Theodore Henry Hittell's The California Academy of Sciences: A narrative history, 1853-1906 (Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences)

from the Preface:This is indeed a long-delayed publication. Theodore Henry Hittell wrote a historical sketch and chronology of the first fifty years of the California Academy of Sciences, 1853 until 1906, which was in press and destroyed at the time of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. Fortunately, Hittell's manuscript survived, but in the urgency of rebuilding the museum in Golden Gate Park it was misplaced and "lost" for many years. It was at last rediscovered when records were moved to the new Cowell Hall in 1969. The manuscript was transcribed and typed and proved to be a most valuable history of the foundation and first half century of the oldest scientific society in the western United States.