In addition to the general resources shared above, the Archives provides access to many specific resources -- archival collections, oral histories, publications, exhibits, archived websites, data sets, and more -- to aid in your research into people in early Stanford history:
 

Chinese Railroad Workers

• Chinese Railroad Workers Project
   

McDonald, Emanuel B. "Sam"

• Stanford Historical Society. Sam McDonald: Beloved Stanford Friend, Role Model, and Benefactor.
• McDonald, Emanuel B. Sam McDonald's Farm: Stanford reminiscences.
• Black @ Stanford Anthology includes photographs of McDonald.
   

Muybridge, Eadweard

• Eadweard Muybridge exhibit: Features photographs, publications, and more documenting Muybridge's experiments on the Palo Alto Farm and elsewhere, relationship with the Stanford family, and of course, his life and work beyond Stanford. Also includes links to lists of related manuscript materials and photographic works at Stanford Libraries,
• Archival collections in the Stanford Archives can be searched and paged for physical review using the Online Archive of California. A notable collection to explore includes the Eadweard Muybridge photographs.
• Publications can be located and ordered in Searchworks. Notable titles include:
  • Ball, E. The inventor and the tycoon: A Gilded Age murder and the birth of moving pictures (Doubleday, 2013).
  • Solnit, R. River of shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the technological wild west. New York (Viking, 2003).
     

Stanford / Lathrop family members

• Stanford Family exhibit: Includes digitized photographs, correspondence, and other papers included in a variety of archival and photograph collections.
• Collecting in Life and Death exhibit: Created by staff of the Stanford University Archaeology Collections, the exhibit focuses on the collecting legacy of Leland Stanford Jr.
• The professional and personal papers of the Stanford family include correspondence, interviews and news articles, documents, photographs, monographs, and journal articles about the family and their many business and philanthropic interests. A few notable collections to explore include the Stanford Family papers, 1839-1964; Jane Lathrop Stanford papers, 1860-1975; and Leland Stanford papers, 1840-1909.
• Publications can be located and ordered in Searchworks. Notable titles include:
  • Clark, George T. Leland Stanford: War Governor of California, Railroad Builder, and Founder of Stanford University (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1931), 491 pp. This first sympathetic biography of Stanford based on both documentation and extensive interviews resulted in the preservation of additional family papers. Especially valuable is the final chapter, "Building a University," in which Leland Stanford's plans throughout 1884-91 are painstakingly documented.
  • De Wolk, R. (2019). American disruptor: The scandalous life of Leland Stanford.
  • Nagel, Gunther. Iron Will: The Life and Letters of Jane Lathrop Stanford, 2nd ed. (Stanford: Stanford Alumni Association, 1985), 224 pp. As yet the only biography of Jane Stanford, this work evolved from the story told in Mrs. Stanford's correspondence. Though a sentimental account, it offers Mrs. Stanford's views and experiences in her own words.
  • Osborne, Carol. Museum Builders in the West : The Stanfords as Collectors and Patrons of Art, 1870-1906 (Stanford: Stanford University Museum of Art, 1870-1906 ; Stanford: Stanford University Museum of Art, 1986), 139 pp. This well-written and thoughtful study of Jane and Leland Stanford as art patrons and collectors places the establishment of the university and Jane Stanford's continued interest in the development of the museum in the larger context of the Stanford's lives and interests. It also provides a balanced view of Leland Stanford, Jr.'s interests and talents, and his contributions to his parents' interests in art, archaeology, and education.
  • Tutorow, Norman. The Governor : the Life and Legacy of Leland Stanford, a California Colossus (Spokane, Wash. : Arthur H. Clark Co., 2004), 2 volumes. Seeking to present a broader portrait than that of railroad baron and politician, Tutorow describes a life of many careers including that of the California wine grower ahead of his time and of innovative horse breeder and trainer. This biography counters the more superficial portraits presented by Hubert Howe Bancroft (History of the Life of Leland Stanford, 1952) and Oscar Lewis (The Big Four, 1938).
  • White, R. Railroaded: The transcontinentals and the making of modern America (2011).
  • White, R. Who killed Jane Stanford?: A gilded age tale of murder, deceit, spirits and the birth of a university (2022).