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Leonard J. Rose Family Photograph Collection: Finding Aid
photCL 156
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Title: Leonard J. Rose Family Photograph Collection
Dates (inclusive): Approximately 1850-1979
Bulk dates: 1888-1941
Collection Number: photCL 156
Creator:
Rose, L. J. (Leonard John), 1827-1899.
Extent:
152 photographs in 3 boxes and 1 folder.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains 152 photographs of the family of Leonard John Rose (1827-1899),
the Rose family's ranch and vineyard "Sunny Slope" in San Gabriel, California, their residences, and horses owned by the
family, chiefly dating from the late 19th century.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Leonard J. Rose Family Photograph Collection, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of Mrs. Markel Gallagher, February 1980.
Album 2, Items 71-73, gift of William J. Coffill, July 2015.
Leonard John Rose (1827-1899) was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1827. His family moved to the
United States in 1839, where they lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then moved to Waterloo,
Illinois. Rose attended Shurtliff College in Illinois. He became a mercantilist, trading goods
up and down the Mississippi River, and opened a general store. Leonard John Rose married Amanda
Markel Jones in Iowa in 1851.They had ten children: Annie (Sanderson), Nina R. (Wachtel), Daisy
(Montgomery), Maud (Easton), Mabel (Pike), Harry Ezra Rose, Leonard "Leon" John Rose Jr., Guy
Rose, and Roy Rose. After a child died in the 1850s, Rose sold his store, organized an emigrant
train, and left Iowa for California in 1858. Native Americans assaulted their party by the
Colorado River in New Mexico; the family spent close to two years in Santa Fe.
In 1860, Rose
arrived in Southern California where he bought a 2000-acre estate in the San Gabriel Valley
called “Sunny Slope.” On his property, Rose cultivated grapes, oranges, walnuts, produced wine
and brandy, and bred trotter horses. Despite his economic successes, Rose fell into debt and
sold Sunny Slope in 1887, beginning a term as California State Senator for Los Angeles that same
year. Rose committed suicide in 1889, survived by his wife, Amanda Rosa, and eight sons and
daughters. His son, Guy Rose, became renowned plein air painter.
The collection consists of 152 photographs of the family of Leonard John Rose (1827-1899); the Rose family ranch and vineyard,
"Sunny Slope," in San Gabriel,
California; residences; and horses owned by the Rose family, chiefly dating from the late 19th century.
An earlier archivist divided the collection into “volumes” 1 and 2, though the photographs in “volume 1” are loose.
Only volume 2, Items 1-35, are bound in an album. The prints range from late 19th-century cabinet cards to copy prints of
19th century photographs.
The latest photographs are two 1979 color snapshots of Mrs. John Gallagher, and among the earliest images is a reproduction
of a portrait of L. J.
and Amanda Rose on their wedding day, ca. 1850 (Volume 2, Item 7).
Many of the photographs are cabinet card studio portraits of family members, especially the children of L.J. and Amanda Rose,
including Nina Rose
Wachtel (and her husband John V. Wachtel), Guy Rose, Mabel Rose Dixon, Maud Rose Easton. Many of the card photographs have
imprints of Los Angeles photography studios including
Steckel & Lamson and T.G. Schumacher. Among the photographs of the Sunny Slope Farm are stereographs by W.M. Godfrey (Volume
1, Items 13a and 14-14a) and stereographs and
unmounted prints by Carleton Watkins (Album 1, Items 17-29 and 75 and 76). Notably, there are three photographs of interiors
of the Rose residence on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles,
which include displays of the types of card photographs included in this collection (see Volume 1, Items 48 and 50, and Volume
2, Item 49).
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- Leonard John Rose Papers (Call number: mssHM 70723-70754)
- Sunny Slope. San Gabriel, Cal. / by Watkins. (Call number: photCL 522)
- Views of Sunny Slope Ranch and other ranches in the San Gabriel Valley, California (Call number: photPF 490-499)
- Roy Rose collection of L.J. Rose historic family material
- Godfrey, W. M. Stereographic views of Los Angeles, San Diego, and vicinity (Call number: photST Godfrey)
- Carleton E. Watkins Photograph Collection (Call number: photCL 74)
- Carleton E. Watkins Stereograph Collection (Call number: photST Watkins)
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Rose, Guy, 1867-1925.
Rose, L. J. (Leonard John), 1827-1899.
Rose, L. J. (Leonard John), 1862-
Race horses -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Ranch life -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Ranchers -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Sunny Slope Ranch (Calif.) -- Photographs.
A.E. Nichols & Co., photographer.
Godfrey, W. M. (William Mollock), 1825-1900, photographer.
Putnam (Photographers), photographer.
Penelon & Addis, photographer.
Schumacher, Frank G., 1861- photographer.
Steckel & Lamson, photographer.
Watkins, Carleton E., 1829-1916, photographer.
Photographs.