George P. Thresher Negative Collection of the Southwest: Finding
Aid
Finding aid prepared by Michelle Sanchez.
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
© 2013
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Overview of the Collection
Title: George P. Thresher Negative Collection of the Southwest
Dates (inclusive): approximately 1898-1910
Collection Number: photCL 449
Creator:
Thresher, G. P. (George P.)
Extent:
408 photographs in 8 boxes : 83 glass plate negatives and 129 film negatives in 7 boxes; 8 lantern slides and 188 copy prints
made from the original negatives in 1 box.
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: A collection of glass plate and film negatives by amateur photographer and Los Angeles real estate broker George P. Thresher
(1854-1927) focusing on the American Southwest and Native Americans of the region,
particularly of Arizona, and the Gila River crossing area, from ca. 1898 to 1910. Tribes depicted include Yuma, Apache, Navajo,
Maricopa, Pima, and Papago (Tohono O’Odham). There are views of native peoples in their daily lives, as
well as posing in studio portraits. There are also landscape and town views, including Phoenix, Arizona, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
missions at San Antonio, Texas, and the Salt Lake Temple in Utah.
Language: English.
Access
Advance arrangements for viewing negatives must be made with the Curator of Photographs. The collection is open to qualified
researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please visit the Huntington's website:
www.huntington.org.
Administrative Information
Publication Rights
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.
Preferred Citation
George P. Thresher Negative Collection of the Southwest. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Provenance
Purchased from Alta California Books, February 24, 1978.
Biographical Note
George P. Thresher was born on September 11, 1854, in Massachusetts and immigrated to California in 1895. Described variously
as an amateur photographer and
real estate developer, he lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1927 at the age of seventy-two. Between 1904 and 1926, Thresher
appears in the Los Angeles business directories, often listed as a real estate broker
with office addresses on either the 200 or 300 block of Broadway. At various points in his career, he served as the Director
of the Artesian Company of Los Angeles and the Vice President of the Los Angeles Building Company.
He married Florence Evans Stone in 1878 and they had three daughters together. From 1905 until his death, he resided at 37
Westmoreland Place in Los Angeles.
Thresher took up photography at some point in his life, concentrating his efforts on California and the Southwest. A few of
his photographs depicting missions and similar subjects appear in books by noted lecturer, author, and promoter,
George Wharton James. James credited images to Thresher in
The Old Franciscan Missions of California (1913),
In and Out of the Missions of California (1906), and
Through Ramona’s Country (1909).
Thresher eventually sold his negatives to Charles C. Pierce, the proprietor of a large photographic supply business and studio
as well as the largest picture library in Los Angeles. Once Pierce purchased a photographer’s images, he rarely
credited the creator, stamping his own name on the print instead. This practice may explain some of the confusion surrounding
attribution of Thresher’s prints, which are variously credited to Pierce and George Wharton James. Adding to the
confusion, some of Thresher’s negatives in the Huntington collection appear to be copies of images by other photographers
of the period.
NOTE ON SOURCES:
- Information drawn from County of Los Angeles death certificate and “Western History-Material” document at the Los Angeles
Public Library. Copies of both documents are in the collection file.
- Letter from C.C. Pierce to Leslie E. Bliss, Librarian at the Huntington, November 16, 1933. See C.C. Pierce Collection File
(photCL Pierce), Photo Archives.
See also the
C.C. Pierce Collection finding aid
for more information on Pierce and his business.
Scope and Content of Collection
A collection of glass plate and film negatives by amateur photographer and Los Angeles real estate broker George P. Thresher
(1854-1927) focusing on the
American Southwest and Native Americans of the region, particularly of Arizona, and the Gila River crossing area, from ca.
