Lloyd Briggs (1863-1941) of Boston interrupted his studies at Harvard Medical School to travel to Hawaii for his health. He first visited California on his return from Honolulu in 1881, and his mother and sister joined him in San Francisco. Briggs earned his long-delayed medical degree in 1899 and soon became one of Boston's most distinguished psychiatrists. California and the West (1931) includes accounts of Briggs's several trips to the state. His first visit in 1881 took him to the Napa Valley, Calistoga, the mineral springs, geysers, and Vallejo; with highlights of San Francisco, including Garfield's funeral procession, Chinatown and Chinese exclusion, and local theatre. January 1882 sees the Briggses to Los Angeles for the winter and early spring. Later chapters cover Briggs's visits to the Chicago World's Fair (1893) and an 1895 trip to California via the Canadian Pacific Railroad, including a brief stop in San Francisco. This book continues with a description of a 1904 trip to the St. Louis World's Fair followed by a rail trip west to Yosemite and Yellowstone. Next comes an account of a brief 1920 visit to Santa Barbara and a longer trip west in 1921 that took Briggs to Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, Yosemite and Yellowstone, San Francisco, Monterey, and Santa Barbara; and another brief trip to Santa Barbara in 1923.