Latta, Frank Forrest, 1892-. Frank F. Latta Collection: Skyfarming, 1802-1982 (bulk) 1860-1975.
Title:
Frank F. Latta Collection: Skyfarming, 1802-1982 (bulk) 1860-1975.
The collection contains Frank F. Latta's research material from his five decades of researching the history of California's San Joaquin Valley and Miller & Lux, in particular dry farming known as skyfarming. Subjects include: agriculture and farming in the San Joaquin Valley, the development of agricultural machinery (combines, plows, reapers, scrapers, threshing machines, tractors and various types of harvesters), livestock, ranches, cattle, and crops, mostly wheat. Also covered are: early aviation, early automobiles, bears, crime, the Dalton Gang, the Donner Party, earthquakes, education and schools in the San Joaquin Valley, floods, freight and steamships on the San Joaquin River, gold mines, irrigation, canals and water rights in San Joaquin Valley, land grants, livestock, lumber, outlaws, pioneers, the Presbyterian Church in California, ranches, rivers, roads, saddlery, sheepherding in California, overland journeys to California and California politics, government and history. Also talked about are women, African Americans, Chileans, Chinese, Mormons, Native Americans and Jews in California. The collection contains roughly 180 oral interviews with people living in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1930s through the 1970s. One of the series contains drafts of the unpublished manuscript zSky Farmers and Mule Skinners with Something about Hay Muckers, Buckaroos, and Bindle Stiffs and a Sheepherder or Two.y Frank F. Latta worked on this manuscript for five decades. Individuals covered or represented in the collection: Grizzly Adams, George S. Berry, San Brannan, Robert Maitland Brereton, J. P. Collyer, John Charles Fremont, James Ben Ali Haggin, William H. Hall, Obed Hussey, Jesse James, Cyrus McCormick, C. Z. Merritt, Rufus R. Moore, Joaquin Murieta, George W. Nickel, J. Leroy Nickel, Harriet Quimby, Lovell Alexander Richards, Frank Day Robinson, Edward Francis Treadwell, Tiburcio Vazquez, Eli Whitney and William M. Wiley. Corporations covered or represented in the collection: Butterfield Overland Stage Line, California Department of Public Works, Caterpillar Tractor Company, Central Valley Project, Death Valley '49ers, Deere & Co., Early Birds of Aviation, H. C. Shaw Company, Holt Manufacturing Company, International Harvester Company, Kern County Land Company, Lux College, McCormick Harvesting Machinery Company, Miller & Lux, Pacific Live Stock Co., San Joaquin and King's River Canal and Irrigation Company, San Joaquin Pioneer & Historical Society, the United States Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, and Department of Agriculture. Latta's research also concerns the development and history of Stanislaus and Kern counties and several California cities including: Bakersfield, Buttonwillow, Crows Landing, Fresno, Grayson, Gustine, Hill's Ferry, Los Banos, Merced, Modesto, Newman, Orestimba, Sacramento, San Francisco, Stockton, Tulare, and Visalia. The collection is made up of articles, Miller & Lux business and financial documents and records, catalogs, brochures, clippings, legal document, oral interviews, correspondence, manuscripts for publication, newspapers, notes, official reports, receipts and research material in general. The collection also contains hundreds of photographs, both color and black and white, slides, panoramas and glass plates. The Huntington Library also has a collection of material relating only to Miller & Lux that also came from the Latta Family Trust: Frank F. Latta Collection: Miller & Lux Papers.
ArchivalResource:
Approximately 17,320 items.121 boxes.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/228770256 View
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