Visual Materials
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Alson Clark collection of photographs
Visual Materials
This collection contains 1289 photographs, chiefly gelatin silver prints, reflecting the professional life and travels of American impressionist painter Alson Skinner Clark, some taken by Alson Clark and some by commercial and unidentified photographers, from approximately 1889-1939. The collection chiefly comprises portraits of Alson and his wife Atta Medora Clark, many showing Clark painting en plein air; photographs depicting their studio home in the Arroyo Seco area of Pasadena, California; views of Clark's work, including murals at the Pasadena Playhouse, the Polytechnic Elementary School, and the First Trust and Savings Bank in Pasadena; and images of Alson Clark's travels, both with and without Medora Clark, to Thousand Islands, New York; throughout the Southwestern United States; Mexico; and, to a lesser extent, in Europe and Canada. The collection also includes photograph albums depicting the aftermath of World War I in Europe and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in San Diego, and photographs depicting various locations in India, China, and Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; many of these appear to be reproductions and are curling. The photographs of the Southwestern United States comprise chiefly landscape views of California locations including La Jolla and the desert environs of Palm Springs, Panamint City, and the Owens Valley, and also depict Western scenes and locations including Mother Lode towns in California and Nevada; other Southwest states; men on horses; rodeos; and Indians, including several in various poses. Depictions of Mexico comprise chiefly street and market scenes in Taxco, Mexico City, Mazatlán, Punta Banda, and other locations, many showing indigenous people; churches and other buildings, including ruins; dwellings; and landscape views. Several of the photographs show people in camping parties, some depicting painters, including Clark, at work. Photographs of Canada depict chiefly street scenes and dwellings in the city and province of Québec and activities of the timber industry, including ships and timber hauling operations. Photographs of Europe depict chiefly village street and market scenes in Brittany, France and, to a lesser extent, in Dalmatia, Croatia; the collection also includes a photograph album depicting chiefly France and also Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the aftermath of World War I. This collection is directly related to the Alson Skinner Clark papers, 1870-1971, bulk 1890-1940, held by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., a portion of which was also donated by Alson Clark, Jr.
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Series III. Mexico
Visual Materials
Includes photographs depicting markets, street scenes, street vendors, churches, indigenous people, and villages, as well as images depicting Mazatlán; Mexico City and environs; Taxco and Cuernavaca, including views of the Santa Prisca church and of cockfights; and Punta Banda, in which several photographs show people camping and painting. Many of the photographs are very small snapshots, 7 x 9 cm (2 x 3.5 in.) or smaller, taken by unidentified photographers; examples are in Box 6, Sleeves 1-3 and 6.
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Series IV. Views of Asia, Europe, and Canada
Visual Materials
This collection contains 1289 photographs, chiefly gelatin silver prints, reflecting the professional life and travels of American impressionist painter Alson Skinner Clark, some taken by Alson Clark and some by commercial and unidentified photographers, from approximately 1889-1939. The collection chiefly comprises portraits of Alson and his wife Atta Medora Clark; photographs depicting their studio home in the Arroyo Seco area of Los Angeles County, California; views of Clark's work, including murals at the Pasadena Playhouse, the Polytechnic Elementary School, and the First Trust and Savings Bank in Pasadena; and images of Alson Clark's travels, both with and without Medora Clark, to Thousand Islands, New York; throughout the Southwestern United States; Mexico; and, to a lesser extent, in Europe and Canada. The collection also includes photograph albums depicting the aftermath of World War I in Europe and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in San Diego, and photographs depicting various locations in India, China, and Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This collection is directly related to the Alson Skinner Clark papers, 1870-1971, bulk 1890-1940, held by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
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Asia
Visual Materials
Contains 24 photographs depicting China including the Forbidden City; palaces, temples, and street scenes in Beijing; statues of animals in Nanking and at the Western Qing Tombs; birds-eye views of Macao; Wuchang; and scenes from the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, including an image of Westerners standing over corpses and heads of beheaded rebels (Folder 1); 3 photographs of India including Benares, Darjeeling, and the Agra fort (Folder 2); and 4 photographs depicting Seoul, Korea, including people at a festival and a birds-eye view of the city (Folder 3).
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Subseries A. Portraits and family travels
Visual Materials
Photographs include studio portraits of Alson Clark from 1893-1894 and from 1939 (plus a reprint of one portrait, dated 1962); images of Clark in Algiers and Paris; photographs of Clark with Keith Spalding on the yacht Goodwill in 1920, taken by Eudora Spalding; depictions of Clark with Medora Clark and son Alson Clark, Jr., in Pasadena; Clark painting en plein air and in military uniform in 1918 (Folders 1-2); photographs of Medora Clark (Folder 5); and images depicting people and residences in Thousand Islands, Comfort Island, Watertown, and Saint Lawrence, New York (Folders 7-9). Also included are four photographs and a ticket book from travel to Spain in 1909 and 1910, one of these a portrait of Clark holding a palette (Folders 3-4), and one photograph depicting artists and others seated around a table at a formal dinner in Pasadena, with people identified on verso (Folder 6).
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Subseries B. Southwest
Visual Materials
Photographs include depictions of Indians, including in poses; Western models including cowboys in rodeos; and various buildings (Folder 1); Mother Lode towns, Carson City, Nevada, and Tyler, Texas (Folder 2); various landscape views depicting deserts and mountains (Folders 3-4); and oversize photographs depicting bison on a range and locations in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and unidentified sites.
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