James McDonald, owner of Antiques and Art and one of La Jolla\u2019s main estate appraisers, recently donated about 10 boxes filled with priceless items such as La Jolla postcards, Scripps family photos and Jessop family letters to La Jolla Historical Society. “We\u2019re like kids in a candy store,” said Mike Mishler, archivist for the Historical Society. “McDonald built the collection up over the years from his antique business and estate sales. He set it aside knowing it would be important to us.” Pieces from the collection fill in gaps for the La Jolla Historical Society\u2019s various collections, according to Mishler. From a postcard collection to turn-of-the-century Scripps family photos to real estate brochures from the 1950s and \u201960s, the donation spurred excitement at LJHS\u2019 Wisteria House headquarters. “Usually our donations are a bit smaller and more piecemeal. It\u2019s a significant donation,” La Jolla Historical Society historian Carol Olten said. McDonald, a member of La Jolla Historical Society, said he set aside items over the years in an effort to add to the society\u2019s collection. “We are calling this the McDonald Collection,” Mishler said. Olten and Mishler said they hope to use some of the McDonald Collection inside the La Jolla Historical Society\u2019s next exhibit called “Merchants and Memories,” opening Feb. 6. Mishler and Olten learned that McDonald planned to donate the collection about one month ago, Olten said. When the boxes arrived, the duo perused them, Olten said. A collection of postcards from professional 1940s La Jolla photographer Lloyd Gillett caught Mishler\u2019s eye, he said. “It was the most surprising piece,” Mishler said. “Our local expert had never seen him before.” Organization officials researched Gillett, searching through Blue Books until Mishler said they found his Eads Street office listed. “He had an ad that he was a portrait photographer and now I\u2019m looking for anything on him,” Mishler said. Mishler opened one box, grabbing a stack of Jessop family letters. Although La Jolla Historical Society members looked through the letters, they hadn\u2019t thoroughly read them. Mishler shuffled through a stack of Jessop envelopes, choosing one letter written by a young lieutenant. The letter was written in 1918 from Lt. R. Jessop to J. Jessop. Mishler read the envelope, surmising the young soldier wrote the letter from France at the end of World War I. Mishler pointed to an emblem from the American Expeditionary Force. “They censored it, of course,” Mishler said. “It says January 1, 1919.” Mishler donned his reading glasses, carefully opened the envelope and pulled out papers dating from almost one century ago. He read an excerpt of a letter for the first time \u2014 a boy communicating at war\u2019s end to his family. “Dear dad and bunch \u2026 I finished chores, and chow … I couldn\u2019t help but \u2026,” Mishler read 90-year-old words as if they could have been written inside an e-mail. “There are eight San Diego boys here, Don McMillan, Gordon Wells, Cliff Tracy \u2026” Although Mishler said the society might not display the Jessop letters, he said other items such as Scripps family baby photos and books, including one with Ellen Browning Scripps\u2019 signature, may make the cut. The collection includes additional La Jolla Blue Books, silverware and memorabilia from La Jolla Country Club, and various nightclub matchbook covers. In every La Jolla collection, the Scripps family name exists. According to Mishler, La Jolla Historical Society would appreciate donations to fill in gaps from the 1950s through the late 1970s, in addition to the earlier items. La Jolla Historical Society is asking for volunteers for the February show. For more information, or to volunteer, call (858) 459-5335.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James McDonald, owner of Antiques and Art and one of La Jolla\u2019s main estate appraisers, recently donated about 10 boxes filled with priceless items such as La Jolla postcards, Scripps family photos and Jessop family letters to La Jolla Historical Society. “We\u2019re like kids in a candy store,” said Mike Mishler, archivist for the Historical […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":283461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"La Jollan donates priceless gems to Historical Society","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11560,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}