Visual Materials

Album of photographs recording a motorcar journey from Nebraska to central California in 1913

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Description: Fascinating photographic record of an early road trip from Nebraska through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and into California. A typed slip affixed to the front pastedown reads "'A fine trip with many hard knocks,' From Wausa, Nebr. to Turlock, Cal." There were four vehicles in the caravan, traversing unpaved tracks through the largely undeveloped Southwest, an uncommon feat at the time. The photographs include views of Starvation Peak, N.M.; a New Mexican Village; Springerville, Arizona with the Reagan Hotel; camp near Ft. Apache, Arizona; am automobile "hospital" at Dome City, Arizona; the Roosevelt Dam; a camp near San Diego, Cal.; etc.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1913
Call number: photCL 583
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Photograph album depicting travel in Central Mexico

Manuscripts

Album containing photographs taken during a 1905 train tour of Mexico. The photographs depict people and places throughout Mexico including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guanajuato, and Queretaro; there are also several photographs of the travelers and tour employees. The photographs are numbered and there is an index glued on the rear pastedown providing a description and location for all the photographs in the album. A souvenir brochure laid into the album indicates that the trip was a Raymond & Whitcomb Tour, which departed from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia on February 9, 1905. The brochure lists the names of the travelers.

mssHM 83832

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Western Journey photograph album and travel narrative

Visual Materials

A volume of photographs accompanied by a typescript travel narrative by Thomas Recknagel, a Cornell University undergraduate, documenting his travels by automobile and railroad in the summer of 1938. The bound volume is titled "Western Journey" and begins with snapshots taken during a train trip from Ithaca, New York, through Chicago, to San Francisco, where Recknagel met his parents and family friends to travel by car. They headed north through Oregon to British Columbia, where their trip included a cricket match in Vancouver; Victoria; a boat trip around the Gulf Islands; and a visit to the University of British Columbia, where Arthur Recknagel had taken a visiting lecturer position. The group took a return train trip through the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes, and across Canada to Port McNicoll, Ontario. There are two appendices of photographs from Recknagel's parents' trip in the beginning of the year, with several snapshots of Yosemite. The back of the volume also has 20 commercial photographs (3.5 x 5-inches) of Vancouver and the Fraser River area in British Columbia. Notable in the album are a series of photographs and narrative of the rescue of a man who had attempted suicide by jumping into the sea in San Francisco.

photCL 660

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Family photograph albums with scenes from Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, California, and New Mexico

Visual Materials

Two albums with 96 photographs of family portraits and scenes taken in Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, California, and New Mexico. The first volume contains images of domestic life and residential streets in Evanston, Illinois, in 1887-1888; a family vacation to Searsmont and Appleton, Maine, in the summer of 1889; and life in Schuyler, Nebraska, in 1890. The second album begins with a family trip through New Mexico and California from February to March 1890, then turns to scenes of domestic life and street scenes in Omaha, Nebraska, from 1890 to 1893. Among the locations are Santa Fe, New Mexico; Colton, California; Alhambra, California; Santa Barbara, California; San Francisco, California; Collinsville, California; and Council Bluffs, Iowa. While most of the photographs are arranged chronologically, the end of second volume contains some additional family photographs from 1888-1890. Both volumes contain a number of informal family portraits, with many taken outdoors. Notable images include interior views of the family's parlor and dining room, with family members seated for a meal, laundry drying outdoors, the interior of the Schuyler National Bank, a maypole, a President's Day celebration in 1891, and the display of silver wedding gifts. The two group portraits from Collinsville, California, include a Chinese man dressed in traditional clothing. One photograph in the second album created with flash photography is labeled "First Flash Light Picture ; New Years Eve Dec. 21, 1891", and there is also a self-portrait of the family photographer with a camera.

photCL 143

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Bell family photograph albums of travel in the American West

