Visual Materials

William Newton Meeks family photograph collection

Description: A collection of 68 photographs, primarily portraits, of William Newton Meeks, his wife, Abigail Livia Martha Davis, their children, and other Meeks and Davis family members, including Abigail's brother, Charles Sylvanus Davis. Also included are photographs of the Meeks' mansion (1890s) in Temescal, a neighborhood of Oakland, California, featuring an attached greenhouse or conservatory. There are also some photographs of engravings of earlier relatives, including Captain John Meeks (b. 1737), James Cooper, Susannah (Cooper) Meeks, Phineas Davis, and Isaac Davis. A group portrait depicts the wedding party of Meeks' daughter Blanche Thayer and John Heath, son of a pioneer California family, in 1889.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: approximately 1870s-1890s.
Call number: photCL 376
Provenance: Transferred from Manuscripts Department, 1992.

William Newton Meeks family photograph collection

Visual Materials

A collection of 68 photographs, primarily portraits, of William Newton Meeks, his wife, Abigail Livia Martha Davis, their children, and other Meeks and Davis family members, including Abigail's brother, Charles Sylvanus Davis. Also included are photographs of the Meeks' mansion (1890s) in Temescal, a neighborhood of Oakland, California, featuring an attached greenhouse or conservatory. There are also some photographs of engravings of earlier relatives, including Captain John Meeks (b. 1737), James Cooper, Susannah (Cooper) Meeks, Phineas Davis, and Isaac Davis. A group portrait depicts the wedding party of Meeks' daughter Blanche Thayer and John Heath, son of a pioneer California family, in 1889.

photCL 376

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William Newton Meeks papers

Manuscripts

The collection consists of letters, manuscripts and documents related to William Newton Meeks, his wife, Abigail, and their children. There are also materials related to his brother, Robert Smelt Meeks, and to the Meeks and Davis families (including genealogical notes and charts). Additional persons represented in the collection include Charles Sylvanus Davis (brother of Abigail), Mary E. Meeks Haydock, Constance Adelia Meeks, Edward Meeks, and Susan Molineux Meeks. The collection includes descriptions of and life in Bolivia, 1837 to 1861, Chile, 1849-1861, France, and San Francisco, California, including the earthquake of 1906.

mssMK

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Microfilm: Gregory family genealogical data by George Craghead Gregory

Manuscripts

The collection consists of letters, manuscripts and documents related to William Newton Meeks, his wife, Abigail, and their children. There are also materials related to his brother, Robert Smelt Meeks, and to the Meeks and Davis families (including genealogical notes and charts). Additional persons represented in the collection include: Charles Sylvanus Davis (brother of Abigail), Mary E. Meeks Haydock, Constance Adelia Meeks, Edward Meeks, and Susan Molineux Meeks. The collection includes descriptions of and life in Bolivia, 1837 to 1861, Chile, 1849 to 1861, France, and San Francisco, California, including the earthquake of 1906.

mssMK

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Collection of Russell-Strong family photographs

Visual Materials

A collection of 35 photographs and postcards of the family of Harriet Williams Russell Strong and her husband, Charles Lyman Strong. The collection contains photographs of family members including Harriet Strong, her daughters, a carte-de-visite portrait of Charles Strong's brother, Civil War General George Crockett Strong, and two photographs of his gravestone monument in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. Some of the photographs of the Strongs were taken on the grounds of Ranchito Del Fuerte, the family ranch in Whittier, California, and there are also photographs and printed drawings of pampas grass, which they grew on the ranch. A studio portrait of Harriet Strong and her four daughters is reprinted in a newspaper clipping in the collection. Also includes cabinet card portraits of Civil War General Benjamin H. Grierson and his son First Lieutenant Charles H. Grierson. The studio portraits include imprints of E. & H.T. Anthony from a negative of Brady's National Portrait Gallery; N. H. Reed; Fitz W. Guerin; George Steckel; and Steckel Fults Studio. There is an ink drawing of a Ranchito del Fuerte window and bookshelf dated 1895 and signed "C.A. Meeks."

photCL 155

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Photographs of E.L. Doheny's residence and grounds, Chester Place, Los Angeles

Visual Materials

An album containing 117 photographs with a variety of interior and exterior views of the Doheny mansion and grounds at Chester Place, one of the first gated communities in Los Angeles. The first half of the album is exterior views, showing entrances, ivy-covered walls, plant- and palm-lined walkways, a greenhouse or conservatory, a large garage, and tennis courts. The second half of the album has interior areas, showing lavushly decorated public rooms with heavy furniture, dark woodwork, painted ceilings, animal skin rugs, statues and vases, a grand piano decorated with painted scenes, and multiple coffee/tea sets; a room with a high domed glass ceiling and marble pillars; a billiard room; a dining room shown with and without the table and chairs in place; a room decorated with Native American rugs, a long, feathered headdress, and a stuffed bald eagle; several bedrooms with varying degrees of decoration; multiple bathrooms; and a large, long, empty hall. Only one photograph includes people, a view of an office with two women.

photCL 106

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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.

William Newton Meeks family photograph collection

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