unrestricted.
Conditions of Use
Please credit California State Library.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to California State Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing. Permission for publication is given on behalf of California State Library as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by
the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Louise A. K. S. Clapp Collection, California State Library.
Access Points
Frontier and pioneer life--California.
Clapp, Louise A. K. S., 1819-1906
Contents
Correspondence, lectures on art, and photographs.
Biography
Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clapp was born July 28, 1819, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Moses and Lois (lee)
Smith who died in 1832 and 1837, respectively, leaving three boys and four girl orphans. After Mr. Smith's death, Osmyn Baker,
an Amherst attorney, served as Louise's guardian until 1841. In 1838, Louise attended the "Female Seminary" in Charleston,
Massachusetts. In 1839-40, she and her sister Mary Jane attended Amherst Academy. Louise was an active correspondent with
friends and relations during this period. In 1839, she met Alexander Everett, an American diplomat, brother of Edmund Everett,
while traveling in Vermont. They became friends and corresponded until 1847 when she met Fayette Clapp, a doctor, whom she
married in 1848 or 1849. In 1849, she and her husband sailed to California. In 1851, they moved to Rich Bar, a mining camp
on a fork of the Feather River and the setting for 23 letters to her sister Mary Jane under the pen name "Shirley". Around
1853, Fayette Clapp left his wife in San Francisco and returned east. They were divorced in 1857. Louise began teaching in
San Francisco Public Schools in 1854 and retired in 1878. She also gave evening classes in art and literature during this
period. In 1878, she returned east, dying in New Jersey on February 9, 1906.
Correspondents
Major Correspondents
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Everett, Alexander Hill, 1790-1847.
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Talbot, Emme C. F.
Other Correspondents
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Baker, Osmy
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Breck, Eliza
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Briggs, William N.
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Delano, John A.
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Estey, Elizabeth B.
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"Everard"
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Fisher, Marianne
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Jenkins, A.
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Knappe, C.L.
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Lee, Gideon
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Lee, Samuel B.
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Meeker, Rebecca
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Meeker, William Bloomfield
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Montague, L. C.
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Norton, Martha
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Smith, Adeline
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Smith, Charles H.
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Smith, George
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Smith, J. Lee
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Smith, Mary J.
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Smith, W. H.
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Stuart, Charles
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Stuart, Margarette
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Stuart, Sarah B.
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Ward, Lucy
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Wilbur, Anna
Material Transferred from the Collection
- Photographs to photographers file and to picture file