1898 to 1910. The majority of the Thresher Collection contains images of towns and sites in Arizona, including
Phoenix, Mission San Xavier del Bac, Montezuma Castle, Peach Springs, and adobe ruins. Photographs of Texas are well represented
in the collection, including many views of Missions San Concepcion, San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo),
San Francisco de la Espada, and Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo. There are also images of Colorado (Garden of the
Gods, Pike’s Peak, and Castle Rock), New Mexico (Santa Fe, Tesuque, and possibly Laguna), and unidentified
pueblos. Notable portraits from California are of Victoriano, chief of the Soboba Indians, and his unnamed third wife. There
is a separate and very interesting sequence of images depicting the Mount Beauty Mine and its operations
in San Diego County, California.
A small assortment of lantern slides is at the end of the collection showing Indians of Arizona, California, and New Mexico
(191-198). There are no copy prints for the following negatives: (16), (23.1), (33), (40.1), (45.1), (63),
(80.1), (96), (111), (120-122), (131), (136-137), and (157).
It appears that the Thresher images at the Huntington are a sub-section of a larger collection that the Bancroft Library at
the University of California, Berkeley, purchased in 1978. The Thresher photographs at the Bancroft depict
the California Missions and various scenes in Los Angeles and California generally from 1899 through 1916. See William Roberts,
“California Views of George P. Thresher,” in
Bancroftiana (November 1981), pp. 3-4.
Indexing Terms
Adobe houses -- Photographs.
Apache Indians -- Photographs.
Hopi Indians -- Photographs.
Indians of North America—Funeral customs and rites -- Photographs.
Indians of North America—Southwest, New -- Photographs.
Luiseño Indians -- Photographs.
Maricopa Indians -- Photographs.
Mines and mineral resources--California--San Diego County -- Photographs.
Mission San Antonio de Valero -- Photographs.
Mission Concepción (San Antonio, Tex.) -- Photographs.
Mission San Francisco de la Espada (San Antonio, Tex.) -- Photographs.
Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo (San Antonio, Tex.) -- Photographs.
Mission San Xavier del Bac (Tucson, Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Missions, Spanish -- Photographs.
Montezuma Castle (Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Navajo Indians -- Photographs.
Salt Lake Temple -- Photographs.
Sihasapa Indians -- Photographs.
Tohono O’Odham Indians -- Photographs.
Ute Indians -- Photographs.
Wickiups -- Photographs.
Yuma Indians -- Photographs.
Buckskin Charlie, Ute chief -- Photographs.
Casa Grande (Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Castle Rock (Colo.) -- Photographs.
Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs, Colo.) -- Photographs.
Gila River (N.M. and Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Las Vegas Hot Springs (N.M.) -- Photographs.
Peach Springs (Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Phoenix (Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Pike’s Peak (Colo.) -- Photographs.
Pueblo of Laguna (N.M.) -- Photographs.
Salt Lake City (Utah) -- Photographs.
Santa Fe (N.M.) -- Photographs.
Tesuque Pueblo (N.M.) -- Photographs.
Film negatives.
Glass negatives.
Lantern Slides.
Negatives.
Photographs.
Portraits.
Box 1
Copy prints (Items 1-190)
Box 1, Item 1
Woman and child outside residence.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 2
Street scene with Mexican children playing.
Box 1, Item 3
Cave opening in cliff. Graffiti?
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 4 - 5 (variant)
Box 1, Item 7
Arizona Falls on Salt River, near Phoenix.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 8-8.1
First relay station between Flagstaff and Grand Canyon.
Note
(8) Glass plate negative; a cropped version of (8.1) negative.
Box 1, Item 9
Dinner station halfway to Grand Canyon.
Garden of the Gods [Actually located in Colorado, not Arizona]
Box 1, Item 10
Entrance to the Garden of the Gods.
Box 1, Item 14
"Mother Grundy" (rock formation).
Box 1, Item 15-20
Mission San Xavier del Bac.
Note
(16) glass plate negative, no print; (17) glass plate negative.
Box 1, Item 21-23.1
Montezuma Castle.
Note
Glass plate negatives; same image.
Box 1, Item 24-26
Indians at Peach Springs.
Box 1, Item 27
Indians at Yuma Station, 1908.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 27
Cooking shelter.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 30
Woman winnowing grain.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 31
Wickiups.
Note
Glass plate negative; no print.
