Visual Materials

Photograph album of California with soldiers at training camp

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Description: A photograph album compiled by an unidentified person containing snapshots of San Francisco, San Diego, and mountain scenery (presumably the High Sierras). Views show soldiers in group portraits and in formation at a training camp (possibly the Presidio in San Francisco?); camping in the wilderness; a large dam; Chutes Zoological Promenade and Cliff House in San Francisco; and one view of people riding a sightseeing trolley in San Diego. A young man and woman are in several views. One loose photograph shows a lighted night street scene by San Francisco photographer W. E. Worden. There are no identifications in the album.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: approximately 1880s-1890s
Call number: photCL 345
Provenance: Provenance unknown, in library as of 1991.

[Photograph album of scenes of California, Colorado, and Utah]

Visual Materials

Photograph album containing commercial images of scenic views of natural landscapes, tourist destinations including hotels and landmarks, and town streets, mostly in California, as well as some in Colorado and Utah. Photographed locales include San Francisco, Yosemite, San Diego and Coronado, Denver, and Salt Lake City. 27 photographers are by Isaiah W. Taber of San Francisco; other photographers represented are Maude, Slocum, Reed, W.H. Fletcher, and Johnson. The album compiler is unidentified.

photCL 419

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Photograph Album of California Missions and Catholic Churches

Visual Materials

This photograph album is made up of early 20th century photographs of eight California missions, in both ruined and repaired states. The missions that are depicted in the album are San Luis Rey, Santa Ines, San Fernando Rey, San Miguel, San Francisco Dolores, San Luis Obispo, San Gabriel, San Juan Capistrano, and San Carlos Borromeo. Other photographs also show San Antonio de Pala Asistencia, the Church of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels (also known as Plaza Church), and the Royal Presidio Chapel. Two photographs depict people alongside the missions: photograph (8) shows people going into the Mission San Francisco de Asís and photograph (15) shows two Native American children at Mission San Fernando Rey. One photograph of particular interest is that of a group of Native American school children with three Catholic nuns, who presumably may be their teachers. They are standing in front of an unidentified church building. Some of the photographs are faded or are peeling off the album pages and are bent. Charles Ironmonger is the only photographer that has been identified as a contributor to this album; no other photographers have not been identified, and the compiler of this album is unknown.

photCL 455

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[Soldiers in formation in military camp] ; [Soldiers in camp with rifles] [2 photographs]

Visual Materials

A personal photograph album of 104 images with handwritten captions chiefly depicting Chester A. Thomas (1874-1920) and Thomas family members between 1892 and 1898 in mining camps in Nevada (pages 1-29); at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California (pages 30-33); visiting Harvard University and Cambridge, Massachusetts (pages 38-49); and at Camp Merritt at the Presidio, San Francisco, in 1898 (pages 33-37 and 50-65). The album includes 20 cyanotype photographs (12.5 x 16.5 cm) of the mining camps in Virginia City and Sutro, Nevada (where Thomas's father, Charles Thomas, was superintendent of the Sutro tunnel), including: mining equipment, miners, locomotive cars, interior views of the mine shaft, buildings and mules. Some of the images are of Camp Merritt, at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, where California volunteers assembled in May-June 1898 for transport to the Philippines during the Spanish American War. Thomas, a member of Company K of the United States Cavalry Volunteers, is depicted as well as other soldiers, including members of the 51st Iowa Volunteers.

photCL 144

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Photograph album of U.S. Army camp and military parades in Northern California

Visual Materials

An album of 44 photographs mounted on heavy boards with several images related to soldiers based in Northern California around 1898. The album begins with views of Boulder Creek and the town of Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains, followed by views of San Francisco, including the Cliff House (the second building, which was built in 1896), the Ferry Building and ferries in the bay, and a military parade of soldiers marching down a city street in San Francisco. There are several bird's-eye-views of an unidentified U.S. Army camp with tents, fort buildings, and images of soldiers drilling, probably in the San Francisco Bay area. Another patriotic military parade is shown in a small town, with a replica of the battleship Maine (which was sunk in 1898), American flags, bicyclists, and children dressed as sailors. The back of the album contains family photographs with portraits of women in long dresses posed inside a house, and an older couple outside a gingerbread style Victorian house with a garden.

photCL 232

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Photograph Album of California and the Pacific Coast

Visual Materials

This album contains typical commercial photographs of the towns and scenery of California, Oregon and Washington dating from the 1890s. Of note are early views of San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Tacoma, and Seattle. There are also views of California missions and coastal landscapes. The Oregon photographs are of scenery only. Photographs of California include San Diego; Casa de Estudillo in Old Town San Diego; Mission San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and Santa Barbara; Santa Barbara; San Luis Obispo; Confederate general James Longstreet's Los Angeles home; the Bellevue Terrace Hotel; various Los Angeles homes; Pasadena; Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin's Santa Anita ranch; San Francisco city scenes; and wilderness en route to Oregon. Oregon photographs show images of the Columbia River; Mt. Hood; Latourell Falls; Multnomah Falls; and nature scenes. Photographs of Washington state include Tacoma; Green River; Native Americans from an unidentified tribe; Seattle; and a portrait of Angeline, daughter of Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe. Twenty-six of the pictures in this album were photographed by Isaiah West Taber and twenty-two were photographed by W.H.J. and Company. It may be that William H. Jeffers created those twenty-two photographs, as he was active in California during this time period. Other photographers who contributed to this album include Thomas H. Rutter, Charles B. Talbot, and Boyd & Braas (William F. Boyd and George H. Braas). The album spine is embossed with the title "California and Pacific Coast" and the photographs are mostly mounted double-sided. The initials of an unknown individual, "E.B.R.", and the year 1897 are also embossed on the album's spine.

photCL 94

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Album of photographs of the American West, especially California and Colorado

Visual Materials

An album with 38 commercial photographs of the western United States, focusing especially on California and Colorado. Views of California show Los Angeles, Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, Pasadena, San Francisco, the Mount Lowe Railway, Santa Monica, San Diego, Long Beach, San Joaquin Valley, Santa Anita, the Hotel del Coronado, and San Diego Bay. Images of Colorado show Pike's Peak, the Garden of the Gods, Mountain of the Holy Cross, Curecanti Needle and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and a high bridge near Georgetown. Other places that appear briefly in the album are Yellowstone National Park; Portland, Oregon; and ice floes in the Northern Pacific Ocean. Many of the photographs of California are by Best & Co, some are by I. W. Taber, and a view of the Hotel del Coronado is by Judd Photo (Item 22).

photCL 160

Photograph album of California with soldiers at training camp

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[Photograph album of scenes of California, Colorado, and Utah]

Photograph Album of California Missions and Catholic Churches

[Soldiers in formation in military camp] ; [Soldiers in camp with rifles] [2 photographs]

Photograph album of U.S. Army camp and military parades in Northern California

Photograph Album of California and the Pacific Coast

Album of photographs of the American West, especially California and Colorado