Manuscript Monday—Whiskey, brandy, tobacco, oysters, and pickles

What did Gold Rush miners eat? This 1851 bill of lading, recording goods shipped from New York to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to Sacramento City, gives some sense of the miners' culinary priorities: whiskey, brandy, cherry brandy, bitters, tobacco, butter, oysters, and pickles all made the long trip.

Bill of lading for goods shipped by Benj. M. Whitlock & Co. on board the ship Typhoon to J. B. Bidleman in San Francisco: New York, 1851 July 15, MS 152, California Historical Society.

Marie Silva
Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian
msilva@calhist.org