stimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848

Join Rose Marie Beebe, Professor Emerita of Spanish Literature at Santa Clara University, and Robert M.Senkewicz, Professor Emeritus of History at Santa Clara University, as they share the fascinating stories of the women of pre-statehood California. When in the early 1870s historian Hubert Howe Bancroft sent interviewers out to gather oral histories from the pre-statehood gentry of California, he did not count on one thing: the women. When the men were not available, the interviewers collected the stories of the women of the household—sometimes almost as an afterthought. These interviews were eventually archived at the University of California, Berkeley, though many were all but forgotten. Having lived through the gold rush and seen their country change so drastically, these women understood the need to tell the full story of the people and the places that were their California.