Box 1, Item 32
Wickiup.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 33
Granary.
Note
Glass plate negative and negative.
Box 1, Item 34
Woman carrying pot on head.
Box 1, Item 37-37.2
Family outside adobe structure.
Note
Glass plate negatives (37.1-37.2 are variants)
Box 1, Item 38
Family outside adobe structure. Woman with metate.
Box 1, Item 40
Adobe structure; wagons under shed roof.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 40.1
Adobe structure; wagons under shed roof.
Note
Negative, no print; same image as (40).
Box 1, Item 42
Cactus and mesquite near Gila River.
Box 1, Item 43
Cactus with arrows.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 44
Mother and child.
Note
Glass plate negative and 2 positives (glass and film)
Box 1, Item 45
Mother with child on back.
Note
Negative and positive
Box 1, Item 45.1
Mother with child on back. Slight variation in pose.
Note
Negative and glass positive, no print
Box 1, Item 46
Woman with pot on head. Copyright 1901.
Box 1, Item 47
Cooking shelter. Copyright 1900.
Note
Negative and positive
Box 1, Item 49
Weaving basket [Pima].
Note
Glass plate negative and film.
Box 1, Item 50
Woman carrying large pot.
Note
Glass plate negative and film.
Box 1, Item 51-53
Papago woman making pot.
Note
(51) and (53) glass plate negative; (52) film negative.
Native Americans identified by tribe
Box 1, Item 54
Apache chief. (Used as illustration in
Arizona Illustrated).
Box 1, Item 55
Hopi woman (with basket, pot, corn).
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 56
Navajo man (blanket in background).
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 57
Maricopa woman ("Slippery Kate").
Box 1, Item 6
Yuma chief, with bow and arrows.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 61
Yuma man.
Note
Glass plate negative (color added)
Box 1, Item 62
Two Yuma women.
Note
Glass plate negative
Native Americans not identified by tribe
Box 1, Item 63
Family inside dwelling, 1899. (Metate, basket, buckets).
Note
Glass plate negative, no print
Box 1, Item 65
Woman, two men (one with rifle) outside wickiup.
Box 1, Item 66
Woman holding bow and arrows and with child in carrying basket.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 67
Two women potters.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 68
Family by wickiup at Leemore [Lemmon?].
Box 1, Item 69
Family at Leemore (?) just returned from funeral.
Box 1, Item 70
Men and scoop-shaped basket.
Box 1, Item 71
Man with staff.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 72
Woman weaving.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 73
"Juan, the Indian wood carrier."
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 74
Hopi (?) man in doorway, with his feet on ladder.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 75
[Ramada].
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 76
Wickiups.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 77
"Old time Indian method of burying dead: a custom now obsolete."
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 78
Baskets. (Pima?)
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 79
[Mexican] family outside adobe. One of the women is making tortillas.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 80
[Mexican] family outside adobe.
Box 1, Item 80.1
[Mexican] family outside adobe.
Note
Variant of (80), no print.
Box 1, Item 81
[Mexican] family outside adobe.
Box 1, Item 82
Front of Doña Martina's house.
Box 1, Item 83
Desert landscape with adobe houses on dirt road.
Box 1, Item 84
Adobe ruins, "Banditti." [Arizona?]
Box 1, Item 85
Adobe residences. [Arizona?]
Box 1, Item 86
River landscape. [Arizona?]
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 86.1
Rock face with cave openings. [Arizona?]
Box 1, Item 86.2
Rock face with rock structure built against it. [Arizona?]
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 86.3
Desert landscape with animal carcasses. [Arizona?]
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 86.4
Burro outside log structure. [Arizona?]
Box 1, Item 87
"Victoriano, Chief of the Soboba Indians (136 years old)."
Box 1, Item 89
Victoriano's third wife (107 years old).
Box 1, Item 90
Native American woman (California?) inside brush hut.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 91
Luiseño basket maker, Soboba.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 92
Luiseños, San Luis Rey.
Note
Glass plate negative. For photographs of mines in San Diego County, see 162-179.
