The journals (5 items; 517 images) of Benajah Jay Antrim (1819-1903), a chemist, photographer, mathematical instrument maker, and artist, are comprised of three volumes of handwritten diary entries and two complementary volumes of pencil or pen-and-ink drawings and watercolor images of his February-April 1849 journey from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to San Francisco, California, through Mexico. The collection was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1906, and staff subsequently conserved and rebound the volumes. A portion of the journals was microfilmed in 1991, and the entire collection was digitized from the originals in 2024.

On February 1, 1849, Benajah Jay Antrim, a mathematical instrument maker who had worked in Philadelphia and Baltimore, departed Philadelphia and travelled by sea to Mexico, where on February 21, 1849, he began an overland journey via San Luis Potosi and Guadalajara to Mazatlán.  After his traveling party reached the Pacific coast on April 17, 1849, Antrim continued northward to San Francisco, arriving there by June 25, 1849. He proceeded to make a living working as a daguerreotypist in California and Hawaii.

Antrim’s highly descriptive daily journal entries and meticulous sketches reveal him to be a receptive observer. Though he viewed Mexico from preconceived Anglo-American perspectives and with the biases of a foreigner having a first-time encounter with the country, its architecture, and its peoples, he possessed a strong desire to see and learn. He expressed appreciation for the dramatic landscapes and natural world he witnessed on days of travel, which typically began near sunrise and covered many miles.

Antrim was also impressed by the built environment, architecture, design, and infrastructure he viewed on the journey, including roads and bridges, cathedrals, and residences. He noticed regional geology, including evidence of minerals and a striking black bed of lava stone.  He wrote of crops, palm and other fruit trees, local foodways, and the availability of markets or provisions.  He included brief notes on a sociological mix of military officers, fellow traveling Americans, those involved in commercial enterprises, landholders, laborers, poverty-stricken individuals, apparent bandits, and politicians. He offered guarded perspectives on crime and justice systems and recorded regional differences in receptiveness to American outsiders.

He paid special attention to geography and the highly varied array of natural environments through which they traveled. His sketchbooks are filled with scenes of mountains, deserts, fertile valleys, small villages, private lands and ranchos, sweeping panoramic landscapes, rivers, and ports. He captured the intricacies of government buildings, plazas, fountains, and public art; noted the often sumptuous quality of religious and Spanish Colonial architecture; and documented his first views of the Pacific Ocean.

A finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Benajah Jay Antrim Journals is available online with links to the digital content on this site.

All or selected parts of this collection were transcribed by volunteers participating in the By the People crowdsourcing transcription project of the Library of Congress. Crowdsourced text associated with the specific image from which it was transcribed can be viewed by clicking on the “Image w/Text” option above the image itself, or by selecting the “Text” option in the dropdown menu below the image. Selecting “Text (all pages)” opens a document containing the available transcribed text for all the images in the respective object record.

A transcription dataset for this collection is available online as Transcription datasets from the Benajah Jay Antrim Journals at the Library of Congress. For general information on transcription datasets at the Library of Congress and their uses, see “Datasets at the Library of Congress: A Research Guide.”

The collection is arranged five numbered volumes:

• Vol. 1, California Journal no. 1, [Journey Through Mexico], 1849
  Handwritten diary includes an account of organizing the expedition company and departing from Philadelphia, their time at sea, and the overland journey through Mexico.
• Vol. 2, California Journal no. 2, 1849
  Handwritten diary continuing the narrative of the journey to the California coast.
• Vol. 3, Mexico, [Notes, Panorama Around the World . . . Mexico], 1849
  Handwritten diary, which includes comments that match numbered panoramic ink sketches in volume 5.
• Vol. 4, Sketchbook of Mexico and California, 1849
  Bound artwork, consisting of watercolors and ink and pencil sketches of landscapes, flora, fauna, villages, encampments, and urban, residential, and religious architecture.
• Vol. 5, Sketchbook of Mexico, [Panorama Around the World, 2d Night], 1849
  Pen-and-ink studies of sites and landscapes in Mexico.