Caroline Richings
Daily Alta California, November 1, 1864, San Francisco
Verdi at the Golden Gate
Opera and San Francisco in the Gold Rush Years
George Martin
Among the incidents recounted are the fist fight that stopped an opera performance and ended in a fatal duel; and the brothel madam who, by sitting in the wrong row of a theater, caused a fracas that resulted in the formation of the Vigilantes of 1856. Martin weaves together meticulously gathered social, political, and musical facts to create this lively cultural history. His study contributes to the role of opera in cities during this time, especially in the American West.
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Genealogy Resources
The History of the Gold Discoveries of the Northern Mines of California's Mother Lode Gold Belt As Told By The Newspapers and Miners 1848-1875
Lewis J. Swindle
Gold Miners & Guttersnipes:
Tales of California
Mark Twain
The Age of Gold:
The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
H. W. Brands
“I have found it.” These words, uttered by the man who first discovered gold on the American River in 1848, triggered the most astonishing mass movement of peoples since the Crusades. California’s gold drew fortune-seekers from around the world. That discovery accelerated America’s imperial expansion and exacerbated the tensions that exploded in the Civil War. The Gold Rush inspired a new American dream—the “dream of instant wealth, won by audacity and good luck.”
Brands tells his epic story from multiple perspectives: of adventurers John and Jessie Fremont, entrepreneur Leland Stanford, and Samuel Clemens—alongside prospectors, soldiers, and scoundrels. He imparts a sense of the distances they traveled, the suffering they endured, and the fortunes they made and lost. Grand storytelling!
John Sutter and the
California Gold Rush
(Graphic History)
Matt Deoden
San Francisco Memoirs
1835-1851:
Eyewitness Accounts of the Birth of a City
Malcolm E. Barker
In July 1846 San Francisco was a tranquil settlement of about 150 inhabitants. Three years later it was an international metropolis with more than 30,000 people thronging its streets. Recalled in this intriguing collection of personal anecdotes from those tumultuous times are the days when San Francisco Bay extended inland to Montgomery Street. Bears, wolves, and coyotes roamed the shore. The arrival of 238 Mormons more than doubled the town's population.
More San Francisco Memoirs
1852-1899: The Ripening Years
Malcolm E. Barker
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