Newsletter Edition: Spring 2023
Contributed by Mallory Furnier
The Baldwin-Shaffner Collection contains archival materials that document parts of the Baldwin, Sackett, Bishop, and Bacon families' stories as they made their way west from Ohio and Colorado to settle in Los Angeles in the 1890s. The family of Earl and Jennette Shaffner and their children Maybelle (Bishop), Rosalia (Bacon), and George are especially well-represented. Processing Archivist Claire Gordon is currently arranging, preserving, and describing the collection. As part of this, she's creating a finding aid, or guide to the collection, that will be available and searchable online. Once processing is complete, the collection will be available for anyone to use in person in the Special Collections & Archives reading room.
Collection materials include everything from correspondence and scrapbooks, to photographs, land records, textiles, and the bits of ephemera that tell the story of daily life. The photos include examples of several photographic processes in an extensive collection of late 19th to early 20th century family photographs. A collection of baby care pamphlets, and a small baby name booklet with names carefully annotated show the excitement and hope held by expectant parents. Carefully cut out paper dolls and accessories - many pulled from local newspapers - and a run of early San Fernando High School newspapers capture a glimpse of early 20th century childhood and adolescence in the Los Angeles area.
The Collection's textiles date from the 19th to mid-20th century and are evidence of special occasions, as well as more day-to-day living. We'll be using the family's generous support for processing to ensure that these items receive the special enclosures and housing that textiles need for long-term preservation. Nightgowns, bibs, handkerchiefs, and pantaloons live in the collection alongside dresses and skirts, reflecting changing tastes in fashion. Many of the textile items are entirely practical. One homemade sunbonnet is comprised of fabric traditionally used in men's shirts at the time, and is stiffened with cardboard. It's an example of the practical use and reuse of clothing items long before fast fashion's shadow crept over the clothing market. It's unusual for Special Collections & Archives to accept clothing donations, but many of these items tell strong stories and have clear links to individual family members.
While archives can share intimately detailed perspectives, they also indicate trends in society and our individual roles in a broader context. The family land records provide insight into the development of Saugus and land use in the Santa Clarita Valley in the mid- to late 20th century. This was a period of time when many former rancho lands were developed into the sprawling, greater Los Angeles metropolis we're more familiar with today. The Los Angeles Aqueduct ran through the family’s Saugus ranch, and memorabilia from the 60th anniversary of the aqueduct documents Jennette’s attendance at the anniversary event.
Although what is preserved in the archive is physical, and the stories these materials tell connect to broader trends, this collection reminds us that individual people are at the heart of past lived experiences, and those echoes of their time are still layered onto our present. Considering the collection is an opportunity to think of our own families, the places we live, and the intergenerational threads that weave through our lived experiences and in the paper trails that we leave behind. We thank Jannette and Cameron Carothers for donating this valuable collection and for allowing us to reflect on our own lives with them.