Visual Materials

Subseries C. The Wright Family Album

Description: Photographs depict the San Gabriel Mission, the San Gabriel Mountains, and the William Money octagonal adobe in San Gabriel; the Mount Lowe railway; people outside of residences; El Molino Viejo (or Old Mill) in San Marino; the Hotel La Pintoresca (or Painter Hotel) and the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena; beach scenes; and Sugar Loaf at Santa Catalina Island.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: approximately 1899-1910
Call number: photCL 222
Creator: Wright (Family)(Opens in new tab)
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Subseries A. The Wrights in 1899

Visual Materials

This volume describes a vacation taken by the Wright family and friends on Santa Catalina Island, where they stayed at a friend's cottage. Photographs depict the steamer on which the family traveled, the S. S. Hermosa; birds-eye views of Avalon Bay; interior and exterior views of the cottage; beach scenes and fishing trips; people including Walter S., Bernice, Howard, Catherine, and Adaline Wright and friends; Sugar Loaf; camping excursions, including a trip by Howard W. Wright with a group to Eagles' Nest Canyon; and Howard and Adaline Wright in a cave. The volume also includes a photograph of Walter S. Wright at work in his study and a few photographs of family trips to Santa Anita Canyon and Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains; some of the photographs were taken by commercial photographers. Additionally, at the end of the volume is a two-page letter from a young Howard to Walter S. Wright describing a trip collecting birds' eggs and a children's drawing by an unidentified person.

photCL 222

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Subseries A. The Wright Family: Home and Travels

Visual Materials

Photographs depict the Wright family home on North Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena; winter and summer views of Mount Wilson, including images of members of the Wright family and of Charles Dewey, Mrs. William R. Staats, James H. Holmes, W. L. Wotkynes, members of the Bart Club, and others; trips to Avalon Bay and the city of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, with images of fish drying on racks, children dressing up as Indians, and people on boats, including the Seabird and other yachts; a pack trip on Santa Catalina Island in 1900; birds and bird collecting, including during the Wright family's trip to the Channel Islands in 1909; the Tournament of Roses in 1906; a tour of Mexico in 1907 including Puebla, Oaxaca, Ocatlan, and Mitla, with images of markets and street scenes; journeys on the Seabird to San Clemente Island in 1908 and to the Coronados Islands in Mexico in 1908 and 1910, with images of birds, boats, and seascapes; the Catalina Island race in 1910; and a pack trip to the High Sierras. Photographs also include depictions of Haley's Comet, taken with a telephoto lens; Andrew Carnegie and Dr. George Ellery Hale on Mount Wilson in 1910; and a nighttime view from Mount Wilson of Pasadena, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes, San Pedro, and Santa Catalina Island.

photCL 222

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Subseries D. A Summer Cruise

Visual Materials

This volume, a reprint given to Howard W. Wright by Hancock Banning, Jr., describes a three-week cruise on the yacht La Paloma taken by Captain Hancock Banning, First Mate N. W. Bell, Second Mate William R. Staats, Steward Paul Bolin, passenger George S. Patton, and two seamen, identified only as John and Hanse. Photographs show people on board the yacht and on board another yacht, the Ramona out of San Francisco, which accompanied them as they sailed towards Point Loma and San Diego and then back again to the Channel Islands; interior views of La Paloma; views of Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara Islands; Avalon Bay; and Sugar Loaf.

photCL 222

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Subseries B. Pasadena, Santa Catalina Island, San Gabriel Mountains, and Mexico

Visual Materials

Photographs depict family trips to Santa Catalina Island, with views of the island and of Avalon; hiking, fishing, camping, and scenes from a house party; interior and exterior views of the family's Pasadena residence and of people, including an African American man sitting with a boy by a garden plot and children playing outside; the Tournament of Roses parade in 1902; and trips to Mount Wilson and the San Gabriel Mountains, including images of parties at Martin's Camp and Henninger Flats, the Mount Wilson Hotel and cottages, and people on trails. Some of the photographs of Mount Wilson, including a view of the Mount Wilson Hotel with Walter S. Wright and James H. Holmes, were taken by William R. Staats. Photographs of Mexico depict a train and a town new San Jorges Bay; people, including women washing clothes in a river; the construction of a state prison; people boarding a train to Guaymas; views of Guaymas and Guaymas Bay; and scenes from a trip to Hermosillo taken by Walter S. Wright and William R. Staats, with views of the Palacio, the mayor's home, street scenes, and ruins of a church. A few photographs of the Palacio evidence conflict with Yaqui Indians, including one image showing Yaqui arms in a courtyard and others of soldiers. Several photographs depict indigenous people, including one image of Walter S. Wright looking at women sitting on a street corner, captioned "Street."

photCL 222

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Howard W. Wright Family Collection of Photographs

Visual Materials

This collection contains approximately 1520 photographs in 11 volumes, comprising four journal accounts written by Walter Savage Wright from 1899-1901 and 7 photograph albums compiled by Walter S. Wright and his son, Howard Walter Wright. The journal accounts contain approximately 210 photographs and the photograph albums approximately 1310 photographs, dating from approximately 1878-1930, chiefly 1896-1917. The photographers are chiefly unidentified, though it is assumed that most were taken by members of the Wright family, chiefly Walter S. Wright and Howard Walter Wright; some photographs were taken by commercial photographers. The journal accounts, entitled The Wrights in 1899 (Volume I); How Thompson Shows his Mines (1899, Volume II); About that Mexican Trip: How they Landed the Concession for the Railroad for Exploiting Los Pintos Mines (1900, Volume III); and A Summer Cruise (1901, Volume IV), are typewritten, with photographs pasted in to accompany the text; the titles are printed on the volumes. Topics addressed in the journals include the Wrights' family life in Pasadena; Walter S. Wright's journeys to Sonora, Mexico, with business partners to secure a railroad concession for the Los Pintos Mines; and a cruise taken by the Wright family to the Channel Islands in 1899, so that son Howard W. Wright could engage in bird collecting and photography. The photograph albums depict the Wrights' life and residence in Pasadena; the family's travels to Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Catalina Island, and other areas of California; trips aboard the yachts Seabird and Siwash to the Channel Islands; Baja, Mexico; and and other destinations, both for family vacations and for Howard Walter Wright's exploits as a bird collector and birder; Howard W. Wright's years as a student at Stanford University (1911-1915) and his tours in Japan, China, and the Philippines during his service in the Navy during World War I. Titles for the photograph albums were devised by the cataloger.

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Subseries G. Miscellaneous photographs

Visual Materials

Photographs depict a fire in Avalon in November, 1915, including views of destruction in the city and of the Hotel Metropole before and after its chimneys were destroyed; images of destruction of the Lincoln Kindergarten and of Howard W. Wright's garage from a storm described by the caption as the "Pasadena Cyclone of 1917"; a portrait of Throop High School's class of 1910, with a listing of the students, including Howard W. Wright; and reproductions of images of Avalon from September 1888 and between 1894-1896 and of San Pedro from approximately 1878, taken by J. B. Banning, Senior. Some of the prints are reproductions of photographs owned by Hancock Banning, Junior, who wrote extensive captions on versos detailing the history of the areas depicted and describing the contents of the images.

photCL 222

Subseries C. The Wright Family Album

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You might also be interested in

Subseries A. The Wrights in 1899

Subseries A. The Wright Family: Home and Travels

Subseries D. A Summer Cruise

Subseries B. Pasadena, Santa Catalina Island, San Gabriel Mountains, and Mexico

Howard W. Wright Family Collection of Photographs

Subseries G. Miscellaneous photographs