|
||
|
|
|
|
Rare brochure advertising the development of Fawnskin, an area in Big Bear, California. The brochure contains short disquisitions promoting the region and its potential. One offers the opportunity to purchase an undeveloped lot of land and develop your vacation home on it. It features a map of the lots and developed land alongside some pictures of the region to show the possibilities one can build there. The pamphlet also promotes the Fawnskin Hotel, which features a lodge and cabins with a total accommodation of around 55 people.
The second section features pictures of the region and some text that further extolls the amenities of the region. This brochure showcases the new amenities of Bear Valley, such as a post office and telephone lines. Interestingly, there is mention of the area only being a summer colony for people. It would be a couple of years before people wintered or stayed year-round in Fawnskin.
This brochure is difficult to date, but the owner-operator of Fawnskin bought the area in 1917, with serious development beginning the next year. The post office pictured in image one was only opened in 1918, with subsequent years bringing notable development in the forms of theaters, ballrooms, and the timber industry. None of this development is mentioned in the brochure, perhaps because this was before anything was even being built. See the Big Bear History Site for the timeline.
The Los Angeles firm of Young & McCallister began in 1912 as a partnership between Frederick Arthur Young (1875-1949) and Albert Bruce McCallister (1881-1945). McCallister is generally regarded as Los Angeles' first "fine printer" and one of the founding members of the Zamorano Club in 1928.
Young was born in Wakefield, England. He became a letterpress printer and emigrated to America in 1907, starting a small printing house in Los Angeles. McCallister, born in South Dakota, began doing odd jobs at a newspaper printing company beginning at 10 years old, acquiring considerable expertise as a printer.
In 1916, the firm became one of the earliest printers to use the newly invented Selectasine process, setting up a separate department for graphic screen printing work, which was given the name Vitachrome, becoming one of the first licensees of the Selectasine patent. Vitachrome became an independent company in 1926, and today it is probably the oldest active screen printer in the world. Along with Velvetone and Selectasine, Vitachrome was one of the pioneering firms in graphic screen printing.
Selectasine was a screen printed process invented by John C. Patrick Pilsworth and first utilized by San Francisco based Selectasine Company in 1915. The company applied for a patent for multicolor printing from a single screen in 1915, which was granted in 1918. Selectasine, its San Francisco competitor Velvetone Poster Company and Los Angeles based Vitachrome, founded by Young & McCallister, would become the industry pioneers for this printing process.
![[Imperial & Coachella Valley Advertising Map -- Valerie Jean Date Shop]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/69651.jpg)
![Lands of the Hemet Land Co. [Hemet Southern California. Its homes and scenes]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/89106.jpg)
![[Orange County Ranchos -- Signed by Orange County Surveyor]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/92333.jpg)
