Mildred E. Baker Travel Scrapbook Collection: Finding Aid
Finding aid prepared by Diann Benti.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
© November 2017
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Title: Mildred E. Baker Travel Scrapbook Collection
Dates (inclusive): 1927-approximately early 1970s
Bulk dates: 1927-1941
Collection Number: photCL 237
Creator:
Baker, Mildred E., 1899-1987
Extent:
13 volumes in 6 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains scrapbooks chiefly containing narratives, snapshots, and
clippings documenting
summer canyoneering and camping trips to the American Southwest, the Colorado River, and the Canadian Rockies
by Mildred E. Baker (1899-1987) in the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as some volumes related to Baker's activities and
interest in bookbinding, poetry, and the Woodcraft League of
America in upstate New York with bookbinder John F. Grabau (1878-1948).
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], Mildred E. Baker Travel Scrapbook Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Volumes 11 and 13, gift of Mildred Baker McVey, March 1974; Volumes 1-10 and 12, gift of McVey, October 1990.
Mildred E. Baker (later Mildred McVey) (December 23, 1899-March 20, 1987), also known as "Millie," was a secretary for an
investment firm and
a botanist for the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. During summers in the 1930s and early 1940s,
Baker took extensive camping and canyoneering trips with two friends:
teacher Florence A. Huck (1895-1980) and social worker Katherine Crisp, also of Buffalo. In 1940,
she took part in the "Nevills Expedition," with Norman Nevills, rafting down the Green and Colorado Rivers
from Wyoming to Lake Mead; she became one of the first women to successfully travel
the full length of the Colorado River.
In the 1940s, she became friends
with Otis Marston, river-runner and historian of the Colorado River and Green River regions, and communicated with
him about her travel experiences in the American Southwest. In the 1940s, Baker married Philip Rosa, but they later divorced.
Around 1948, Baker moved to
Encinitas, California, and married
Chester Lee McVey (1894-1968) in 1959. They later lived in Laguna Hills, California.
Bibliography
Shaffer, Marguerite S. "Playing American: The Southwestern Scrapbooks of Mildred E. Baker," in The culture of tourism, the tourism of culture : selling the past to the present in the American southwest, ed. Hal K. Rothman (Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2003)
This collection contains thirteen scrapbooks chiefly containing narratives, snapshots, and clippings documenting
summer canyoneering, camping, and tourism trips to the American Southwest, the Colorado River, the Canadian Rockies, and Wyoming
by Mildred E. Baker in the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as volumes related to Baker's activities and interest in
bookbinding, poetry, and the Woodcraft League of
America in Upstate New York with bookbinder John F. Grabau in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Most of these
volumes reflect the participation of two Baker's friends from Buffalo: Florence A. Huck and Katherine Crisp, who frequently
traveled with Baker and were also involved in
bookbinding activities.
Baker's scrapbooks follow a general pattern: they include typescript narratives describing her trips illustrated with her
own snapshots and handwritten captions, as well
as clippings from magazines and newspapers, occasional bits of poetry, and printed ephemera. Most of the travel volumes include
lists of identified flowers, shrubs, trees, ferns, and birds seen on the trip, reflecting Baker's interests in botany and
ornithology. Many of the volumes also have additional printed items laid in,
with some dating through the early 1970s. All of the volumes are bound in decorative bindings stamped "Grabau," and most have
marbled paper over the pasteboards.
Volumes 1-2 and 4-5 reflect Baker's experiences chiefly at Sunset Hill,
the summer home and artist's retreat of bookbinder John F. Grabau, near Buffalo, New York, presumably as part of the "Ojenta
tribe" of the Woodcraft League of America.
These volumes include poetry and photographs of the landscape, camping and other outdoor outings and group events, and bookbinding,
including images of binding specimens by
both Grabau and Baker.
