Thanks and welcome to those of you who have recently joined the Historical Society. We hope you will enjoy receiving our newsletter and will plan to attend our upcoming programs.
Should you have comments or suggestions to send our way please contact us at lafayette.history@comcast.net.
Attendees hear Michelle Chan discuss the Pony Express Marker
Speaking of programs….we are appreciative of those people who have entertained our members with extraordinary programs in the last few months: Michelle Chan for her walking tour of downtown Lafayette in April and Mary Volmer for her talk on early California women at our annual Pot Luck in May. Ms. Volmer has shared her suggested reading list. Look for it at the end of this post.
Please plan to join us on July 18 for a presentation by Stephen Drew on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. And speaking of trains….don’t miss the exhibit at the Contra Costa County Historical Society in Martinez: Before BART: Electric Railroads Link Contra Costa County which ends on July 12.For additional information and hours: www.cocohistory.com.
Summer would be a great time to visit the History Room (with children or grandchildren)….there are photos to see, neighborhoods to learn about, displays to view and t-shirts, note cards and postcards to purchase, and books for vacation reading. And be sure to look for town founder Elam Brown’s Bible on display soon upstairs in the display case on the Library main floor.This historic artifact is on loan from the Contra Costa Historical Society and will help kick-off our latest series of displays on the Neighborhoods of Lafayette. We hope you’ll make your summer an historical one. The History Room is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm.
-Mary McCosker
Mary Volmer “Women of the Gold Rush” Reading List:
Brands, H.W. The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream. New York: Doubleday, 2002.
Comstock, David Allan. Brides of the Gold Rush. Grass Valley: Comstock Bonanza Press, 2004.
Egli, Ida Rae ed. No Rooms of Their Own: Women Writers of Early California 1848-1869. Berkeley: Heyday, 1992.
Foote, Mary Hallock. A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West: The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1992
Holliday, J.S. Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California. Berkeley: University of California, 1999.
Johnson, Susan Lee. Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush. New York: Norton, 2000.
Levy, JoAnn. They Saw the Elephant: Women of the California Gold Rush. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
Levy, JoAnn. Unsettling the West: Eliza Farnham and Georgiana Bruce Kirby in Frontier California: Berkeley: Heyday, 2004.
Royce, Sarah. A Frontier Lady: Recollections of the Gold Rush and Early California.Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1932.
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