Correspondence, deeds, ephemeral materials, pamphlets, printed materials, receipts, typescripts, vouchers.

Brief biography of Adolph Sutro, mine engineer, mayor of San Francisco (1895-1897), developer of the Cliff House and Sutro Baths, Sutro Gardens, and book collector.

Thirty-five million Americans live in California, more than any other state. Robert Chandler's sweeping history begins with the area's indigenous inhabitants, and leads through the era of Spanish colonization, conquest by the United States, the Gold Rush, the founding of Hollywood, and the present. California remains prominent in America's and the world's culture and economy. This is an introduction to the events and people that have shaped this great state.--From publisher description.

Adolph Sutro was forever seeking challenges. Emigrating from Prussia to the U.S. at age 20, the California gold rush lured him west. At the Comstock Lode in Nevada, he conceived an idea for a tunnel to drain the hot water that made the mines perilous and inefficient. But he would have to overcome both physical obstacles and powerful opposition by the Bank of California to realize his vision. Back in San Francisco, Sutro bought one twelfth of the city, including the famous Cliff House perched over the Pacific Ocean. When it burned to cinders on Christmas Day, 1894, he built a massive, eight-story Victorian replacement. He used his expertise in tunneling and water solutions to create the world's largest enclosed swimming structure, the Sutro Baths--six glass-covered heated saltwater pools with capacity of 1,000 swimmers. Other challenges followed but Sutro was not invincible. After a two-year term as mayor of San Francisco, he succumbed to debilitating strokes which left him senile. His death in 1898 started disputes among his heirs--six children by his wife and two by his mistress--that lasted more than a decade.

The Adolph Sutro Papers consists of correspondence, much of it relating to the Sutro Tunnel Company and to the Funding Bill; records of the Sutro Tunnel Company including cipher books; documents relating to property holdings in San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo and Napa Counties; payrolls and reports for the Cliff House, Sutro Railroad, San Miguel Ranch, Sutro Baths, Sutro Library, and Sutro Heights; papers relating to Sutro's term as San Francisco Mayor; papers relating to Sutro's estate; and financial records.

In 1945 some experts still considered the so-called sound barrier an impenetrable wall, while winged rocket planes remained largely relegated to science fiction. But soon a series of unique rocket-powered research aircraft and the dedicated individuals who built, maintained, and flew them began to push the boundaries of flight in aviation's quest to move ever higher, ever faster, toward the unknown. Beyond Blue Skies examines the thirty-year period after World War II during which aviation experienced an unprecedented era of progress that led the United States to the boundaries of outer space. Between 1946 and 1975, an ancient dry lakebed in California's High Desert played host to a series of rocket-powered research aircraft built to investigate the outer reaches of flight. The western Mojave's Rogers Dry Lake became home to Edwards Air Force Base, NASA's Flight Research Center, and an elite cadre of test pilots. Although one of them--Chuck Yeager--would rank among the most famous names in history, most who flew there during those years played their parts away from public view. The risks they routinely accepted were every bit as real as those facing NASA's astronauts, but no magazine stories or free Corvettes awaited them--just long days in a close-knit community in the High Desert. The role of not only the test pilots but the engineers, aerodynamicists, and support staff in making supersonic flight possible has been widely overlooked. Beyond Blue Skies charts the triumphs and tragedies of the rocket-plane era and the unsung efforts of the men and women who made amazing achievements possible.

Contains incoming correspondence and invitations; ephemera relating to Sutro's involvement with politics; information on the Sutro Library and on the Sutro Baths; records from the Sutro Tunnel Company including correspondence, legal documents and financial documents; pamphlets and posters relating to property sales in San Francisco by Sutro; receipts; clippings; and some miscellaneous items including calling cards and Sutro's daughter's report cards.

Judy Fambrough-Billingsley was born Ute Schaab in Friedberg, Germany, shortly after World War II. As the daughter of a white German woman and a black American soldier, she became one of the many unwanted "brown babies" who was abandoned by her mother. Her powerful and riveting memoir describes the transformation she experienced in her quest to find both birth parents. From childhood in Germany shortly after the war to adulthood in America, Too Brown to Keep: A Search for Love, Forgiveness, and Healing recounts the author's inspirational odyssey, as the search for her birth parents leads to discovery of the good, the bad, and the ugly family secrets she struggled to unearth for decades.