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Visual Materials

Robinson Jeffers family photograph collection


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    Robinson Jeffers family photograph collection

    Visual Materials

    A collection of photographs of American poet Robinson Jeffers, his family and friends, and his home he called Tor House, in Carmel, California. The bulk of the images date from approximately 1919 to 1940 and are chiefly black-and-white prints, 8 x 10 inches and smaller, of Jeffers, his wife, Una, their twin sons Donnan and Garth, and a few friends: George Sterling, C.E.S. Wood, and Blanche Matthias. The photographs belonged to Matthias, and are mostly personal, informal images taken at or around Tor House, the distinctive stone house Jeffers built on an open stretch of coast. Other items in the collection are: four color snapshots of Jeffers' grandchildren, the latest dated 1969; two copies of sketched portraits of Jeffers by M. A. Werboff; and a keepsake folder about Tor House from the series "Homes of California Authors" (Book Club of California, 1967), with an essay by Theodore M. Lilienthal.

    photCL 257

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    Robinson Jeffers Tor House roof shingle

    Manuscripts

    Roof shingle from Robinson Jeffer's Tor House in Carmel, California. With note from "Mary" to Blanche Matthias giving her the shingle as a gift.

    mssHM 84213

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    Shorb Family Photograph Collection

    Visual Materials

    This collection of photographs centers around the family of James De Barth Shorb (1842-1896) and his "San Marino" ranch in the San Gabriel Valley, California. Views of Shorb's ranch include the house, grounds, reservoirs, ranch workers, horses, and nearby Mission San Gabriel. There are also photographs of Shorb's family home in Maryland, his parents, Dr. James Aloysius Shorb (1798-1867) and Margaret McMeal Shorb, siblings and other Maryland family. After moving to California, Shorb married Maria de Jesus "Sue" Wilson, the daughter of B. D. Wilson, and they had eleven children. All appear in the collection except "Benito" (1876-1877). The others are seen in photographs as children and some also as adults, with their spouses and children: Maria Ynez Shorb White Buck (1868-1933); James De Barth "Barty" Shorb Jr. (1870-1907); Margaret Nina Shorb (1871-1875); Edith Octavia Shorb Steele (1872-1954); Ramona Yorba Shorb Murtaugh (1874-1921); Joseph Campbell Shorb (1878-1919); Ethel Rebecca Shorb (1880-1959); Donald McMeal Shorb (1883-1933); Norbert Newlands Shorb (1887-1951); and Bernardo Yorba Shorb (1888-1928). [Please note the name "McMeal" is also sometimes spelled "McNeal".] There are also photographs of female students and nuns at Ramona Convent, Alhambra, and Convent of Holy Names, Oakland, California; Shorb family at picnics and recreational events; and Shorb family friends including Edward L. Watkins, his wife Mary Stone Watkins and children; Charles Frederick Holder; Grace Mellus; Katharine Mellus; Anne Wilson Patton; Eleanor Martin (1826-1928); and Susan Thornton Glassell Patton Smith. Other people included in collection: James King Steele and son James Shorb Steele (husband and son of Edith Shorb); Adeline Day Shorb and children Mary Day and Yorba (wife and children of Donald McMeal Shorb); Daniel McMeal; Mary B. Shorb (wife of Norbert Shorb); Harriet Shorb (later called Sister Anne Alexis); Julia Shorb; Sophie Shorb; Dr. Ferdie Chatard and his wife, Josie and son, Robert (friends of Shorbs in Maryland), Ethelbert Dowlen (viticulturist); Ike Cooper; and Taylor Scott White. A disbound photograph album of 38 pages contains snapshots dating from 1895-1896 of Shorb ranch, family members, Lake Vineyard, Catalina Island, camping and hunting, picnics and Shorb family friends including the Rice family, Richard I. Howitt, J. H. Gilmour, E.M. Tiernan and members of the Patton family. There are also some views of Chinese peddlers, Chinese workers and African American children at Shorb Ranch. Other items of note: Photograph of an African American man standing by horse and carriage at Shorb home in Maryland (item 41); a studio portrait of a Chinese man named Liu Tian written in Chinese (known as "Hen" by the Shorbs) by Fong Get Photo Studio, San Francisco (item 85); and a Chinese man, possibly an employee, known as "Sing" (item 86), who also appears in the photograph album (Box 8). Some of the loose photographs are copy prints from negatives in other Huntington collections including the Patton and Holladay collections.

