Skip to main content

Honeyman (Robert B., Jr.) - Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material

Owning Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

About this Collection

The Robert B. Honeyman Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material is comprised of over 2300 items, with formats and media ranging from original oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, lithographs, engravings, etchings, lettersheets, clipper cards, and ephemera, to plates and spoons featuring western themes, and a fore-edge painting. The collection focuses on pictorial interpretations of the old West, with emphasis on the early California and Gold Rush periods. Views depict the changing landscape of the West under the impact of westward migration, the development of towns and cities, early settlements, California missions, railroads, gold mining scenes, pioneer and frontier life, native populations, social history, and many other topics. Many items in the collection are of unique historical value as they represent some of the earliest records of a particular scene, location, or event. Included are the earliest known views of the Presidio of Monterey, Mission Carmel, San Francisco, and Yosemite. Geographically, the collection focuses primarily on California, but also includes images from the Pacific Northwest, other Northern American states, South and Central America, Oceania, Europe, Russia, and other locations. The entire collection covers from ca.1790 through the early 1930s, with the bulk of works dating between 1850 and the 1870s. View this collection on the contributor's website.
View collection guide.

View our statement on digital primary resources and historical description.

Type of Item

2,270 items found in this collection

of 95
of 95