Visual Materials

Echo Brand

Description: Image of a cable car at the Rubio Pavilion Station with passengers in an open cable car ascending the Echo Mountain Cable Incline.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1890-1900
Call number: ephJLC_CIT_000194
Creator: Last, Jay T(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Jay T. Last, 2005.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Passengers on incline railway to Echo Mountain

Visual Materials

Passengers on a portion of the Mount Lowe Railway cable car incline to Echo Mountain located in the San Gabriel mountains above Pasadena, California. A sign at right says "Echo Mountain 3500 feet above sea level" and the car says "Echo" across the front. A Pacific Electric streetcar is also seen at right. The domed building in the distance is the Mount Lowe Observatory with a telescope on Echo Mountain.

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Mount Lowe Railway Construction Photographs

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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Railway passengers to Echo Mountain and other Southern California views

Visual Materials

Four photographs adhered to an album page. The photographs show, from top left: Mission ruins, unidentified location; bells near wooden church building, Old Town, San Diego; passengers in the Mount Lowe Railway mountain incline, coming to Echo Mountain, located in the San Gabriel mountains above Pasadena, California (sign at top of photograph says "Echo Mountain"); two palm trees and man in horse and buggy.

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Incline - Mt. Lowe Railroad

Visual Materials

View of cable car and passengers at the base of Mt. Lowe incline.

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Car on circular bridge, Mt. Lowe

Visual Materials

Passengers on car on circular bridge, Echo Mountain House and Observatory to the left.

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Stiefel family papers

Manuscripts

This small group consists of three photographs, one letter, and two military records related to the Stiefel family from 1862-1918. HM 83912 (a): Reinhard Stiefel's appointment as 5th Corporal of Company E of the 6th Regiment of Minnesota Volunteer and discharge as Sergeant, 1862-1865. HM 83912 (b): photograph of Reinhard Stiefel in his sergeant's uniform, approximately 1864. HM 83912 (c): photograph of Stiefel family and other passengers on or near the "Rubio" incline car at the Echo Mountain station in Los Angeles County, California, 1913. HM 83912 (d): photograph of Armistice Day celebration on Nicollet Street and 7th Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 11, 1918. HM 83912 (e): letter from a World War I Canadian soldier in France with the initials L.A.C. to Florence Fried of Toronto, Ontario. In the letter, they thank Fried for a care package received in a field hospital, December 25, 1918.

mssHM 83912 (a-e)

Echo Brand

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Passengers on incline railway to Echo Mountain

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Stiefel family papers