Many of the volumes document Baker's trips to the American Southwest, including her experience as one of the first women to
raft the
full-length of the Colorado River as part of the 1940 "Nevills Expedition" led by Norman D. Nevills. Her scrapbook of this
trip (volume 11) includes photographs of Nevills and his wife, Doris Nevills,
and fellow participants including mining engineer John S. Southworth of Glendale, California, botanist Hugh C. Cutler
of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and future Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.
Regular themes among the photographs include depictions of
the natural landscape including rock formations, mountains, rivers, and lakes; Native Americans; trading posts; cliff dwellings;
petroglyphs; lodgings;
and means of transportation including by train, automobile, airplane,
horse, and burro.
The volumes consist of:
Volume 1: [Sunset Hill "Christmas" scrapbook album]. 1927-1928
Locations referenced: Sunset Hill estate, Upstate New York
Locations referenced: Sunset Hill estate, Upstate New York
Volume 2: Sunset Hill and Algonquin Park "birthday" scrapbook album]. 1927-1933
Locations referenced: Sunset Hill estate, Upstate New York, and Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada
Locations referenced: Sunset Hill estate, Upstate New York, and Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada
Volume 3: Navajo Mountain, 1931
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico
Volume 4: Anthology of Sunset Hill (Its Trails and Poets' Glen). 1934-approximately 1938
Locations referenced: Upstate New York
Locations referenced: Upstate New York
Volume 5: Some poems of Sunset Hill by Mildred E. Baker, Wm. P. Alexander and others. Christmas 1936
Locations referenced: Upstate New York
Locations referenced: Upstate New York
Volume 6: Memorable Days on Teton Trails. 1934
Locations referenced: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Locations referenced: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Volume 7: A Glimpse of the Old West. August 16th-September 2nd, 1935
Locations referenced: New Mexico
Locations referenced: New Mexico
Volume 8: Wilderness Wanderings in Jasper and Mt. Robson Parks. July 3rd to 23rd 1936
Locations referenced: Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Locations referenced: Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Volume 9: Trail Riding in the Canadian Rockies. July 23 to Aug. 8, 1937
Locations referenced: Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Locations referenced: Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Volume 10: Peace of Rainbow and Canyon. July 2nd to 25th, 1938
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah
Volume 11: Rough Water. Down the Green and Colorado Rivers from Green River, Wyoming, to Boulder Dam, Nevada. June 20th-August
22nd, 1940
Locations referenced: Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
Locations referenced: Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
Volume 12: [Scrapbook of newspaper clippings related to the Nevills expedition]. 1940-1941
Locations referenced: Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
Locations referenced: Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
Volume 13: Turquoise Skies and Copper Canyon. 1942
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Otis R. Marston Papers (Call number: mssMarston papers) contains correspondence with Baker and a typescript copy of Baker's journal during the Nevills Expedition.
The volumes are arranged chronologically.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Baker, Mildred E., 1899-1987 -- Photographs.
Crisp, Katherine -- Photographs.
Cutler, Hugh C., 1912-1998 -- Photographs.
Goldwater, Barry M. (Barry Morris), 1909-1998 -- Photographs.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948 -- Photographs.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948 -- Homes and haunts -- Photographs.
Huck, Florence A. -- Photographs.
Nevills, Norman D., 1908-1949 -- Photographs.
Southworth, John -- Photographs.
Nevills Expeditions -- Photographs.
Woodcraft League of America -- Photographs.
Artist colonies -- New York (State) -- Photographs.
Artist colonies -- New York (State).
Boats and boating -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Bookbinding -- Photographs.
Camping -- Photographs.
Canyoneering -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona -- Photographs.
Indians of North America -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
National parks and reserves -- Canada -- Photographs.
National parks and reserves -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Outdoor recreation -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Petroglyphs -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Rapids -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Rivers -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Travel -- Canada -- Photographs.
Travel -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Women travelers -- Canada -- Photographs.
Women travelers -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Alberta -- Photographs.
Arizona -- Photographs.
Canada -- Photographs.
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.) -- Photographs.
Carlsbad Caverns (N.M.)
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Photographs.
Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Grand Teton (Wyo.) -- Photographs.
Green River (Wyo.-Utah) -- Photographs.
