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Finding Aid for the Robert E. Cowan collection of early California manuscripts, 1551-1932
2048
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Title: Robert E. Cowan collection of early California manuscripts
Date (inclusive): 1551-1932
Collection number: 2048
Creator: Cowan, Robert
Extent: 10 boxes (5 linear ft.)
Abstract: Collection consists of miscellaneous manuscripts pertaining to California history.
Language: Finding aid is written in English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Part purchase, part gift of Robert Cowan, 1936.
Processed by Erika Perez in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT) with assistance from Kelley Bachli, 2007.
[Identification of item], Robert E. Cowan collection of early California manuscripts (Collection Number 2048). Department
of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Robert Ernest Cowan was born in Toronto, Canada in 1862. He arrived in San Francisco in 1870 and was best known for the publication
of bibliographies and other works on early California history including:
A bibliography of the history of California, 1510-1930,
Bibliography of the Chinese question in the United States (with Boutwell Dunlap), and
The Spanish press of California, 1833-1845. Robert Ernest Cowan collected a wide-array of materials on early California history that would later form the nucleus of
the UCLA Department of Special Collections's holdings in Californiana. Cowan was a former student at UC Berkeley from 1882-84,
a San Francisco bookseller from 1895-1920, and a librarian for William Andrews Clark, Jr., from 1919-1933. Robert Cowan married
Marie Margaret Fleissner in 1894 and they had one child, Robert Granniss Cowan. Robert Ernest Cowan died in Los Angeles in
May 1942.
Collection consists of early California manuscripts collected by Robert Ernest Cowan. Researchers on 19th century California
may be especially drawn to the collection's extensive legal documents, property records, San Francisco materials, and documents
relating to Spanish-Mexican California. The collection is comprised of materials mainly written in English, with a fair amount
of documents written in Spanish and a few items written in Chinese and French. A few of the more interesting items in this
collection are two manuscripts from 16th century Mexico, a deposition written in Chinese that was submitted as an exhibit
in a U.S. District Court case, account ledgers showing mercantile transactions involving Spanish-Mexican families, requests
for reimbursements stemming from the Mexican-American War, and property transactions involving women.
Arranged in the following series:
- Fremont Ackerman correspondence, ca. 1888-1895
- Alta California, ca. 1834-1914
- Attorneys, court, and legal records, ca. 1841-1896
- Mexico, ca. 1551-1855
- Newspaper clippings & manuscripts, ca. 1844-1892
- Northern California, ca. 1845-1932
- Pacific Northwest, ca. 1845-1890
- Property records, ca. 1847-1877.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Ackerman, Fremont -- Correspondence.
California --History -- Sources.
Manuscripts, Spanish --Mexico.
Robert Ernest Cowan Papers (Collection 232)
. Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.