Visual Materials

Album I

Description: This album contains 29 photographs of Native Americans from various regions, dating from approximately 1873 to 1909, made by an unknown compiler and acquired by Grace Nicholson later. The first page has an ink-stamped name: "Abraham Mayer," who may have been the original owner. The photographs include cartes de visite of Modoc Indian prisoners of war by Louis Heller, as well as cabinet cards, Victoria cards, and magazine clippings dated from 1902 to 1905. Photographs by A.W. Ericson, Louis Heller, and unidentified photographers.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: ca. 1873-1905
Call number: photCL 56
Creator: Nicholson, Grace (-1948)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Thyra H. Maxwell, October 1968.
Restrictions: Advance arrangements for viewing negatives must be made with the Curator of Photographs. The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.

Album D

Visual Materials

This album contains 467 photographs taken between 1907 and 1910 in California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Mexico. Most photographs were taken by Grace Nicholson and Carroll S. Hartman, though there are some by commercial photographer Frank Palmer, as well as unidentified photographers. Tribes represented: Campo; Chukchansi; Colville; Hopi; Indians of Baja California, Mexico; Manzanita [i.e. Kumeyaay; Kamia]; Mesa Grande [Diegueno]; Modoc; Mono; Taos Pueblo; Yokuts; Wintun; Tolowa; Umatilla; Yurok.

photCL 56

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1.1 Photograph Albums

Visual Materials

This subseries contains nine photograph albums with many views of Native Americans; baskets and basket collections; Grace Nicholson's store and home in Pasadena, California; and images of Nicholson and others. Albums A-F consist of six albums with approximately 500 photos each, mostly documenting Grace Nicholson's six basket-collecting trips between 1902 and 1912 to Native American communities of the Northwest Coast, California, and Southwest. The photographs are black-and-white prints, mostly 3 x 4 inches, pasted in albums measuring 11 1/4 x 15 inches, with many captions in Nicholson's handwriting. Albums G-I are smaller volumes and consist of a volume of 25 commercial photographs of Indians (Album G); a volume with 25 photographs of Grace Nicholson's first collecting trip to Ukiah and Northern California in 1903 (Album H); and a volume of 29 photographs of various Native Americans made by an unknown compiler and later acquired by Grace Nicholson (Album I).

photCL 56

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Copy negatives for images in Albums E-I and others

Visual Materials

This collection contains approximately 10,000 photographs, negatives and ephemera created or compiled by Grace Nicholson (1877-1948), a collector and dealer of Native American and Asian arts and crafts in Pasadena, California. The bulk of the collection dates from 1903 to the 1920s and includes photograph albums and individual photographs with views of Native Americans of the Northwest Coast, California, and the Southwest of North America; pictures documenting Nicholson's basket collecting trips primarily between 1902 and 1912; images of Nicholson's stores and residences in Pasadena, including the building of the "Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Oriental Art" in the mid-1920s; and personal photographs of Nicholson, her family, friends, and associates. Nicholson's personal snapshots and photograph albums provide a valuable resource for studying Native American communities, particularly in Northern California, in the early 20th century. Many of the photographs depict daily life and include images of homes, community events, dances and rituals, families and children, and portraits. Most of these photographs were taken by Grace Nicholson or her assistant, Mr. Carroll S. Hartman, and are often accompanied by Nicholson's handwritten identifications.

photCL 56

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Travel album

Visual Materials

photCL 56

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Paiute (most likely Southern Paiute)

Visual Materials

[Note: Grace Nicholson visited Paiute in Inyo, Modoc and Mono counties, California; see photos in Album A. These postcards may include views of Paiute from California or the Great Basin region.]

photCL 56

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3.2 Personal photo albums

Visual Materials

photCL 56

Album I

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Album D

1.1 Photograph Albums

Copy negatives for images in Albums E-I and others

Travel album

Paiute (most likely Southern Paiute)

3.2 Personal photo albums