Suite of Fine 19th-century Photographs of California, New Mexico and Colorado
Collected by a Traveler to Remember Their Visit in 1889
An evocative collection of 35 beautiful photographs of California and the West by noted western photographers, Isaiah Taber, Norman Reed, and William Henry Jackson. In remarkably nice condition, both the photographs and the uniform-sized card mounts.
The pencil dates on the verso of the mounts record the time the unnamed owner of these prints visited the place depicted. The traveler visited Santa Barbara in early March 1889, then San Francisco from March 23 to April 2. By mid April they were in Colorado and New Mexico.
Taber was particularly savvy about marketing his photographs to well-heeled tourists visiting San Francisco. Purportedly he installed direct phone lines in the best San Francisco hotels in order to have instantaneous communication with potential customers, who could then be invited into his gallery and seduced into purchasing mementos from his massive stock of western photographic views.
The five photographs by Norman Reed relate to Santa Barbara, California. Two of these photographs show a pensive friar in the classic setting of the Mission Garden. This location, dating back to 1786, is now a National Historic Landmark commemorating the history of Spanish colonization in California. The last of the Reed group shows a neatly-dressed girl under a grape arbor.
The uncredited images include several that are almost certainly by William Henry Jackson. These include landscapes of the Grand Canyon, Colorado Springs, views in New Mexico, the Rio Grande, the Canyon Diablo, Stockton, California, and more.
Here follows a complete list of the photographs.
Taber
- The Golden Gate from Telegraph Hill, San Francisco [caption in the negative]. San Francisco. Mch 23r to Apl 2d, 1889.
- San Francisco Bay [caption in the negative]. Mch. 26th 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- San Francisco Bay View - Showing Tamalpais, Alcatraz and Angel Islands [caption in the negative]. San Francisco, Mch 31st, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Cliff House from Beach Drive [caption in the negative]. San Francisco. Mch 25th 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount].
- Sutro Heights, San Francisco, Cal., 1886, Parapet, Cliff House and Pacific Ocean [caption in the negative]. San Francisco, Mch 25th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of the mount]
- The Seal Rocks near Cliff House, San Francisco [caption in the negative]. Seal Rocks, San Francisco, Mch 25th 1889.
- Instantaneous surf effect at Fort Point, Golden Gate [caption in the negative]. San Francisco. Mch. 28th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount].
- Midway Point [caption in the negative]. Monterey, Cal., Mch 22d, 1889.
- Arizona Garden, "Hotel del Monte," Monterey [caption in the negative]. Monterey, Cal. Mch 22d, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount].
- Interior of Bath House, Hotel del Monte [caption in the negative]. Monterey, Cal. Mch 22d, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount].
- Monterey, from Bath House Pier, February 7th, 1883 [caption in the negative]. Monterey, Cal. Mch 21st, 1889 [pencil note on verso of the mount].
- Cactus Tree, Arizona [caption in the negative]. April 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Cypress Tree near Cypress Drive [caption in the negative]. Monterey Cal. Mch 21st & 22d 1889 [pencil note on verso of the mount].
William Henry Jackson, et al. [uncredited]
- Bird's Eye View of Santa Barbara. Mch 7th 1889. Three children in the foreground looking down at the town.
- City of Stockton, Cal. Aprl 3d, 1889. Bird's-eye view of urban Stockton with trains, church, and business blocks in the distance.
- The last of the adobes. Stockton, Cal. Apl 3d, 1889.
- Mule team, Stockton, April 3d, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- View in Stockton. Apl 3d, 1889. Treelined street view with unpaved path and two-story brick building on the right.
- Home of the Cliff Dwellers of the Rio Grande [caption in the negative]. New Mexico Apl. 1889.
- New Mexico, Apl. 1889
- Packing Firewood, Santa Fe, N.M. [caption in the negative]. New Mexico. Apl. 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Grand Canon of the Colorado [caption in the negative]. April 8th & 9th 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Canon Diablo Bridge. D. & P. R. R. [caption in the negative]. Feby & Apl 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Colorado. Apl 8th & 9th, 1889. Boy on a donkey in front of an adobe house with a rustic sign for a dentist.
- Mother Grundy. Monument Park [caption in the negative]. Col. Springs. Apl. 8th & 9th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- The Antlers, Col. Spr's [caption in the negative]. Col. Springs. Apl. 9th 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Pike's Peak [caption in the negative]. Col. Springs Apl. 8th & 9th 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Mount of the Holy Cross [caption in the negative]. Colorado. Apl. 8th & 9th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- Bath House at Manitou [caption in the negative]. Manitou. Apl. 9th & 10th. 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]
- The Dutch Wedding Monument Park [caption in the negative]. Colorado. Aprl. 8th & 9th, 1889.
Reed:
- On the Beach, Santa Barbara, Cal. Reed, Photo [caption in the negative]. Santa Barbara, Cal. Mch 6th 1889.
- San Marcus Hotel. Santa Barbara, Cal. Reed, Photo [caption in the negative]. Hotel San Marcos. Santa Barbara, Cal. Mch 6th, 1889.
- Mission Garden, Santa Barbara, Cal. Reed, Photo [caption in the negative]. Santa Barbara, Cal. Mch 6th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]. Friar standing in the garden, Mission in the background.
- Mission Garden, Santa Barbara, Cal. Reed, Photo [caption in the negative]. Santa Barbara, Cal. Mch 6th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]. Friar standing next to fountain, contemplating two cats.
- Big Grape Vine, Santa Barbara, Cal. Reed, Photo. [caption in the negative]. Grape & Vine. Santa Barbara, March 7th, 1889 [pencil note on verso of mount]. Young girl holding lunch pail, standing under vine arbor.