Western Photographica (5 results)

136 original photographs of varying shapes and sizes, mostly about 3 x 3½ inches. Oblong photo album of black paper between brown velvet covers, bound with string. Covers a bit scuffed and soiled, glue remnants on a number of pages, photos in varying conditions. Numerous manuscript captions. Good. A very personal vernacular photo album of an apparently well-to-do family in the American West during World War I. Most of the photographs are posed photographs of friends and family, sometimes captioned by a first name, date, or comment on the image, such as "sweethearts." In fact, several of the images appear to be of couples courting. The captions in general provide precious little information, although the manuscript next to a group of men loading a mule reads "Good Ol' Texas." Many photos are taken on the family's front porch or in front of their car, but a few depict men on horseback or in uniform, and several are dated 1917 in the captions. One of the photographs shows an outdoor basketball hoop and backboard (likely at a schoolhouse) and another shows two men standing in front of "Kelley & Sons Furniture and Hardware." An intimate look into the year of a western American family in the early 20th century.

Panoramic silver gelatin photograph, 8 x 30¼ inches. Minor edge wear, a few soft creases, mild surface soiling. Very good plus. An appealing panoramic photograph featuring the attendees of the 1955 conference of the Western Young Buddhist League. The photograph captures a few hundred finely- dressed Japanese-American men and women posed in a courtyard in Oakland, California. Various delegates to the conference hold handwritten signs, indicating their home cities and regional organizations, which include Marysville, Palo Alto, San Mateo, San Francisco, Fresno, Oakland, Sacramento, Delta, Pasadena, and numerous other smaller California cities and locales. There are also banners for attendees from the Stockton Chapter of the Y.B.A., the Coast District of the Young Buddhist Association and the Central California Young Buddhist Association. The elders of the organization sit in chairs in front of the young Bussei. Interestingly, this photograph was taken by Oakland photographer Kinji Utsumi, a photographer in the Bay Area both before and after World War II. Utsumi bought his photo studio in 1941, but was forced to close at the outset of the Japanese-American internment period. He then became one of the official photographers at the Topaz internment camp in Utah; he is mentioned in the RAMBLINGS yearbooks for Topaz High School during the internment period. After the war, Utsumi returned to Franklin Street in Oakland and opened another photographic studio. A rare image of a large organization of young Japanese-American Buddhists in California in the middle of the Eisenhower years, with no copies reported in OCLC.

Panoramic silver gelatin photograph, 10 x 35¾ inches. Minor edge wear, some creasing and abrading at top right corner, a few soft creases, four small circular stains near bottom right corner. About very good overall. A substantial group photograph featuring the attendees of the 1954 conference of the Western Young Buddhist League. The photograph captures a few hundred finely- dressed Japanese-American men and women posed in a park in Fresno, California. Various delegates to the conference hold handwritten signs, indicating their home cities and regional organizations, which include Stockton, Lodi, Delta, Enmanji, Marysville, Sacramento, Placer, Palo Alto, San Mateo, Berkeley, Florin, Alameda, San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, Selma, Los Angeles, San Diego, Pasadena, and numerous other California cities and locales. There are also contingents from Arizona, the Western Young Buddhist League's Southern District, the San Fernando Valley Young Buddhists, the Coast District Young Buddhist Association, and the Central California Young Buddhist Association. The elders of the organization sit in chairs in front of the young Bussei. Interestingly, this photograph was taken by noted and prolific Fresno photographer Urasaburo "Frank" Kamiyama. Frank Kamiyama (1886-1974) was an important Japanese- American chronicler of his own community in Fresno and the surrounding area beginning in the early 20th century. He was arrested on March 27, 1942 as one of eight "named Japanese alien enemies" and interned at Angel Island in California and in Santa Fe, New Mexico during World War II. His family, including his wife, Mitan, and their four daughters, were interned separately at Rohwer in Arkansas (the easternmost of the Japanese internment camps). After the war, Kamiyama continued to photograph the lives of Japanese Americans in California until his death. A rare image of a large organization of young Japanese-American Buddhists in California in the Eisenhower years, with no copies reported in OCLC.

Twelve cards, each 17 x 13 inches, a.e.g., with manuscript captions in lower margins. Images are 9 x 6 1/2 inches, except the two oval images of San Francisco. Some minor soiling on cards, some images slightly faded. Very good. Archivally matted, protected with a mylar sheet. An excellent collection of views, quite early for Hawaii and New Zealand. The four views of Honolulu include one wide view of the town, a view of a side street with a church steeple in the background, the Pali mountain pass, and the harbor with several large vessels at anchor. In New Zealand the Supreme Court building in Christchurch and the city of Littleton are displayed. The San Francisco images include the Palace Hotel and the famous Cliff House. Of particular interest are the three views of the Central Pacific Railway. The sections of the track include Capestown, the Palisade, and Summit Station, each with fresh evidence of the line's recent completion. Also in the collection is one image of a railroad along the banks of Salt Lake, and three wide views of Salt Lake City, one with the Mormon tabernacle (completed in 1871) prominently featured. An attractive collection of views, each quite displayable.

