Local Resources - Honnold / Mudd Library Special Collections
The Libraries of the Claremont Colleges

By Beverly Mateer Taylor

Honnold / Mudd Library
800 N. Dartmouth Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711

Hours: Spring Semester: Monday-Thursday, 1-5pm
Friday, 9am-12noon & 1-5pm
Appointments to visit Special Collections at other times can be arranged. Visitors coming from a distance should give a week’s notice of their arrival. Hours vary during semester breaks.
Telephone: (909) 621-8874; (909) 607-3977
Special Collections Librarian: Carrie Marsh
Web: http://voxlibris.claremont.edu or http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/

The Honnold/Mudd Library is the central library for the Claremont Colleges libraries system. The Claremont Colleges include five undergraduate Colleges: Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Pitzer; the Claremont Graduate University; and the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.

Special Collections in the Honnold/Mudd Library consists of more than 90,000 volumes and 5,000 linear feet of papers and files in 50-plus collections. A comprehensive list of the collections with a brief description of their contents and purpose can be found on their website. The intent of this article is to describe those most likely to be of use for genealogical research.

I arrived at the library with a printout of the list from their Web site and some preconceived ideas about which might be most useful to genealogists. The librarian, Carrie Marsh, knows the collection well and quickly set me straight about which might be useful and which likely would not.

The McPherson Collection contains one of the most valuable sets of records for Californians—several hundred matrimonial investigation records from Mission San Gabriel, 1788-1861. Since the original records are very fragile, they have all been photographed and indexed and are available on the Web site. At the click of a button you can access a printable version of any record and print it out. I was told that the online records are sometimes easier to read than the original documents. http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/online/marrinvest/matinvest.htm

The McPherson Collection includes many books on California history (especially Orange County) and agriculture in Southern California; plus manuscripts; miscellaneous correspondence from early California missionaries, 1773-1856; and logs of ships. (Most of the published history books can be found in other libraries as well as in this collection.)

War Relocation Authority Records, assembled by Carey McWilliams, were acquired by the library in 1944. These include original camp newspapers in Japanese and English from nearly all of the camps, a few photos, and a few letters.

Claremont Colleges Archives (except Scripps College) are part of Special Collections and include a wide variety of materials such as catalogs, yearbooks, directories, handbooks, faculty and administrative papers, oral histories, papers of various leaders of the Claremont Colleges and student publications and scrapbooks.

Claremont Local History includes a variety of local history materials of the town and environs. The “Claremont Courier,” 1908 to present, is available on microfilm. The Frampton Photograph Collection covers the 1940s to 1980s. There are also oral histories, personal scrapbooks and other relevant materials. (Ms. Marsh mentioned that the Pomona Public Library has a very strong local history collection.)

The Wheeler Scrapbooks, a gift of real estate businessman Frank Wheeler, chronicle life at Pomona College and the city of Claremont from 1884 to 1938. In the scrapbooks are newspaper clippings, photographs, maps, plans, pamphlets and other items. Because of their fragility, digitized images have been put on the Web to avoid damage from casual browsing. A search feature will be added to the site soon. http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/online/wheeler/default.asp

The Geraldine Womack and Norman D. Philbrick Library of Dramatic Literature and Theatre History are major research collections on the history of English, American and French drama of the 18th and 19th centuries; and they contain biographical information including letters with actors, theatrical entrepreneurs and playwrights.

The Ida Rust Macpherson Collection, established in 1936, is a major collection on women. The more than 3,000 volumes are predominantly published primary source material: diaries, letters, journals, memoirs and autobiographies. About 170 women’s periodicals from the late 18th century to the present are in the collection.

Asian resources include Asian newspapers, China missionaries’ oral histories and World War II era Philippine newspapers, correspondence and periodicals.

The Mavor Collection of Russian Economic History contains several early 20th century peasant rent books among its many manuscripts and materials about the Russian Revolution. They are not indexed and are in Russian, hence are useful only to the experienced researcher with Russian language ability.

The Averell Collection is wonderful for descendants and others researching Civil War cavalry commander Maj. Gen. William Woods Averell or those whose Civil War ancestors who served with him. http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/collections/averell.html

The Maytorena Papers may prove useful for descendants of the Mexican Revolution participants.
The William Smith Mason Western Americana collection is rich in both primary and secondary sources covering Baja to Northern California coastal history prior to 1915.

The James Carruthers Memorial Aviation Collection contains approximately 4,000 volumes of aviation history, including ballooning.

I had great hopes for the Nordic Collection, but learned that it is primarily government, political and academic publications. Another disappointment was the Pacific Steamship Co. records—no passenger lists, only business records.

Because of the unique nature and value of the collection, materials must be retrieved and brought to the reading room by the library staff. Every attempt is made to provide access to the various books, periodicals, pamphlets, manuscripts, documents, photographs, maps, prints and ephemera in the various collections, while at the same time protecting and preserving the materials. Nothing may be removed from the Special Collections Room.

Photocopying and scanning is done by library staff for a fee. Blais, the online catalog, contains most of the library holdings. A card catalog for Special Collections materials not yet online and other finding aids (including the librarian) are available at the library.

Ms. Marsh also told me about OAC, the Online Archive of California, at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ a digital information resource that provides access to materials in libraries, museums, archives, and other institutions across California including the Claremont Colleges. The OAC is a searchable database of “finding aids” to primary sources (letters, diaries, photographs, etc.) and their digital facsimiles. These finding aids describe the primary sources and collections in sufficient detail to determine whether a collection will serve your research needs.

Ms. Marsh urged me to remind prospective visitors to call in advance to be sure the library has what visitors are looking for.

© Beverly Mateer Taylor. Used with permission.