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Charles Penniman Daniell Papers
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Title: Charles Penniman Daniell Papers
Dates: 1844-1853,
Date: 1861
Collection Number: Consult repository.
Creator:
Daniell, Charles Penniman, 1828-1861.
Extent:
59 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: manuscripts@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection consists of letters and a few photographs related to Daniell's experiences and life in San Francisco (1850-53).
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please go to following
web site .
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal permission
from the office of the Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical
property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances,
the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate
curator for further information.
[Identification of item], Charles Penniman Daniell Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
The collection was given to the Huntington Library by Mrs. Austin Jenison (nee Margaret Daniell) on October 13, 1967.
Born in South Milford, MA, in September 1828, Charles Daniell was the eldest son of Josiah Daniell, a drygoods retailer in
Boston, and Sarah Hutchinson Penniman Daniell. Charles P. Daniell sailed from Boston to San Francisco around the Horn in 1849-50.
While in San Francisco he took part in a sequence of business arrangements to retail hardware, including operating other proprietors’
stores and managing his own. For a brief period of time, he worked at the U.S. Customs House. He also made at least one excursion
into mining territory to “see the Elephant." Daniell returned to Boston in 1854 and again in the late 1850s, where he married
Henrietta Spring, a close friend of his sister Lucetta, in 1860. They returned to California, but he died May 1861 at the
age of 33. Subsequently, his brother William traveled to California to take care of his affairs. Charles’ only daughter, born
posthumously, died as an infant.
The collection consists of letters and a few photographs related to Daniell's experiences and
life in San Francisco (1850-53). Charles is the author of all the letters and the only addressees
are his sister Lucetta, his mother Sarah, and his father Josiah. The letters, generally one to four pages in length, are
arranged chronologically. Several of the letters are duplicated in typewritten format. Charles wrote the bulk of the letters
from the city of San Francisco, but there are also letters from Boston, where he helped with his father's dry goods business
and from the ship “Marcia Cleaves" as he sailed around the Horn to California.
A seemingly amiable and optimistic young man, Charles appears to wrestle with the challenges of
making his own way in the world and the longing for the familiar. The letters rarely go into
great detail, but they allude to a great variety of topics such as home-sickness for his family
and New England, the importance of “Steamer Day" when mail arrives, the weather, his health and well-being and that of
his compatriots, the importance of social relationships to business success, the difficulty of business success without sufficient
capital, the diversity of nationalities/ethnicities on ship and in town, party politics, the Vigilance Committee, church attendance,
anecdotes about music, his food and lodging conditions, the outbreak of fires and cholera in town, and the occurrence of marriages
at home in Massachusetts and in California.
Photographic material includes a photograph of the Daniell Family, eight daguerreotype
portraits of Daniell family members, and a photograph of the family’s Roxbury, MA house and of
William Daniell standing next to his brothers’ grave in California.
Subjects include: the ship Marcia Cleaves, Voyages “around the Horn", ocean travel, Valparaiso, (Chile), San Jose (California),
life in San Francisco, and business enterprises there, the city’s U.S. Custom House, city politics—especially the Vigilance
committee, church attendance, the building of a Unitarian church, relationships between men and women, ethnic relations, anecdotes
about music, and descriptions of fruit purchases.
Daniell, Charles Penniman, 1828-1861.
Marcia Cleaves (Ship)
Business enterprises -- California -- San Francisco.
Businessmen -- California -- San Francisco -- Correspondence.
Church attendance.
Ethnic relations.
Family-owned business enterprises -- United States.
Fires -- California -- San Francisco.
Fires -- California -- San Francisco.
Man-woman relationships.
Music -- Anecdotes.
Ocean travel.
Unitarian church buildings.
Vigilance committees -- California -- San Francisco.
Voyages around the Horn.
California -- Gold discoveries -- Personal narratives.
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Description and travel.
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Politics and government.
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
San Jose (Calif.) -- Description and travel.
Valparaíso (Chile) -- Description and travel.
Letters (correspondence) California 19th century.
Photographs California 19th century.