A dual reminiscence by grassroots Democratic activists in a Southern California suburban community supported by their personal archive of newsletters of and clippings about the Adlai Stevenson Democratic Club of Altadena (later named the Democratic Club of Altadena) from 1954 to 1970. This record of political, educational, social, and fund-raising activities of the organization provides a significant lens for understanding mid-century political activism.

Natural scientist Charles Frederick Holder settled in Pasadena in 1885. As a prolific author, lecturer, and editor, Holder was a key promoter of the region, sport fishing, and natural science. He wrote popular children’s books as well. He is also remembered as an influential figure in education and the arts and as a founder of the Tuna Club on Santa Catalina Island and the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena and its Tournament of Roses.

California and the American West won international attention in the pages of a popular English magazine, The Wide World , published from 1898 to 1965 and aimed at the “armchair adventurer.” A sample of the magazine’s 1898–1912 articles set in California and the Southwest depict the region as a sportsmen’s paradise, a wild frontier, and the scene of adventure, thrills, and lurid crimes, which presented a more complex image than local boosters fostered.

The shipboard account kept by nineteen-year-old forty-niner Arthur M. Ebbets brings to life the hardships and diversions of the journey around Cape Horn. His adventures on the voyage presaged a later career marked by risks, setbacks, and successes in California.