Finding Aid

Major series within the John Muir Papers include:

Correspondence and Related Documents
Includes nearly 7000 letters to and from John Muir from 1856 until his death in 1914.

Journals and Sketchbooks
Includes 84 surviving journals covering the years 1867-1913.

Manuscripts and Published Works
Includes William F. & Maymie B. Kimes Bibliography. Kimes' collection of Muir's nearly 300 published pamphlets, journal articles, speeches, and other writings. They published John Muir; A Reading Bibliography (1986).

Pictorial Works
Includes drawings by Muirphotographs of Muir and photography owned by Muir of his family, friends, and locations throughout California and the world.

William Frederic Badè Papers
Badè was Muir's friend, literary executor, and first biographer. His papers include manuscripts, letters, reminiscences, and some transcriptions of Muir's journals. There are also book reviews of Muir's works and newspaper clippings about Muir.

Linnie Marsh Wolfe Papers
Wolfe was a Muir biographer until her death in 1945. Her papers include notes, correspondence, promotional material, photographs, business papers, research and manuscript materials for her books. They also include transcriptions of some of Muir's journal.

Muir/Strentzel Family and Legal Papers
These papers include correspondence and legal documents pertaining to the family and the Martinez ranch from 1850 to 1916, as well as Muir's naturalization papers.

In addition to the John Muir Papers, Special Collections also includes:

John Muir's Personal Library
This collection of nearly 1000 volumes represent many of the books that were known to exist in Muir's working library at his home in Martinez. Most remarkable about this collection is that many volumes contain Muir’s own notations in the form of drawings, marginalia, and personal indexes.

James Eastman Shone Collection
Shone was a descendant of John Muir's sister Sarah Muir Galloway. The collection includes Muir correspondence, sketches and drawings, photographs as well as Galloway's personal papers and genealogy.

Muiriana Collection
This collection contains a variety of materials, including Muir correspondence and family genealogy.

John Muir and William Trout Correspondence 1870-1913
Muir worked in Trout's factories in Petersboro, Canada between 1864 and 1866.

John Muir and Ina Coolbrith Correspondence 1906-1911
Coolbrith was a poet and writer, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco literary community.

Holway R. Jones Sierra Club Papers
The Papers consist largely of Sierra Club Board of Directors' Minutes (1907-1982) and related materials.

William Frederic Badè Collection 
Badè was Muir's friend, literary executor, and first biographer. This collection consists primarily Badè correspondence and contracts concerning books by or about John Muir, writings about John Muir, and transcribed correspondence of John Muir.

Adrian F. Sylvester Papers on the John Muir Memorial Park, Wisconsin
Sylvester was instrumental in the creation of the John Muir Memorial County Park on the first Wisconsin homesite of John Muir in 1957.

Mary Louise Brown Collection of Muiriana
Brown studied the life, works, and bibliography of Muir in the early 1980s in preparation of producing a movie about Muir.

Madie Brown Emparan Papers 1940-1971
Emparan was a conservationist and historian. Her papers contain notes and letters about Muir and the John Muir Association.

Harriet Nicewonger Papers, 1956-1982
The Nicewongers were John Muir enthusiasts and members of the John Muir Memorial Association.

Shirley Sargent Papers 1950-1971
Sargent was a publisher and author who wrote both fiction and non-fiction for adults and children focusing on the history of Yosemite National Park.