The collection contains the journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip Charis Wilson took with photographer Edward Weston.

Widely known as photographer Edward Weston’s model and muse, Charis Wilson (1914-2009) was also a writer. She was born in San Francisco in 1914. She met Weston in Carmel, California in 1934, and they started a romantic relationship shortly thereafter. In 1937 Weston received a Guggenheim Fellowship and he and Wilson spent the year traveling around California and the American West. While Weston made pictures, Wilson kept a detailed journal of their experiences. In 1939 they married, and, in 1940 California and the West. In 1941 Weston was asked to take photographs to illustrate a Limited Edition Club edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Weston and Wilson traveled the United States by automobile for two years to complete both the Guggenheim and the Whitman projects. They divorced in 1946 and Wilson married labor activist Noel Harris. Harris and she had two daughters before divorcing in 1967. Wilson’s memoir, Through Another Lens was published in 1999. She died in Santa Cruz, California in 2009.

202 items in two boxes

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.

Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, please go to following web site.