Howdy, folks! Last week Raemi mentioned our use of the book scanner in the Special Collections Reading Room, so I figured I’d talk a little about what I was scanning in that photo.
This is a box of field notes from the Willis S. Jones Papers, written between 1905 and 1915. According to Russell Michalak’s finding aid of the collection, “Jones was a consulting engineer for the Consolidated Water Company of Pomona in 1907; superintendent of Claremont Domestic Water Co.; and consulting engineer for [the] Vail Co. in Riverside Co. He built dams along the Santa Margarita and Temecula River on the Pauba Ranch near Temecula, California.”
In addition to notes, the field books also contain the occasional supplemental item, such as this 1920 letter from the LA County District Attorney’s office:
Part of the fun of archives is finding weird stuff in unexpected places.