Browse Items (174 total)

Swain left his New York State family in 1849 to make his fortune in the Californian gold fields. In 1951 he returned home disillusioned and exhausted. Swain is remembered for the journal that he kept throughout his journey west and for his subsequent…

Miners arrived at Auburn Ravine in Spring 1848 en route to the Colombo gold fields. On finding gold in the ravine some stayed on and the area became important for placer mining which involves extracting ores from placer deposits by washing or…

‘Sweet Betsy from Pike’ is an American ballad about a pioneer named Betsy and her lover Ike who migrated from Pike County to California during the gold rush. There are Pike Counties in both Missouri and Illinois from where many gold seekers began…

In 1849 Edward McIlhany, aged 20, left West Virginia for the California gold fields. ‘Recollections of a 49er’ is the memoir of the 80 year old Edward. He describes his overland journey to California where he prospected for gold on Feather River and…

An unworked nugget of gold, .09g. This is reputed to be the piece of gold that launched the gold rush in California. It was found on 24 January 1848 by James Marshall while supervising the construction of a sawmill for Col. John Sutter on the South…

The source is a reproduction of an engraving (by an unknown engraver) of a design by Charles Nahl, a prolific illustrator of the Californian gold rush. At the start of the gold rush Nahl was an artist working in New York. He travelled to San…

From eastern America one route out to the gold fields was via the Isthmus of Panama. The 4-8 day crossing offered an alternative to the long sea route via Cape Horn or the wholly overland route. Travellers initially progressed in dug out boats up the…

Mary Ballou was one of many thousands of women who made the journey to the gold fields, travelling either with their husband or father or occasionally alone. On arrival in California Mary and her husband set up a boarding house at a mining camp but…

The photograph shows a steam engine manufactured in San Francisco in operation at the mill of the Gould and Curry gold mine. Steam engines such as this powered a range of mining equipment including pumps, compressors, hoists and mills. The 1870…

The object is a Transformation Mask from the Kwakwaka’wakw people. These masks were worn by dancers during ceremonies, they pull strings to open and move the mask, animating it. The mask can be opened and closed to reveal a mythical being or an…