STANFORD, Leland (1824-1893)
Senate Years of Service: 1885-1893
STANFORD, LELAND, a Senator from California; born in Watervliet, N.Y., March 9, 1824; pursued an academic course; studied law; admitted to practice in 1848; moved to Port Washington, Wis., the same year and engaged in the practice of law; moved to California in 1852 and opened a general store for miners first in Cold Springs and then in 1855 moved to Sacramento and engaged in mercantile pursuits on a large scale; one of the 'big four' who built the Central Pacific Railroad, serving as its president in 1863; involved in several railroads in the West; founder of Leland Stanford Junior University; Governor of California 1861-1863; returned to private business; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1885; reelected in 1891 and served from March 4, 1885, until his death in Palo Alto, Calif., June 21, 1893; chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Fiftieth through Fifty-second Congresses); interment in a masoleum on the grounds of Stanford University.
Arizona Historical Society
Tucson, AZ
Papers: Correspondence in Mansfeld family papers, 1864-1965.
California Historical Society
San Francisco, CA
Papers: Correspondence in Alfred Barstow papers, 1861-1862; Western Development Company records, 1876-1877; and miscellaneous items in other collections.
California State Archives
Sacramento, CA
Papers: Gubernatorial papers and photographs.
California State University, Chico
Library
Chico, CA
Papers: Correspondence in John Bidwell papers, 1849-1918.
California State University, Sacramento
Library
Sacramento, CA
Papers: Material on Stanford Vina Ranch (owned by Leland Stanford) in Sacramento Valley Sugar Company Records.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Papers: Correspondence in Joseph Roswell Hawley papers, 1638-1906. Finding aid.
New York State Library
Manuscripts and Special Collections
Albany, NY
Papers: A research paper (1991) on Stanford's childhood in Albany County by Michael D. Caratzas.
Stanford University Libraries
Special Collections
Stanford, CA
Papers: 1850-1929. 29 feet. Chiefly land papers and titles; family scrapbooks (1865-1894) and photographs (1860-1905); correspondence and telegrams; business, legal, financial, and official papers; speeches; journals; and newsclippings relating to construction of Central Pacific Railroad, political career, business interests, and founding of Stanford University.
Additional Papers: In Isabella Cass diary, 1883-1885; President Benjamin Harrison's tour to the Pacific Coast photographs, 1891; Stanford centennial cartoons, 1991-1992; J. D. B. Stillman papers, 1849-1898; William Birelie Hyde papers, 1861-1896; William C. Ralston correspondence, 1870-1890; Frank Shay, personal counsel to Stanford, autobiography 1939; John Powell Irish papers, 1882-1923; Berton Crandall photographs, 1888-1953; Samuel Franklin Leib papers, 1881-1920; Stanford University President's Office scrapbooks, 1891-1945; George T. Clark research notebooks, 1928-1930; Pacific Improvement Company records, 1869-1931; Timothy Hopkins transportation collection, 1816-1942; Jane Lathrop Stanford papers, 1824-1975; Stephen Mallory White papers, 1871-1901; Andrew Putnam Hill photograph collection, 1890-1895; and Edward Muybridge photo negatives, 1872-1880.
Syracuse University
George Arents Research Library
Syracuse, NY
Papers: Correspondence in Collis Potter Huntington papers, 1797-1904.
University of California, Berkeley
The Bancroft Library
Berkeley, CA
Papers: 1862-1882. 7 items. Miscellaneous letters and documents, biography (never published), and notes used in preparation.
Additional Papers: Miscellaneous letters in various collections including Daniel Coit Gilman correspondence, 1871-1875; and photographs.
Yale University Libraries
Lillian Goldman Law Library
New Haven, CT
Papers: Legal papers including argument of Hall McAllister (1885) and argument of D.M. Delmas (1885) from Ellem M. Colton vs. Leland Stanford trial in Superior Court of Sonoma County, CA.
Research Libraries Information Network In addition to the institutions listed above, items are also cataloged in collections at: Brigham Young University Archives, Provo, UT; New York Public Library, New York, NY; and Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, UT.
- Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of the Life of Leland Stanford, a Character Study. Oakland: Biobooks, 1952.
- Clark, George Thomas. Leland Stanford, War Governor of California, Railroad Builder and Founder of Stanford University. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1931.
- Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. Leland Stanford. New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1967.
- Lewis, Oscar. The Big Four: The Story of Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins, and Crocker, and the Building of the Central Pacific. 1938. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1981.
- Strazdes, Diana. "Style, Symbols, and Persuasion: Leland Stanford's Sacramento Ball of 1872." Studies in the Decorative Arts 15 (Spring-Summer 2008): 65-95.
- Tutorow, Norman E. Leland Stanford: Man of Many Careers. Menlo Park, CA: Pacific Coast Publishers, 1971.
- ___. "Stanford's Responses to Competition: Rhetoric Versus Reality.'' Southern California Quarterly 52 (September 1970): 231-47.
- ___. The Governor: The Life and Legacy of Leland Stanford, a California Colossus. Spokane: Arthur H. Clark, Co., 2004.
- U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Leland Stanford (a Senator from California) Delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives. 53d Cong., 2d sess., 1893-1895. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894.
