The Hotel del Coronado Collection in Special Collections is an extraordinary and varied collection, documenting the early history of this notable San Diego landmark. A highlight of the collection is the eighty-nine volumes of bound outgoing correspondence, dating from 1888-1907. This correspondence is extremely valuable for the insights it provides into the early day-to-day management of the Hotel, the emerging urban landscape, and the lives of the people living in San Diego and environs at the time. Though a partial index of correspondents' names is included in the collection, until recently, the incredibly rich content of the letters has been opaque to researchers unable to spend the significant time required to browse the volumes. However, a comprehensive subject index to the first six years of the correspondence has recently been released in Special Collections.
Through this index, the remarkable life of the young Hotel del begins to come to light. These subject headings allow us to see the wide range of issues facing the early managers of the Hotel, some of which are important even today. There are extended entries on agriculture in the area, water and irrigation, immigration, labor, marketing methods for the Hotel and for Coronado, and companies and services in the developing city, such as sanitariums, railroads and electric streetcars. Some of the more intriguing subject entries include: air pollution, hot air balloons, desalinization, evangelists, the Hay Fever Association, parachutists, anti-Chinese racism, saloons, shipwrecks, and the World's Fair in Chicago. Researchers pursuing the correspondence listed under the subject entries will certainly find fresh insights into the role of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, and exciting new perspectives on enduring topics in San Diego's rich history.
Originally a card file, this subject index was microfilmed as part of a preservation project in the early 1990s. This microfilm has now been scanned as a searchable PDF of 1371 pages (a large file). When searching the subject index, it is recommended that you mark the checkbox to "include comments" in Adobe Reader. We are excited to release this wonderful new tool!
