Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A group of emigrants from the United States who set off across the continent for the Mexican territory of California in 1846, the Donner Party became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains that winter, with some eventually resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. The Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress holds a number of items related to the notorious disaster: from nineteenth-century guidebooks for Americans making their way overland to California to facsimile editions of survivor's letters and diaries. The Donner Party's harrowing tale, as told by items in the Rare Books and Special Collections division, is the story of a small group of people—and a continent—on the brink of enormous change.
For transcript and more information, visit loc.gov/item/video-12050
A group of emigrants from the United States who set off across the continent for the Mexican territory of California in 1846, the Donner Party became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains that winter, with some eventually resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. The Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress holds a number of items related to the notorious disaster: from nineteenth-century guidebooks for Americans making their way overland to California to facsimile editions of survivor's letters and diaries. The Donner Party's harrowing tale, as told by items in the Rare Books and Special Collections division, is the story of a small group of people—and a continent—on the brink of enormous change.
For transcript and more information, visit loc.gov/item/video-12050
