Title:

San Francisco Boys' Outing Farm: the camp at the brow of the hill and the valley 2000 ft. below

Alice Iola Hare Photograph Collection

Alice Iola Hare Photograph Collection

Hare (Alice I.) Photograph Collection

Description:

The Hare collection contains 575 silver gelatin prints, taken by Mrs. Hare circa 1900-1910. Most of the photographs were taken in and around the Santa Clara Valley region of Northern California, especially in the vicinities of Santa Clara and San Jose. Other areas featured in the collection are Saratoga, Los Gatos, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Big Basin Park, San Francisco, Monterey, Palo Alto, Sonoma County, Lake County, and Pebble Beach. The subject matter of Mrs. Hare's work is diverse, including gardens, gardening and botany; architecture; streets and roadways; parks, landscapes, and other scenes of nature; agriculture and industry; travel and recreation; and the local Chinese, Spanish and native Californian cultures of the time. Mrs. Hare's work displays unquestionable documentary value. It is also unquestionably the result of a deep personal interest in her subject matter and of a life spent actively involved in those interests. Much of Hare's work is self-consciously Californian. She often includes the name of the state, if not the specific area, in her captions, thus highlighting the locale and establishing a particular geographical identity for the subject matter. Her work also places a knowledgeable emphasis on the history of the state and the various peoples that have contributed to its cultural make-up. Hare seems to have had a sharp sense for that which was distinctly Californian and that which was of historical significance to the development of the state. Her work forms an especially impressive record of the history, geography, and various contemporary facets of the Santa Clara Valley area. Although some of her photographs were used commercially--to illustrate articles in Sunset Magazine, for example--it is difficult to determine to what degree commercial interests motivated Mrs. Hare's work. A majority of the photographs are marked with her home studio stamp on the back. Several are also numbered and inscribed with her name. Many are labeled as "views" or "scenes" of the areas or activities they represent. Some of the prints are copyrighted, some are stamped "Credit Must Be Given", while some even display a price. As a few of the prints indicate that they were commissioned, it is possible that a portion of her work was done for the particular demands of her clients. To some extent, the scope of the collection might be considered with regard to Mrs. Hare's practice as a painter. Though little is known about her painting, there is the possibility that she used some of her photographs as models for this work. Her garden photographs designated as "studies", for example, might have been taken for these purposes. There are also several still life, landscapes, and roadway scenes which allude to painterly conventions. The few hand-colored prints in the collection, which are apparently experimental, may have also had some relation to her painting. Despite Mrs. Hare's interest in history and her closeness to her family, there is little evidence in the collection that she cared to preserve a photographic record of her family or friends. In contrast to the places or activities appearing in her work, very few of the people are identified. Several may likely be friends and/or relatives, as many of them appear throughout the collection in various locales and situations, but this cannot be determined for certain. A few of the photographs are of Mrs. Hare herself. Regardless of their various original purposes, Mrs. Hare's photographs amount to a richly diverse contribution to the heritage of California, especially those regions of the state which were the subjects of her work. Originally from the eastern United States herself, Mrs. Hare understood the distinct appeal of California to those who had never been to the state or were not originally from the state. In addition to Mrs. Hare's photographs, the collection includes a booklet, "Pictorial Description of the Destruction of Our Church", on the destruction of Santa Clara's Centennary Methodist Episcopal Church from the 1906 earthquake, with photographic illustrations by J.O. Tucker and an introduction by the church's Pastor Fred A. Keast . The collection also contains the cover of a pamphlet, "Pescadero Beach Stones". There are seven prints unaccounted for in the collection. It is unclear if this is an error in the numbering of the prints or if they are missing. There are several prints which are discolored from being glued to their album sheets. It is likely that a few of the photographs were not produced by Mrs. Hare, one of them being a hand-colored print from the studio of F.H. Maude & Co., Los Angeles.

Creator/Contributor:

Hare, Alice, creator

Contributing Institution:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library