Skip to content

OPEN TODAY: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.

Tickets

Visual Materials

Camp Powam, Mesa Grande, San Diego County



You might also be interested in

  • Image not available

    Camp Powam, Mesa Grande, San Diego County. [View of children at camp, with banner and flag.]

    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

  • Image not available

    People at a picnic using electric camp stoves

    Visual Materials

    [People at a picnic using electric camp stoves]

    photCL SCE 06 - 72539

  • Image not available

    San Diego County

    Visual Materials

    This collection contains photographs, negatives, and some ephemera chiefly collected by California conservationist and editor William H. Thrall (1873-1963) for use in Trails magazine. Thrall served as managing editor of the publication from 1934 to 1939, which was produced to encourage the use of mountain trails and outdoor recreation in Los Angeles County. The collection includes approximately 1200 prints (Boxes 1-4); 68 glass negatives (Boxes 7-8); approximately 2300 film negatives; 150 slides; and miscellaneous documents and ephemera, and a folding pocket camera. The photographs primarily date from the 1930s, but also include copy prints (and some originals) of late 19th and early 20th photographs. The images depict mountain and forested landscapes and outdoor recreational activities including hiking, skiing, and camping, chiefly in the San Gabriel Mountains and surrounding mountains of Southern California. Many of the photographs include individuals involved in recreational activities as well images of historical mountain pioneers. The photographs chiefly consist of 4.5 x 2.75 inch snapshots and 8 x 10 and 6 x 10 inch prints, by photographers including Dan P. Alexander, Carl H. Bauer, Harlow Dormer, C. C. Vernon, and Thrall. There is also a group of glass plate negatives and film negatives, including a group of unprinted film negatives that appear to be personal photographs with views of nature, groups of people, family scenes, buildings, boating, and trips, in the 1930s-1950s (Box 15). The film negatives have handwritten numbers presumably assigned by Thrall. Many of the prints appear in Trails magazine, which was published quarterly by the Mountain League of Southern California from Winter 1934 to Spring 1939 (Volume 6, No. 1). In Autumn 1941, the Southern California Outdoor Federation began publishing a new edition of Trails Magazine (without Thrall as editor), but only two issues were published (Volume 2, Nos. 1-2).

    photCL 481

  • Image not available

    Rancho Guajome Adobe (San Diego County, California)

    Visual Materials

    Photographs made by Adam Clark Vroman, ca. 1892-1909, spanning various subjects, primarily his bookstore in Pasadena, California, and scenes from his travels. Of particular significance is Vroman's handwritten journal of a trip to see the Snake Dance at Walpi, Arizona, in 1895, written sequentially on the back of 19 mounted photographs. Vroman's traveling companions were Horatio N. Rust, Mrs. Thaddeus (Leontine) Lowe, and Charles J. Crandall, who are shown, along with Vroman, at pueblos, and traveling with supplies and wagons. There are also views of the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest. The California images include scenery and travelers in the San Gabriel Mountains, Mount Wilson, Mount Lowe and the Alpine Tavern, and travelers having a picnic; details of missions; historic adobes of Monterey; Rancho Guajome Adobe in San Diego County; Yosemite and one view of Indians living in Yosemite Valley. Locations depicted in other parts of the United States are: Manitou, Colorado; Oregon, Illinois; Niagara Falls; Grant's Tomb; a bird's-eye-view of Santa Fe, New Mexico; and other miscellaneous views. Vroman travelled to Japan in 1903 and 1909, and eight prints in the collection show Japanese men and women in traditional dress, as well as details of architecture. Vroman appears in a few photographs. There are several portraits of Pueblo Indian men, some identified in Vroman's captions.

    photCL 86

  • Image not available

    Rancho Guajome Adobe (San Diego County, California)