Louise, Lake (Alta. : Lake) -- Photographs.
Mogollon Mountains (N.M.)
Navajo Mountain (Utah) -- Photographs.
New Mexico -- Photographs.
Rainbow Bridge (Utah) -- Photographs.
Rainbow Bridge National Monument (Utah) -- Photographs.
Upstate New York (N.Y.) -- Photographs.
Utah -- Photographs.
Photographs.
Photograph albums.
Poems.
Scrapbooks.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948, binder.
Huck, Florence A.
Alexander, William P. (William Prindle), 1881-1956.
Box 1
Volumes 1-3
Volume 1
[Sunset Hill "Christmas" scrapbook album]. 1927-1928
Physical Description: volume 15 x 21 cm
Volume containing approximately 48 snapshots from Sunset Hill, the summer home and artist's retreat of bookbinder John F.
Grabau, near Buffalo, New York.
The photographs include views of the Sunset Hill property, bookbinding classes, binding specimens, and Baker and her friends,
presumably members of
the "Ojenta tribe" of the Woodcraft League of America, on outdoor outings and dressed in Native
American costumes.
With inscription "To Mildred E. Baker, A reminder of pleasant Woodcraft days at Sunset Hill from her friend Tah-ko-dah, Christmas
1927,"
as well as some clippings, and typescript poems. Binding stamped "Grabau."
Volume 2
[Sunset Hill and Algonquin Park "birthday" scrapbook album]. 1927-1933
Physical Description: volume 20 x 25 cm
Volume containing approximately 120 snapshots of Sunset Hill and a trip to Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada, with images
of
Baker and her group of friends, presumably members of the "Ojenta tribe" of the Woodcraft League of America, John F.
Grabau,
swimming and boating, dressing in Native American costumes, and
bookbinding specimens including a display of Baker's bindings from a local book show.
With inscription: "Happy Birthday to Wicaga, Mildred E. Baker from her friends in the Book-binding class, Dec. 23rd. 1929,"
signed by Florence A. Huck, Lillian E. Prior, Elizabeth B. Rosa, Dorothy Bateman, Donna Ann Hanes, John F. Grabau, Martha
B. Harwood,
Sally Knight, Katherine Crisp, and J. Bernard Vogle." Also contains clippings, sketches from Algonquin Park, and Christmas
cards. Binding stamped "Grabau."
Volume 3
Navajo Mountain. Aug. 1931
Physical Description: volume 16.5 x 23 cm
Volume containing typescript account and approximately 67 snapshots of trip to the American
Southwest begun on August 14, 1931,
by Baker and Huck, illustrated with pasted clippings, published illustrations and postcards.
The photographs and the descriptions document camping, the natural landscape, rock formations, tour guide Jack Wilson and
his wife, Katherine Wilson,
travel by automobile and burrows, Navajo trading posts,
and cliff dwellings. Included are two images and a description of a Navajo "sheep dip," identified as "Navajos dipping sheep
and goats in a lime-sulphur solution for 'scabs.'
Near Tonalea."
Locations include Arizona; Utah; Rainbow Bridge; Surprise Valley; Navajo Mountain; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Puyé cliff dwellings;
and the Taos Pueblo. With "Harveycar Motor Cruises
through the Great Southwest" map pasted in at back of volume. Binding stamped "Grabau."
Box 2
Volumes 4-5
Volume 4
Anthology of Sunset Hill (Its Trails and Poets' Glen). 1934-approximately 1938
Physical Description: volume 21 x 17 cm
Volume containing typescript and handwritten poems, dated from 1927-1938, and a typescript dedication address
for Poets' Glen, Sunset Hill, on September 30, 1934, by Dr. George B. Neumann.
Illustrated with approximately ten photographs.
With handwritten inscription to Baker for her birthday from John F. Grabau, 1934. Leather binding has imprint of Grabau, 1934.
Related Material
Florence Huck's copy of
Anthology of Sunset Hill,
with an inscription from Baker and Grabau, is held by the Buffalo Central Library.
