The illustrated holograph journal of Alexander W. Chase documenting his family's overland journey from Iowa to California by covered wagon from May to August 1861. The illustrations include both pencil sketches and watercolors. The journal is accompanied by 43 loose watercolor illustrations by Chase that correspond to events or scenery described in the journal. As a first-hand account of a pioneer journey over the Great Plains in mid-nineteenth-century America, the journal provides both textual and visual documentation on the landscape, wildlife, and Native American population of this time period. An informal transcription of the journal produced by UCI staff is available for consultation.

Born in 1843, Alexander Wells Chase was 18 years old at the time he made the overland journey across the Great Plains with his family. In 1874 Chase married Isabel Frances Dickerson, and they had two children, Bertha Griffith Chase and Alexandra Wells Chase. He died in 1888.

0.2 linear feet (1 box)

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.

Collection is open for research.