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.

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.

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.