    photCL 284

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    Benjamin Davis Wilson family photograph collection

    Visual Materials

    A collection of photographs of Benjamin Davis "Don Benito" Wilson (1811-1878) and family members, and a few photographs of his Lake Vineyard residence in the San Gabriel Valley, California. The majority of photographs are studio portraits of individuals and family groups, approximately 1860s-1917, many of which are cabinet cards and cartes-de-visite. The primary subjects are Wilson, his second wife, Margaret S. Hereford (d.1898), and Wilson's children from his two marriages: Maria de Jesus "Sue" Wilson (Shorb), John B. Wilson (1846-1870), Ruth Wilson, and Ann ("Nan" or "Annie") Wilson. Others pictured in the collection are: Medora ("Dora") Hereford; Edward Sublette Hereford; Thomas Hereford; Mary Stone, Victor Yorba, Don Bernardo Yorba (photograph of a drawing), and a young man named [A. S.?] Johnston Jr. (photograph of a drawing). Of particular note in the collection is a post-mortem photograph of Maria de Jesus "Sue" Wilson Shorb, 1917. There are a few portraits of unidentified women, including an [African American?] woman in a photograph by George W. Sittler (Springfield, Missouri). Members of the Wilson and Shorb famillies are seen on the porch of the Lake Vineyard house, approximately 1875, and there are two views of furnished rooms in the house. Photographers represented are the Elite Gallery (Payne, Stanton & Co.), Frank G. Schumacher, James D. Westervelt and Valentin Wolfenstein (Los Angeles); and Bradley & Rulofson, G. D. Morse, and Louis Thors (San Francisco).

    photCL 283

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    Letchworth family photograph collection

    Visual Materials

    This collection consists of pages of a disbound photograph album containing 32 various-sized snapshots related to travel by the Letchworth Family in Southern California in 1906. The images, accompanied by handwritten captions, include views of Eagle Rock, Pasadena, Las Casitas in Ventura, and the Miramar Inn in Santa Barbara, California, as well as four images of "Mr. Howard and his Burrows coming from Death Valley." The images include landscape views of Southern California canyons, hillsides, and ranch lands; horseback riding, hotel buildings, and two Native Americans. The images are mounted on seven disbound scrapbook pages from a photograph album. 15 of the images are 3 3/4 x 12 inch panoramas. The collection also contains one loose 6 x 8 inch gelatin silver print showing members of an audience in a grandstand during a March 1906 horse show in Pasadena (Item 33).

    photCL 540

  • Image not available

    Letchworth family photograph collection

    Visual Materials

    This collection consists of pages of a disbound photograph album containing 32 various-sized snapshots related to travel by the Letchworth Family in Southern California in 1906. The images, accompanied by handwritten captions, include views of Eagle Rock, Pasadena, Las Casitas in Ventura, and the Miramar Inn in Santa Barbara, California, as well as four images of "Mr. Howard and his Burrows coming from Death Valley." The images include landscape views of Southern California canyons, hillsides, and ranch lands; horseback riding, hotel buildings, and two Native Americans. The images are mounted on 7 disbound 10 x 12 inch scrapbook pages from a photograph album. 15 of the images are 3 3/4 x 12 inch panoramas. The collection also contains one loose 6 x 8 inch gelatin silver print showing members of an audience in a grandstand during a March 1906 horse show in Pasadena (Item 33).

    photCL 540