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Cowles (John Clifford), Mary L. Bennett Collection on
MS.1956.004
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Contributing Institution:
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Title: Mary L. Bennett Collection on John Clifford Cowles
Creator:
Bennett, Mary L.
Creator:
Cowles, John Clifford, 1861-1951
Identifier/Call Number: MS.1956.004
Physical Description:
1.2 Linear Feet
1 box and 1 bound volume
Date (inclusive): 1861-1951
Abstract: Photographs and textual materials generated by artist and writer John Clifford Cowles, documenting his time in Montana and
his career in southern California.
Physical Location: This collection is stored at the Clark Library.
Language of Material:
English
.
John Clifford Cowles was born in 1861 in Freeport, Illinois and studied in New York City with Albert Bierstadt and others.
He made a career as a painter and photographer in the American west during the 1880s and 1890s, before going to Paris to study
with Albert Besnard and Jean-Charles Cazin. In his writing, some of which is collected here, Cowles asserts that Senator William
Andrews Clark was his patron in the 1890s and that he aided in the growth of Clark's art collection, but the extent to which
this may be true is unclear. Cowles returned to the US in the late 1890s and lived primarily in Los Angeles until his death
in 1951. In 1932, he wrote The whispering buddha, a mystical mystery novel.
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Clark Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
This collection consists mainly of a scrapbook and loose photographs from the estate of John Clifford Cowles. The scrapbook
was not compiled by Cowles himself, but by a woman named Mary L. Bennett, who purchased some of his papers and photographs
after his death in 1951. In a note at the end of the volume, Bennett recounts that after purchasing some photographs from
the Cowles estate at a local store, she went to his former house and rescued more documents and photographs from destruction,
including the manuscript of a fictionalized memoir. The scrapbook she assembled from Cowles' original materials includes photographs,
prints, newspaper clippings, typescripts, and other material like pressed eucalyptus leaves. Many passages from the memoir
are pasted into the album and even more are transcribed in Bennett's hand; it is unclear if they are assembled here in the
correct order or if all of the passages come from the same work by Cowles. The loose photographs largely document Cowles
work as a photographer for hire in Montana and elsewhere in the west and include images of mining operations.
This collection was purchased by the Clark Library from Mary L. Bennett, who acquired the material from booksellers and from
Cowles' landlord after Cowles' death in 1951.
[Identification of item], John Clifford Cowles Collection, MS.1956.004, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University
of California, Los Angeles.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Scrapbooks -- United States -- 20th century
Black-and-white photographs
Authors, American -- 20th century