Fair Oaks Ranch Photographs

This collection consists of one photograph album with 48 photographs and 35 loose photographs (as well as some duplicates), with images depicting the Fair Oaks Ranch in Altadena, California. The photographs in the album are cyanotype prints dating from around 1889; the loose photographs include cyanotypes, cabinet cards, and stereographs that date from the late 1870s to about 1900. The last page of the album contains a travel sketch in pencil, followed by sketches of a room interior and floor plan on two pages laid in. Subjects include interior and exterior views of the residence, landscaped grounds, trees, and plant life; members of the Crank family; ranch workers, including Chinese laborers, working in the orchards and vineyard, harvesting and packing fruit, drying apricots, and loading fruit onto horse-drawn carts; workers' quarters; the operations of the winery and distillery; and also a handful of sweeping views of the San Gabriel Mountains and the Altadena and Pasadena areas taken from vantage points on the property.

The photographer of the album is unknown, but Item 46 shows a wood hutch with a mirror in which the photographer and camera are reflected. Some of the cabinet cards and stereographs have imprints from area photographers: C. McMurtrey (Item 80), C.B. Ripley (Items 73-74), and A.C. Varela (Items 76-78).

Titles have been transcribed from captions on album pages and photo-mounts when present; titles devised by the cataloger are enclosed in square brackets. Additional information was gathered from notes on the backs of some photographs. Approximate dates for the collection were devised by the cataloger based on years noted on certain items, the general history of the property and Crank family, and also on a year visible on a calendar in Item 46. Thirteen photographs have duplicates in the collection, which are noted in the inventory below.