Guide to the Louise A. K. S. Clapp Collection, 1834-1849
Processed by The California State Library staff; machine-readable finding aid created by
Xiuzhi Zhou
California History Room
© 1999
California State Library
Library and Courts Building II
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P.O. Box 942837
Sacramento, California 94237-0001
Phone: (916) 654-0176
Fax: (916) 654-8777
Email: cslcal@library.ca.gov
URL: http://www.library.ca.gov/
California State Library. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Louise A. K. S. Clapp Collection, 1834-1849
California State Library
Sacramento, California
- California History Room
- California State Library
- Library and Courts Building II
- 900 N. Street, Room 200
- P.O. Box 942837
- Sacramento, California 94237-0001
- Phone: (916) 654-0176
- Fax: (916) 654-8777
- Email: cslcal@library.ca.gov
- URL: http://www.library.ca.gov/
- Processed by:
- The California State Library staff
- Encoded by:
- Xiuzhi Zhou
© 1999 California State Library. All rights reserved.
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
Sacramento, California
Language:
English.
Unrestricted.
Please credit California State Library.
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.
[Identification of item], Louise A. K. S. Clapp Collection, California State Library.
Frontier and pioneer life--California.
Clapp, Louise A. K. S., 1819-1906
Correspondence, lectures on art, and photographs.
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.
- Everett, Alexander Hill, 1790-1847.
- Talbot, Emme C. F.
- Baker, Osmy
- Breck, Eliza
- Briggs, William N.
- Delano, John A.
- Estey, Elizabeth B.
- "Everard"
- Fisher, Marianne
- Jenkins, A.
- Knappe, C.L.
- Lee, Gideon
- Lee, Samuel B.
- Meeker, Rebecca
- Meeker, William Bloomfield
- Montague, L. C.
- Norton, Martha
- Smith, Adeline
- Smith, Charles H.
- Smith, George
- Smith, J. Lee
- Smith, Mary J.
- Smith, W. H.
- Stuart, Charles
- Stuart, Margarette
- Stuart, Sarah B.
- Ward, Lucy
- Wilbur, Anna
Material Transferred from the Collection
- Photographs to photographers file and to picture file
Box 151
Letters to Louise A. K. Smith by date 1834-1849.
Box 152
Lectures on painting and notes on architecture, ca. 1875.
Box 153
Photographs (unidentified).