PBA Galleries

Compiled by John Bartlett Goodman III. Introduction by Neal Harlow. Edited by Daniel Woodward. Folding blue cloth box with pictorial cover label, gilt lettering, and magnetic fastener, housing an illustrated paper folder containing 24 sheets. Box measures 11½x9; sheets are 11x8½; 17 of the leaves unfold to 11x17.

John Bartlett Goodman (1901-1991) devoted years to the creation of his monumental unfinished survey "California Gold Rush Fleet Encyclopedia of Vessels Sailing from the East Coast of the United States and Canada, December 7, 1848-December 31, 1849." This massive, eleven-volume work has never been published; the manuscript is now housed at the Huntington Library. The present item is a research key, summarizing Goodman’s work in tabular form, with summary data on 762 ships sailing to San Francisco in the wake of the discovery of gold in California.