    Visual Materials

    Photographs made by Adam Clark Vroman, ca. 1892-1909, spanning various subjects, primarily his bookstore in Pasadena, California, and scenes from his travels. Of particular significance is Vroman's handwritten journal of a trip to see the Snake Dance at Walpi, Arizona, in 1895, written sequentially on the back of 19 mounted photographs. Vroman's traveling companions were Horatio N. Rust, Mrs. Thaddeus (Leontine) Lowe, and Charles J. Crandall, who are shown, along with Vroman, at pueblos, and traveling with supplies and wagons. There are also views of the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest. The California images include scenery and travelers in the San Gabriel Mountains, Mount Wilson, Mount Lowe and the Alpine Tavern, and travelers having a picnic; details of missions; historic adobes of Monterey; Rancho Guajome Adobe in San Diego County; Yosemite and one view of Indians living in Yosemite Valley. Locations depicted in other parts of the United States are: Manitou, Colorado; Oregon, Illinois; Niagara Falls; Grant's Tomb; a bird's-eye-view of Santa Fe, New Mexico; and other miscellaneous views. Vroman travelled to Japan in 1903 and 1909, and eight prints in the collection show Japanese men and women in traditional dress, as well as details of architecture. Vroman appears in a few photographs. There are several portraits of Pueblo Indian men, some identified in Vroman's captions.

    photCL 86

  • Image not available

    San Diego County

    Visual Materials

    The collection consists of photographs (the majority of which are housed in two photograph albums), negatives, published material, and ephemera that depict locations throughout California and the Western United States. Many of these were locations where Frank Rolfe, a geologist, worked on various surveys, including the Los Angeles aqueduct survey. The collection contains two photograph albums: one depicts the initial Los Angeles aqueduct survey, the second contains photographs of Los Angeles (central Los Angeles and neighborhoods where Rolfe and his wife lived), the San Gabriel Valley and other locations in Los Angeles County (Devil's Gate Dam, the San Gabriel Mountains, the St. Francis Dam and San Francisquito Canyon), San Bernardino County (the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake), Riverside County (the Coachella Valley, Tahquitz Canyon, the Temescal Valley, Riverside, the San Jacinto Mountains), Kern County, and commercially produced images of Yosemite. Boxes 3 and 4 contain negatives; viewing of the negatives must be arranged with the Curator of Photographs. The negatives depict street scenes in central Los Angeles, including the wrecking of the Temple Block, the Amestoy Block, the Hall of Records, and Bunker Hill. Also included are views of the West Adams neighborhood; houses where Rolfe and his wife lived in the 1920s and 30s; the snowstorm of 1932; and the 1920 Inglewood earthquake. The collection also includes images of Hollywood and vicinity (including a number of photographs of the Mulholland Dam and images of Brentwood and Bel Air); Santa Monica (including the Santa Monica Mountains and Decker Canyon); Santa Catalina Island; north Los Angeles County (including the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, the ruins of the Saint Francis Dam and San Francisquito Canyon, and the golden spike celebration at Lang); the San Gabriel Valley (including many views of the San Gabriel Mountains); Orange County (including Modjeska's home, Santiago Canyon, San Juan Capistrano, the Puente hills, and Santa Ana Canyon); San Diego County; San Bernardino County (including a number of photographs of mining camps, including Ivanpah and Camp Roach; construction of the Ludlow and Southern Railway; and mining operations, such as the Bagdad Chase Mine and the Bagdad Mining and Milling Company); Riverside County (including the Temescal Tin Mine, Temescal and the Temescal Valley, Hog Lake, the San Jacinto River, Mount San Jacinto, and Idyllwild); Ventura County; Kern County (images of the Kern River); Inyo County; Yosemite; northern California (including Stanford and Susie Lake); Nevada (Truckee River dam projects); Oregon; Washington; Utah; Glacier Park, Montana; people (Rolfe, his family and friends); and miscellaneous photographs (a number of desert views, mostly Southern California). The collection also contains commercial photographs of the Rolfe family, many in carte-de-visite format. The ephemerial materials consist of a letter written in 1862 from Sutter Creek by Rolfe's father Ovid to his brother Alfred in Dorchester, Massachusetts; biographical sketches of members of the Rolfe family; clippings compiled by Rolfe; Rolfe's high school and college diplomas; card files on Rolfe family history, covered wagons in Los Angeles, and Temescal history; and negative books.

    photCL 400 volume 12