Collections

The Boston Mob Pennsylvania Tour and Cross-Country Tour photograph albums contain pictures taken during travels in the Mid-Atlantic States, the northern Midwest, Colorado, and California in the early 1890s. The photographs show city scenes and buildings, natural scenery, and travelers.

The Boston Mob Pennsylvania Tour and Cross-Country Tour photograph albums contain 213 pictures taken during travels in the Mid-Atlantic States, the northern Midwest, Colorado, and California in the early 1890s. Each album is 29cm x 35cm with titles stamped in gold on the front covers. Most photographs are captioned.

The first volume, "Pennsylvania Tour 1891," contains 77 items, comprised of 15.5cm x 20cm prints pasted one to a page and 9cm x 12cm prints pasted three or four to a page. The first 7 pictures and the final picture were taken at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, including views of battlefield monuments and a military cemetery. The photographer also traveled to Luray, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Richmond, Virginia. A few shots are group portraits of male and female tourists, who posed once in a railroad car by a banner reading "Boston Mob," and many others are images of city streets and natural scenery, including a series taken in and around a natural bridge and Cedar Creek in Virginia. While visiting Washington, D.C., the compiler photographed landmarks such as the Washington Monument, United States Treasury, White House, and State, War, and Navy Building. Ferries, horse-drawn trolleys (running on tracks), trains, bridges, and railroad depots are visible in many photographs. Of note is an aerial photograph of the White House and surrounding buildings taken from the top of the Washington Monument and a group of 5 items showing African American children playing on a street in Luray, Virginia.

The second volume, "Across the Continent 1892," contains 136 photographs (9cm x 12cm each), usually pasted four to a page. Most items are views of buildings and natural scenery in locations such as Niagara Falls; Sioux City, Iowa; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; and Duluth, Minnesota, as well as other towns in Colorado and California. The pictures show donkeys, town and city buildings, a cattle ranch, and rock formations, particularly in the Garden of the Gods; the photographer visited Seattle during a snowy winter. A number of photographs show a smelter in Denver, Colorado. One group of California photographs features orange trees. Other items of note are a "Spirit Picture" of two overlapped city scenes and a shot of Grover Cleveland's inauguration on March 4, 1893.

This photograph album contains pictures of mountain scenery and street scenes in British Columbia and Alberta; of rubble and refugee camps taken in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake; of people relaxing near Long Beach, California; and pictures taken during a hunting trip near Oracle, Arizona.

This photograph album (18cm x 25cm) contains 99 photographic prints taken in British Columbia, Alberta, California, and Arizona in the early 20th century. The album's covers are brown pebbled leather, and the title "Photographs" is stamped in gold on the front cover. Most items have manuscript captions.

A majority of the photographs are scenic views of mountain ranges, lakes, forests, and glaciers in British Columbia and Alberta, including pictures taken in Banff, Alberta; in the Canadian Rockies; and in the Selkirk Mountains. This section of the album also contains views of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria, and street scenes in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia; a large totem pole is visible in one of the pictures of Victoria. A second group of photographs shows scenes of rubble and refugee tent camps in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake.

The third group of items consists of photographs taken in and near Long Beach and Los Angeles, California. Groups of tourists are evident in several of these pictures, and some focus on pairs of male travelers. Pictured locales include Eastlake Park in Los Angeles, an orange grove in Redlands, California, and "Follows Camp." These are followed by photographs of desert scenes near Oracle, Arizona, where a group of hunters, including at least one woman, occupied a semi-permanent tent. The photographer captured images of natural scenery such as large cacti, balance rocks, and a box canyon. The final items are a group portrait of young men, identified by a manuscript caption on a note laid into the album; an unidentified mountainous scene; and an outdoor portrait of a girl.

The Shriners' excursion tour photograph albums (2 volumes, each 15.5 x 20 cm) contain 95 photoprints of photographs taken during a cross-country train and ship excursion by a group of Shriners ca. 1898.

The Shriners' excursion tour photo albums (2 volumes, each 15.5 x 20 cm) contain 95 photoprints of photographs taken during a cross-country train and ship excursion by a group of Shriners ca. 1898. Images show a range of different places around the United States, including: St. Joseph, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa; Big Spring, Texas; Phoenix and Tuscon, Arizona; Redlands, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, California; and Honolulu, Hawaii. The Shriner group appears to have chartered their train as there are photographs documenting a train breakdown in Arizona and stops in various stations show it to be decorated with banners. Several images includes women and young boys wearing fezzes, indicating that families participated in the trip. There are also several photographs of cowboys and Native Americans in Arizona and Texas. Images taken in California include views of Los Angeles rooftops, Golden Gate Park and San Francisco Bay, Mt. Shasta and San Bernadino, and palms and a grapefruit grove at Baldwin's Ranch in Redlands. There are several images of ships including the S.S. Sierra, the committee boat Fearless, a quarantine boat, an Austrian training ship at Honolulu, the American battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin, and unidentified ocean steamers in San Francisco Bay.

The albums are half bound with red leather bindings, have red cloth boards and are housed in light blue boxes.