Visual Materials

A collection of 10 family photograph albums, 1908-1924, chiefly of trips to tourist sites and national parks in the Western United States, depicting travel by car, mountain camping, natural scenery, and hiking. Little is known about the Bell family, but most of the snapshots have captions identifying locations and dates. One album says photographs by J. O. Downing, and there is a postcard album with postcards sent from all over the country, approximately 1910s. Album contents: Vol. 1. Sierra Club trip, Glacier National Park, 1924 -- Vol. 2. My 1923 Outing: Southern Nevada - Southern Utah - Northern Arizona (with two-page narrative describing an 1,850-mile automobile trip) -- Vol. 3. Construction of Granite Reef Dam, 1908, on the Salt River, Arizona, with workers' encampment and residences. Some snapshots of Native Americans; town of Roosevelt; Roosevelt Power Canal; Tonto Basin -- Vol. 4. Mount Rainier trip, August 1921 -- Vol. 5. Red Rock Canyon (Mojave Desert, Nevada), 1919 -- Vol. 6. Sequoia Park, July 1918 -- Vol. 7. High Sierra, Sierra Nevada Mountains, 1919 -- Vol. 8. Camp High Sierra, 1923 -- Vol. 9. Scenery and people at a log cabin, horseback riding, around Pinecrest, Tuolumne County, California, 1910s? -- Vol. 10. Souvenir postcards sent from various places in the United States, 1910s?.

photCL 212

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Album of Photographic Postcards of Mexican border wars

Visual Materials

An album of photographic postcards pertaining to battles along the U.S.-Mexico border during the Mexican Revolution, approximately 1913-1916. Images include soldiers and officers, military camp life, views of artillery and trenches, Yaqui Indian soldiers, U.S. Army cavalry and refugee camps. Notable among the photographs are many views of dead soldiers and executions by hanging or firing squad. The compiler of this disbound album is unknown; photographs are mounted on paper album pages, and there are many handwritten captions on the pages. Dates written in captions range between 1913 and 1916, and several make reference to battles at Naco and Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico in 1913. Other locations represented include military encampments at Nogales, Arizona and Agua Prieta; a refugee camp at Douglas, Arizona; and a bird's-eye-view of the town of Columbus, New Mexico. Some photographs show child soldiers brandishing guns, civilian spectators viewing bodies, and one view of a U.S. airplane squadron. There are three photographs of Pancho Villa, including a group portrait with Gen. Rodolfo Fierro and Gen. Hugh Lenox Scott. Other portraits include Álvaro Obregón and officers; Yaqui leader Luis Bule; Francisco I. Madero; Pascual Orozco and General P.E. Calles. There is one view of the dead body of Enrique Portillo; other photographs of executed men are identified by nicknames or surnames only. Most of the photographic postcards are by Walter H. Horne (credit "W.H. Horne Co.") of El Paso, Texas, with several also by photographer Calvin ("Cal") Osbon of Douglas, Arizona. Osbon's photographs are notable for lengthy, descriptive captions imprinted in the images. The formats are almost all photographic postcards, except for a few smaller photographs and one larger group portrait labelled "Carranza Cabinet" showing Venustiano Carranza and others at Agua Prieta, May, 1914.

photCL 173

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Photograph album of Japanese American residents of California

Visual Materials

A photograph album dating from the early 1920s reflecting the life of an unidentified Japanese American family based in or near the agricultural community of Brawley, in Imperial County, California. "Brawley Bottling Works" crates are seen in an image of Japanese American farm workers, and other images include the interior of a canned goods store, agricultural workers and crops, farm trucks, and a man with plants in a greenhouse. The album contains snapshots of many different Japanese American men, women, and children, almost always dressed in fine Western clothing, seen in social gatherings in mostly rural settings, with some images of other locations. The album doesn't have any identifications, though recognizable locations in California are: the Sacramento Capitol building; the beach in Venice; a bookstore with a crate marked First Street, Los Angeles; and men posing with automobiles with license plates that say "CAL." Notable images are a group portrait of men clowning around while drinking beer, and ceremonial outdoor gatherings with American and Japanese flags flying. Photographs taken in Japan include a Christian church and school in the Tadanoumi area of Hiroshima Prefecture, and family groups with people wearing both Japanese and Western clothing.

photCL 647

Album of photographs recording a motorcar journey from Nebraska to central California in 1913

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Photograph album depicting travel in Central Mexico

Western Journey photograph album and travel narrative

Family photograph albums with scenes from Illinois, Maine, Nebraska, California, and New Mexico

Bell family photograph albums of travel in the American West

Album of Photographic Postcards of Mexican border wars

Photograph album of Japanese American residents of California