Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
"The Scenic Route Of The World" Mount Lowe and its Wonderful Railway
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Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
The B.D. Jackson Collection of Negatives and Photographs consists of 804 4 x 5 in. and 8 x 10 in. glass plate negatives, 1782 film negatives (including stereo negatives), 2302 black and white photographs (including stereos, postcards, and photograph albums), and related manuscript and ephemeral materials, 1903-1950s (bulk 1920s-1930s), that provide a visual history of the growth of many of the San Gabriel Valley's suburban communities, a survey of many of California's (and the western United States') notable landscapes, and an overview of Jackson's career as a landscape and scenic view photographer.
photCL 332
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Rare Books
This collection consists of railroad photographs, ephemera and publications, 1829-2010, with the bulk of material from the early- to mid-20th century. The focus is chiefly locomotives and trains (steam and diesel) of major railroads and interurban electric railways of the United States and Canada. Also represented in the collection are smaller shortline and narrow-gauge railroads; other foreign railroads; streetcars (or trolleys); and burgeoning light rail and subway systems. Most of the ephemera is printed material produced by railroad companies for promotional and business purposes, such as annual reports, brochures, route maps and guides, timetables, tickets, dining menus, stationery, stock certificates, bond coupons and other items. There are also many city and state tourist guidebooks describing sights along rail routes or promoting land available for farming, mining or home-building across the United States. Also included are items produced for or by railroad employees, such as instruction and safety manuals, train orders, freight bills and in-house newsletters. Railroad industry publications, statistics and reports can be found in the American Association of Railroads files, which are part of Donald Duke's subject files on railroad-related topics. Throughout the ephemera files are newspaper and journal clippings, often from scarce small press and trade publications such as The Railway and Engineering Review, The Railroad Gazette, The Santa Fe Magazine, The Western Railroader, Railway Age and others. In addition to railroad history, other topics of social and cultural historical interest in the ephemera are: Depictions of African Americans and Native Americans in mass-marketed train travel brochures. There are many examples that reflect American cultural and class stereotypes in the early- to mid-20th century. Selected files are noted in the container list. Occupational safety and health: See railroad worker safety manuals and accident prevention literature in ephemera files. History of food and drink: See numerous dining and beverage menus throughout Railroads and Foreign Railroads ephemera files (not always noted in container list). History of graphic design and typography: See examples of early- and mid- 20th century popular styles in printed ephemera throughout collection. Photographs and negatives: The photographs depict locomotives, freight and passenger trains, logging railroads, electric interurbans and streetcars across the United States. This was primarily a publishers file of ready-for-press photographs, which are almost all 8 x 10-inch black-and-white prints, made approximately 1950s-1980s. The photographs were made chiefly by various amateur train photographers, including Donald Duke, but most are uncredited. There are some copy prints (photographs of other photographs), and a few original photographs from the late 19th-early 20th century. Some photographs have locations and dates written on the back, but many are unidentified other than the name of the railroad. There are a few files on Ward Kimball (1914-2002), one of the original animators for Walt Disney Studios and an avid rail enthusiast. There are some photographs, biographical materials, and a file on his personal backyard narrow-gauge steam railroad, Grizzly Flats Railroad, in San Gabriel, California.
645950
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Visual Materials
A set of 52 card photographs by photographer William Henry Hill documenting the construction, opening, and early years of the Mount Lowe Railroad in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, California, in the 1890s. Views include mountain scenery and waterfalls; the building of the incline and other portions of the railway, with images of construction workers; people at building sites on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe prior to and during construction; groups of people at camps or on trails in the mountains, sometimes on horses or mules and on snow-covered ground; winding machinery and cable; decorated electric cars filled with passengers at the opening ceremony, July 4, 1893; the first passenger cars leaving Mountain Junction in Altadena for Rubio Canyon and ascending the great incline; Rubio Canyon and Rubio Glen, Castle Rock, Castle Canyon, Eaton Canyon, and Grand Canyon; a hotel annex on Echo Mountain; the original mule corral on Echo Mountain; a reception of the California Press and Editorial Association at the residence of Professor Thaddeus Lowe; and the Pasadena Board of Trade Directors arriving at the top of a snowy Mount Lowe in January, 1897. Also included are photographic reproductions of a drawing of the Echo Mountain Hotel, of a mechanical drawing showing the arrangement of winding gear on an incline, and of a map of the site and environs. People of regional and national significance who appear in various pictures include Professor Thaddeus Lowe; chief engineer David J. Macpherson; Theodore Parker Lukens; Judge Benjamin Eaton; George Wharton James; Clarence S. Martin; and Harvard College president Charles William Eliot and party, on occasion of Eliot's visit to Pasadena and Mount Wilson, April 7-8, 1892. Notably, there are at least two photographs that include images of Jason Brown, a son of abolitionist John Brown (Items 19 and 19A). Many photographs have photograph numbers and typed or handwritten captions on the image from the original negative.
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