Contains business records of the Pacific Improvement Company and its subsidiaries. Includes business and legal documents, correspondence, reports, minutes, deeds, annual reports, maps, and blurprints. Contains materials related to the Monterey Peninsula and its development. Business areas covered include land development, coal and iron mining, railroads, and hotels.

The materials consist of printed ephemera from President Benjamin Harrison's cross-country railroad journey, from the papers of E.F. Tibbott, Harrison's private secretary who accompanied him on the trip. The President's train left Washington and proceeded to make a large loop through the country, traveling through nineteen states - Virginia, Tennesee, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The journey covered nearly 10,000 miles, during which time the President made nearly 150 speeches, which were later published in a volume compiled by a correspondent from the New York MAIL AND EXPRESS (item no. 23) who accompanied the President's party.

Correspondence, journal, notebooks, drawings, personality studies and school work of Leland Jr., and condolences to Senator and Mrs. Stanford regarding the death of their son. The correspondence and journal relate primarily to family travels in Europe and activities at home in San Francisco and Palo Alto, to his interests in archeology and collecting (including a scrapbook of commemorative Civil War envelopes), and to his education. Also includes correspondence between Jane Lathrop Stanford and William T. Ross, one of Leland Jr.'s tutors.

This collection contains lithographs, drawings, watercolor paintings, art prints, diplomas, certificates, printed illustrations, cartoons, advertisements, bird’s eye maps, and other printed formats. The main focus is Stanford University and its founders; subjects include the career of Leland Stanford, his racing horses, Stanford University’s history, student life, campus buildings, views of campus, faculty achievements, and others. Some items of note include The Leland Stanford Junior University, Plan of Central Premises, 1888, by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, architects, and Frederick Law and J. C. Olmsted, landscape architects; original water color designs of mosaics for Memorial Church by A. E. Paoletti; nine demands posted by Students for a Democratic Society on the door of the President’s office, concerning the Stanford Research Institute, 1968; original sketches by Leland Stanford, Jr.; Currier and Ives prints of Stanford’s race horses; design for the president’s house by Louis Christian Mullgardt, architect; woodblock prints by Della Taylor Hoss from Mary Curry Tressider’s “Trees of Yosemite,” 1932; print by Enrique Chagoya “Illegal Spirit in Black and White”, 1994; caricature sketches of members of Beta Theta Pi, including Winstead “Doodles” Weaver, circa 1935; and Santa Fe Wing No. 9 by Nathan Oliveira, 1990.

Assorted documents once kept in a bank safe deposit box including copy of the Founding Grant, 1885; Petition by Leland Stanford Junior University and of individual trustees for the ascertainment of the existence and terms of, and for the determination of the validity and legal effect of grants or other instruments, creating, changing or affecting trusts and estates for the founding, endowment, and maintenance of the Leland Stanford Junior University, 1906; certified copy of minutes of the Board of Trustees contained in Volume One for November 14, 1885 and August 29, 1903 to April 30, 1904; inventory and appraisal of the estate of Leland Stanford, 1893; Organization of the Board of Trustees, Nov. 1, 1901; and U. S. Patent of Esquon Ranch to Samuel Neal (Butte County, Calif.), with plat map, dated April 3, 1860.

The maps in this collection pertain to the University campus, to other lands owned by Jane and Leland Stanford or the University, and to adjacent communities. Included are maps of the Palo Alto Stock Farm, the land in Santa Clara County that Leland and Jane Stanford purchased as a country home and trotting horse farm which later became the campus of Stanford University; plans for the proposed campus by F. L. Olmsted & Company; miscellaneous campus maps for planting schemes, location of the Peninsular Railway line on campus, plans for Junipero Serra Boulevard, and housing subdivisions; maps of adjacent communities of Mayfield, Woodside, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park along with other subjects such as San Francisquito Creek, Searsville Lake, and Greystone Quarry. There are also three map books: a small volume concerning assorted lands owned by the Stanfords, c. 1869-1903; a block book for the campus, 1901-1903; and insurance maps for the campus, 1917.

Correspondence, telegrams; business, legal, financial, and official papers; speeches, journals, and newsclippings; and other materials relating to the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, Stanford's political career, business and financial interests, and the founding and construction of Stanford University.