Volume 5
Some poems of Sunset Hill by Mildred E. Baker, Wm. P. Alexander and others. Christmas 1936
Physical Description: volume 19.5 x 15 cm
Volume with handwritten poems, dated from 1927-1934, illustrated with eight 4 x 6 3/4 inch photographs of natural scenery.
With handwritten inscription, "This book has been engrossed and bound ... by her Friend Florence A. Huck, 1936." Leather binding
stamped "Grabau."
Box 3
Volumes 6-7
Volume 6
Memorable Days on Teton Trails. 1934
Physical Description: volume 22 x 27 cm
Volume with typescript detailed narrative and 111 snapshots of a pack trip to Grand Teton National Park from July 14-29, 1934,
by Baker, Huck, and Crisp.
Includes a list of identified flowers, shrubs, trees, ferns, and birds that were seen. The scrapbook also
contains a map of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, as well as newspaper clippings, postcards, and a
pamphlet on the Grand Teton National Park from the United States Department of the Interior (1934). Leather binding stamped
"Grabau."
Volume 7
A Glimpse of the Old West. August 16th-September 2nd, 1935.
Physical Description: volume 21 x 27 cm
Volume with typescript detailed narrative and approximately 100 snapshots of trip by airplane to New Mexico by Baker and Huck.
Includes description of airplane travel.
With a list of identified plants, trees, grasses, vines, shrubs, ferns, sedges, birds, mammals, and reptiles that were seen.
Images include the airplane, Double S Ranch (near Cliff, New Mexico), Mountain
Camp, horses, Mogollon Mountains, El Paso, Texas, and Carlsbad Caverns. With clippings and postcards, and a booklet,
"Carlsbad Caverns National Park New Mexico" by Isabelle F. Story (United States Department
of the Interior, 1934) and Santa Fe Railroad "Off the Beaten Path by Motor" map.
With Christmas inscription to Baker from John F. Grabau, 1935. Leather binding stamped "Grabau."
Box 4
Volumes 8-9
Volume 8
Wilderness Wanderings in Jasper and Mt. Robson Parks. July 3rd to 23rd 1936
Volume with typescript detailed narrative and 173 snapshots of camping trip to the Canadian Rockies by Baker, Huck, and Crisp.
With a birthday inscription to Baker from Huck, December 1936.
Includes several magazine photographs, brochure for Brewster's Rocky Mountain Ranch in Jasper, Alberta, and booklet
The Geological Story of Jasper National Park, Canada by E. M. Kindle (National Parks of Canada, Department of the Interior) and a fold-out map of Jasper Park.
Narrative includes a list of identified birds, mammals, butterflies, plants, trees, ferns, and shrubs. Leather binding stamped
"Grabau."
Volume 9
Trail Riding in the Canadian Rockies. July 23 to Aug. 8, 1937
Physical Description: volume 22 x 27 cm
Volume with typescript narrative and 97 snapshots documenting a trip to the
Canadian Rockies by Baker, Huck, and Crisp, and a stay on the Kananaskis Ranch and Brewster Ranch in Alberta.
Contains an account of the trail ride and stay at Lake Louise and CPR hotels. A list of herbaceous plants, trees, ferns, butterflies,
shrubs, animals, and birds is appended.
Also contains a small map of the "Route of the General Trail Ride and the Pow Wow, July 30-Aug. 3, 1937," plus a list of the
participants in
the Trail Rides party plus song sheet of the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies. Includes articles, photographs, and illustrations
about the Trail Riders.
In addition, there is a large map of Lake Louise Park; one Christmas letter from Kananaskis Ranch, signed by the whole Brewster
family, and
6 magazine photos and 1 magazine with an article on Mt. Assiniboine. Leather binding stamped "Grabau."
Box 5
Volumes 10-11
Volume 10
Peace of Rainbow and Canyon. July 2nd to 25th, 1938.
