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The Late Victorian Period in California
 A
wee bit of Scottish California history
from the late 19th
century
Scottish American families read Robert Burns and Sir Walter
Scott as other Americans did in the 1890s. On a European
Grand Tour, popular during this period, the well-to-do almost
certainly visited Scotland and the places where their parents
or grandparents were born. Certain elements of Scottish culture--music
and dance as well as a reverence for the Scottish past--were
important enough to respect and preserve for some families
even as they were learning American ways and customs. |
A
Scottish-American Family Promenading the grounds with
a Piper on a hot summer day at John Muir House in Martinez
Photograph taken by Lori Howard at John Muir House, 2003.
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A
few Scots were interested in preserving the sacred quality
they perceived in the wilderness of California. The most
renowned Scot who expressed these concerns was John Muir,
who became involved in the creation of the Sierra Club and
was instrumental in the preservation of Yosemite as a national
park. When Muir was not hiking the High Sierra, he and his
family maintained a ranch in Martinez where he grew peaches,
cherries, grapes and pears.
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Three
young ladies, Zuriah Meacham, Clara Ackerman & Catherine
Berner, dancing a step dance, 'The Lilt,' for the entertainment
of Family and
Friends
Photograph taken by Lori Howard at John Muir House, 2003. |
| Other
Scots who never left Scotland contributed towards the future
of California by investing in companies such
as the Glasgow California Land Company, which reclaimed swamp
lands in the San Joaquin Delta, thus contributing towards
the change in the Central Valley's ecology. |
A Family
Gathering participating in 'The Duke of Atholl's Reel'
Photograph taken by Lori Howard at John Muir House, 2003. |
| During
the Gold Rush and in the years afterwards, the industries
that Scots invested in were multitudinous: they started steamship
lines to carry passengers between San Francisco and Sacramento;
they started up the first iron foundry in San Francisco,
where mining machinery was fabricated out of scrap iron 'found'
after the devastating fires that destroyed San Francisco
in the early 1850s. They built locomotives and street railroads,
cable cars and birdcages, fenders, fireguards, and many other
wire products for use in the kitchen. Some of them
became very, very rich indeed! |
Greg
Reznick, Charles Clear, Steve Wyrick and Michael Howard
Photograph taken by Lori Howard at John Muir House, 2003. |
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