Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
BIOGRAPHY
SCOPE AND CONTENT
Descriptive Summary
Title: Stephen Farnum Peckham Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1865-1881
Collection number: Special Collections M387
Creator:
Peckham, Stephen Farnum
Extent:
.25 linear ft.
Repository:
Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions:
None.
Publication Rights:
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
Provenance:
Diaries and letters gift of Mary W. Peckham, ca. 1920 and 1932; field notebook transferred from the Department of Geology,
Stanford University, 1939.
Preferred Citation:
[Identification of item] Stephen Farnum Peckham Papers, M387, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif.
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Farnum Peckham, a chemist, was interested in the oil refining process, and particularly the occurrence of petroleum
in Southern California.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
These papers consist of a journal (1865-1866) kept by Peckham (with some entries by his wife, Mary Chace Peckham, active in
the suffrage movement) during their stay in San Buenaventura, California; correspondence between Peckham and geologists then
working in California on the state survey; and Peckham's field notebook (ca. 1881) pertaining to eastern oil fields and refineries.
Correspondents include William Henry Brewer, William More Gabb, Benjamin Silliman, George M. Wheeler, and Josiah Dwight Whitney.
During the time period represented in his journal, Peckham worked for the California Petroleum Company.
Arrangement
The journal and most of the correspondence is interfiled chronologically, as Peckham, himself, kept his papers. The Whitney
letters may in part have been kept in the journal but came to the library separately.