Physical Description: volume 22 x 27 cm
Volume with typescript narrative and approximately 200 snapshots of a trip to the Grand Canyon and Rainbow Bridge Canyon by
Baker, Huck,
and Crisp.
A list of identified herbaceous plants, trees, ferns, shrubs, grasses, butterflies, birds, and mammals is appended.
Also includes a one-page list of Navajo terms, a map of Indian reservations in Arizona, and some clippings. Includes images
of the Grand Canyon,
Havasu Canyon, pictographs in Havasu, Mooney Falls, Navajos at Cameron, Jack and Katherine Wilson, Rainbow Bridge, the Colorado
River, Surprise Valley, a Navajo weave, Piute Canyon,
Betatakin cliff dwellings, Tsegi Canyon, Inscription House ruins, and Inscription Camp. Leather binding stamped "Grabau."
Volume 11
Rough Water. Down the Green and Colorado Rivers from Green River, Wyoming, to Boulder Dam, Nevada. June 20th-August 22nd, 1940
Physical Description: volume 22 x 27 cm
Volume with typescript narrative, illustrated with approximately 400 photographs, of traveling down the Green and Colorado
Rivers, from Green River, Wyoming, to Lake Mead, Nevada, with
Norman D. Nevills and his wife, Doris Nevills, of Bluff, Utah; Salt Lake City assayer B. W. Deason; mining engineer John
S. Southworth of Glendale, California;
botanist Hugh C. Cutler of the Missouri Botanical Gardens; boatman Del Reed; the trip's official photographer Charles W. Larabee
of Kansas City, Missouri; and future Arizona
Senator Barry Goldwater.
Contains descriptions of the river runs, campsites, and animals and birds seen. Includes photographs of camping, traveling
in boats marked "Nevills Expedition," river rapids,
canyons and rock formations,
as well as Native American petroglyphs and messages on rocks from previous expeditions; and the remnants of boat wrecks.
Mentions that carrier pigeons were used for sending messages, films, and reports of the expedition's progress directly to
the
Salt Lake Tribune-Telegram newspaper. Also contains newspaper clippings and an article from the magazine
Land of Sunshine
(January 1900, vol. 12, no. 5) titled, "Finding the Colorado." Binding stamped "Grabau."
Items 1-13
Loose photographs 1940-1941
Physical Description: 13 photographs
Set of thirteen chiefly 8 x 10" photographs found in the back of the scrapbooks of the Nevills Expedition.
The photographer presumably is C. W. Larabee, official photographer for the expedition down the Colorado and Green River.
Photographs consist of:
- Item 1. Mildred E. Baker drinking out of a tin cup
- Items 2-4. The Nevills Expedition packing their 3 boats
- Items 5-7. The Nevills Expedition taking a lunch break and viewing the Colorado River rapids
- Item 8. Walking in the cliff formations near the Colorado River
- Items 9-10. The Nevills Expedition tying up their boats, with views of striated rock formations
- Item 11. Rock formations
- Item 12-13. 5 x 7 in. prints showing Indian petroglyphs found on rock walls.
Box 6
Volumes 12-13
Volume 12
[Scrapbook of newspaper clippings related to the Nevills expedition]. 1940-1941
Physical Description: volume 28 x 25 cm
Volume consisting solely of clippings including a series of newspaper articles written by Doris Nevills, about the Nevills
Expedition, 1940-1941,
titled "Woman Conqueror of the Colorado," as well as some clippings by other authors and a typescript description of the 1940
expedition by
Norman D. Nevills, titled "Descent of the Canyons." No photographs.
Volume 13
Turquoise Skies and Copper Canyon. 1942
Physical Description: volume 25 x 18 cm
Black binder containing a typescript account and 54 snapshots of a pack trip to the American Southwest
by Baker, Huck, and Crisp in July 1942,
including the
Navajo Reservation in Arizona, Monument Valley,
Navajo Mountain and Rainbow Bridge Canyon in Utah, with
poems at end. Contains list of identified birds, animals, grasses, plants, trees, and shrubs. Also includes some magazine
clippings.