Visual Materials

[Portrait of Ysabel Del Valle with a guitar]

Description: Writing on back of (52): "That fools in-rush / Where angels blush / To tread, is melancholy; / But where—as here— / They both appear, / How happy is the folly! / The artist might / In such a plight, / Be pardoned for forgetting That ne'er was shown / So dull a stone / In such a brilliant setting!" --handwritten by Charles Lummis.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1888.
Call number: photCL 504
Creator: Lummis, Charles Fletcher (1859-1928)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased with funds provided by the Studier family in memory of Carol Jackson Cook and Donald Wrentmore Cook from the heirs of the Del Valle family, 2011.
Restrictions: Due to the fragility of the album, access to the original item is granted only by permission of The Curator of Photographs.

[Ysabel and Nena Del Valle seated on steps, one holding a guitar]

Visual Materials

The photograph album chronicles Charles F. Lummis's time with the Del Valle family at Rancho Camulos in Ventura County, California, from 1887 to 1888. There are many photographs of the Del Valle family, particularly the Del Valle daughters, with whom Lummis is shown playfully interacting. Family gatherings include a local Catholic priest, couples dancing, and young women playing instruments. Views of Rancho Camulos, the surrounding landscape, and architectural features such as the placita, the chapel, and the south veranda, are also prominently featured. The front cover of the photograph album bears the embossed title of "Susanita Del Valle," while the spine's title says, "Views of Camulos." An inscription on the third page reads: "Susanita Del Valle, with the best wishes of Chas. F. Lummis -- Feb. 3, 1888." (Susanita was a nickname for Susana Carmen Del Valle (1871-1907)). Some of the pictures appear in The home of Ramona: photographs of Camulos, the fine old Spanish estate described by Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, as the home of 'Ramona', by Charles F. Lummis, published in Los Angeles in 1888. The Huntington Library holds a copy of this book (RB 35644) as well as a second edition (RB 252770). Both copies are illustrated with original cyanotypes by Lummis, many of which are in The home of Ramona.

photCL 504

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