Seventy-nine photographic prints, each image 6 x 8 inches on 9 1/2 x 11 1/4-inch medium weight photographic paper, all but two captioned in the negative. Minor surface wear to a handful of prints, several with minor emulsion chipping to edges, some curling to prints. Overall very good or better condition. An extraordinary collection of large, handsomely-produced photographic prints documenting the exploits of a group of travelers who set out by train through Oregon, California, and Colorado in 1897. The photographs, which are skillfully composed and indicative of an experienced photographer, picture a wide variety of both urban and rural settings along the Pacific Coast and in Colorado, showing a mixture of horse-drawn and cable and street cars but nary an automobile, and constitute a unique and evocative time capsule for numerous locations in the American West in the final few years of the 19th century. The first image features a large group of women and children posed outside a railroad car, with the image captioned "The R&W 97 Transcontinental Party." In fact, two of the images reference the party as "R&W" which likely refers to the company or family who participated in the railway excursion. The travelers were apparently well-to-do, judging by their dress and by the variety of notable high-end hotels they visited. The selection of photographs here was likely hand-picked by one of the members of the excursion after the journey was completed. The preponderance of the images document locations in California. These include two different views of Mount Shasta, scenes in Yosemite Park, sites in Santa Cruz, and several images each in and around San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles. The Yosemite Park pictures show members of the group taking a horse-drawn carriage through a redwood tree, and other Yosemite landmarks are captioned "Yosemite from Inspiration Point," "Bridal Veil Falls," "Two Brothers of the Yosemite," "Trail to Glacier Pt.," "A fallen Monarch of the Yosemite" (the famous downed redwood tree), and "Wawona Point." The San Francisco images include Stanford University (two images), a view of Stanford's Tomb in Menlo Park, the driveway to the Crocker residence, a striking image of downtown focused on the Spreckels Building, the San Francisco City Hall building, the "Court[yard] of the Palace Hotel," Golden Gate Park, a spectacular view across the ocean from Golden Gate Park, the entrance to Sutro Park, and the esplanade in Sutro Park. Images in Santa Cruz depict the residence of Major Frank McLaughlin (known as the Golden Gate Villa), an elevated view of the beach at Santa Cruz, a scene of several travelers in a horse-drawn carriage captioned "Our four in hand on the cliff drive, Santa Cruz, Cal.," and three striking views of the cliffs including two featuring the "Natural Bridge" Cliff at Santa Cruz. The Los Angeles area is well represented in the photographs, which picture the downtown courthouse, a downtown street scene showing the Van Nuys Hotel the year it opened, a view down Spring Street, West Lake Park, East Side Park (four images, including the entrance), an orange grove in Riverside (picturing one of the travelers), Magnolia Avenue in Riverside, an "Orange grower's home" in Riverside, a pair of horses pulling a streetcar labeled "Riverside & Arlington Ry." (before the line was electrified in 1899), and an interesting street scene in downtown Riverside. Other sites in California comprise the Hotel Coronado (four pictures, including an unusual view of the "Drive to the Entrance" of the hotel), Coronado Beach (two views), the "Ruins of Capistrano" (the remnants of the mission church), the train depot at Fresno, a residence in San Jose, the "View from Mt. Hamilton" near San Jose, and the road to the hedge maze at the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. The Colorado pictures include a breathtaking elevated view of a snowy Denver taken from the top of the capitol building. Other Colorado scenes include a view of New Castle from the train, Glenwood Springs, an image of horse-drawn carriages crossing a bridge over the river in Glenwood Springs, and two images capturing the incline tram up the Royal Gorge near Canon City. The collection also includes a handful of images in Portland, Oregon. These feature the Portland wharf, three separate shots of the Portland Hotel, the "Residence of Dr. McKenzie," and a horse- drawn carriage ride on City Park Drive. Eight of the more intriguing images in the collection were taken while aboard the traveling party's moving railroad car, and picture the vast landscape of the American West in California, Colorado, and Nevada. The captions for these read "From Top of Mountain near Scisco," "We pass through Eagle Cañon," "Leaving Leadvill [sic] behind us," "Some Colorado Scenery," "On the Rio Grande Western," and "Princeton, Harvard, & Yale" (a distant view of the three mountains named for those Ivy League schools in the "Collegiate Peaks" region of the Rocky Mountains). One image, likely in Colorado but with location unidentified is captioned, "Mountains rising thousands of feet all around." There are even a couple of images taken from the train while passing briefly through Nevada, including one of the "Humboldt Desert." In addition to the aforementioned image picturing the women and children of the "R&W 97 Transcontinental Party," there are a handful of images focused on other various members. One is captioned "The R&W 97 Philharmonic Symposium," and features six men standing on a railroad handcar with musical instruments. The words and music to "Sweet Rosy O'Grady" have been written into the photographic negative at center, along with a humorous musical quatrain at right referencing one of the traveling party. This latter bit reads, "The Director General Russ Couldn't play with us, with us, He was not allowed to toot So he kept time with His Boot." Additional pictures of the group feature them dining inside an unnamed restaurant, posed in front of.