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Diablo

Date: 1897

A Transcript of Appeal is the official written record of a trial, used by a higher court to review the lower court's proceedings. Ellen Van Valkenburg began an important legal battle for women’s enfranchisement in California on July 21, 1871, when she requested that Santa Cruz County Clerk Albert Brown enter her name in the Great Register of voters. After Brown (a willing accomplice in helping her bring the case to court) refused to register her, Van Valkenburg and her lawyer, Santa Cruz Judge Albert Hagan, began legal proceedings by requesting a writ of mandamus, a judicial remedy used to compel agencies to perform ministerial acts, such as registering voters. Van Valkenburg and Hagan argued her case by citing the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The new amendment, ratified 3 years earlier in 1868, defined all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. as citizens protected by civil rights. Van Valkenburg and Hagan asserted that American women were considered citizens under this amendment, and that citizenship automatically granted absolute rights, including the right to vote. The case first went to California’s Third District Court. Many of America’s most prominent suffragists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, were with Van Valkenburg in Santa Cruz when the lower court ruled against her on August 16, 1871. Van Valkenburg and Hagan swiftly appealed this decision through the Supreme Court of California. In the end, the Supreme Court of California upheld the lower court’s verdict under the reasoning that as a white American woman, Van Valkenburg already had citizenship and civil rights prior to the passage of the 14th amendment, and that the 14th amendment did not provide her with any additional political rights, such as the right to vote. While Van Valkenburg lost her case, and subsequent lawsuits failed to secure women's suffrage nationwide, the case stands as a critical early example of legal advocacy for women's political rights in California.

Date: September 23, 1871

Caption: "Fort Stevens, Oregon," c. 1905. Panorama of Fort Stevens, built in the 1860s as part of the defensive fortifications guarding the mouth of the Columbia River. Located on the Oregon side of the river, the fort was decommissioned after World War II, its armaments and buildings removed and auctioned off. The site now serves as a state park complete with military museum.

Date: 1905

Conclave

Date: 1883

Every Man Is Odd But We Can Fit Him

Date: 1900

Cut

Date: 1900

Standard Sweet Chocolate

Date: 1896

Frank Driscoll's Advertising Emblem

Date: 1900

Tea Cup Extra Old Bourbon Whiskey

Date: 1891

Ideal

Date: 1888