Manuscripts

James Mervin Parker photographs related to Mount Wilson

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Description: James Mervin Parker, III, took these black and white photographs while he was working on his astrophysics Ph.D. thesis for Caltech at Mount Wilson. The group includes photographs of Mount Wilson Observatory and the surrounding mountains. There is also one photograph of San Gabriel Valley at night.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1950-1952.
Call number: mssHM 82541 (a-g)
Creator: Parker, James Mervin (1927-2014)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Jamie Lee Pricer, December 2015.
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Mount Wilson Photograph Collection

Visual Materials

This small collection contains 17 commercial card photographs taken by Stiffler & Gill around 1896 promoting outdoor recreational activities and the natural scenery around Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. Many of the scenes include historic camp sites including Strain's and Martin's camps, often depicting people amid tents and engaged in recreational activities. Each of the photographs has the title "On Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road" stamped on the mount. Approximate collection date devised by cataloger; Frank M. Stiffler and R. B. Gill only appear as partners in the 1896 Los Angeles City Directory. Item titles based on handwritten notes on photograph versos; cataloger-supplied descriptions are in square brackets.

photCL 193

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Photographs of South Pasadena, Mount Wilson, and Mount Lowe Railroad

Visual Materials

Consists of ten photographs. Subjects include Major H. N. Rust, W. L. Hardison's home, Mount Wilson, and Mount Lowe. Areas of focus on Mount Wilson are Strain's Camp and Mount Wilson Observatory. Areas of focus on Mount Lowe include the railroad, Rubio Canon, Rubio Pavilion, the Mount Lowe Searchlight, and the Great Incline.

photPF 220-229

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Wilson's Peak, Mount Lowe, and other California photographs

Visual Materials

A group of miscellaneous photographs including views of the Mount Lowe railway, cabins, and a cabin and donkey at Wilson's Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains. Also: Ladies concert band in Crescent City (1910); Hotel Palomares, Pomona (1890s); First Methodist Church, Pomona (1888?); and a copy photograph of a prospecting party with miner's tools in an unidentified town.

photPF 2700-2709

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Correspondence, Zarro-Zwaan; Mount Wilson closure correspondence file; documents; ephemera; and photographs

Manuscripts

The collection deals primarily with the professional activities of Olin C. Wilson, who was most active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s. Wilson corresponded frequently with astronomers from a variety of universities in the United States and abroad, and the collection is representative of the deeply international and collaborative nature of astronomical and astrophysical research in the second half of the twentieth century. It also contains valuable and insightful material related to the schism between Mount Wilson and CalTech in the 1970s and 1980s, and the near-demise of Mount Wilson during that decade.

mssWilson papers

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"On Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road." [View of mountains]

Visual Materials

photCL 193

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"On Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road." [View of mountains]

Visual Materials

photCL 193

James Mervin Parker photographs related to Mount Wilson

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Mount Wilson Photograph Collection

Photographs of South Pasadena, Mount Wilson, and Mount Lowe Railroad

Wilson's Peak, Mount Lowe, and other California photographs

Correspondence, Zarro-Zwaan; Mount Wilson closure correspondence file; documents; ephemera; and photographs

"On Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road." [View of mountains]

"On Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road." [View of mountains]