Box 1, Item 95
Pike's Peak Railroad: engine and car at Manitou.
Box 1, Item 96
Railroad station, Pike's Peak (rear view).
Box 1, Item 97
Railroad station, Pike's Peak (front view).
Box 1, Item 98
Government building, Pike's Peak.
Box 1, Item 100
Seven Falls and view of Cheyenne Canyon.
Note
Glass plate negative. [Scene doesn't seem to match title.]
Box 1, Item 101
Prospect Dome, Cheyenne Falls.
Note
Glass plate negative. [Scene doesn't seem to match title.]
Box 1, Item 102
"Buckskin Charley and band of Ute Indians."
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 103-105
Wickiups, Bannock Reservation.
Box 1, Item 105.1
"Indian camp. Blackfeet, Piegans, Saree, and Bloods.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 105.2
“Near Gleiohan, B. C." [Missing]
Box 1, Item 110
Las Vegas, Hot Springs.
Note
Negative. [Note: Research has shown that (#110) Las Vegas Hot Springs are actually located in New Mexico]
Box 1, Item 117
Schoolhouse and school children, Sante Fe.
Box 1, Item 119
Government building, Sante Fe.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 119.1
Street scene. Men on burros. Wall posters for opera (The Rose) and Seligman Bros., Santa Fe., General Merchandise.
Box 1, Item 120-121
Hot Springs basket maker.
Note
Positives, no prints
Box 1, Item 122
Hot Springs washing place.
Box 1, Item 123
Laguna (?).
Note
Negative. (Same view identified on another neg envelope as Isleta.)
Box 1, Item 124
Laguna (?).
Note
Glass plate negative; identified on negative envelope as Isleta, but same view as (123).
Box 1, Item 125
Laguna.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 126
Brush structure, Tesuque.
Box 1, Item 133
Unidentified pueblo.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 135
Unidentified pueblo.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 136
El Paso. Plaza in winter.
Box 1, Item 137
El Paso. Plaza in winter.
Note
Positive. Same image as (136)
Box 1, Item 138
Houston. Open air restaurant.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 139
San Antonio. Entrance to the Alamo.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 141
San Antonio. The Alamo and two freight wagons.
Note
Negative and positive
Box 1, Item 142
La Purísima Concepción de Acuña. [Founded 1716, established in San Antonio 1731.]
Box 1, Item 143
San Francisco de la Espada, SW corner. "Built 1731." (Ruins).
Box 1, Item 144
San Francisco de la Espada, NW corner. (Ruins).
Box 1, Item 145
Mission San Francisco de la Espada.
Box 1, Item 146
San Francisco de la Espada. "3rd mission."
Box 1, Item 147-148
Granary, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 149
Main doorway, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 150
Window, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 151
Chapel door, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 152
Undercroft?, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 153-154
Front façade, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 155
Side view, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo.
Box 1, Item 156
Ruined arches (San José?).
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 157
Bullfight montage.
Note
Glass plate negative, no print
Box 1, Item 158
Salt Lake City. Mormon Temple.
Box 1, Item 159
Salt Lake City. Mormon Temple Annex.
Box 1, Item 160
Salt Lake City. Outside Mormon Tabernacle.
Box 1, Item 161
Ogden. Washington Avenue.
Mount Beauty Mine (San Diego County, California)
Box 1, Item 162
Chihuahua Valley, looking south.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 163
Mount Beauty trip. From top of Chihuahua Mountain showing Warner's Ranch and Chihuahua Valley.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 164
President's office.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 165
Secretary's office.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 166
Mining camp.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 167
Croppings, looking north.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 168
Croppings, looking south.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 169
Two tunnels and two dumps.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 170
Tunnel One and Tunnel Two.
Box 1, Item 171
Tunnel One, or upper tunnel.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 172
Tunnel entrance, dump, and ore.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 173
Tunnel and men at work (lower tunnel #2).
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 174
Tunnel, long range.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 175
Main draw, looking north.
Box 1, Item 176
"Our abundant water supply."
Box 1, Item 177
Mill site.
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 178
June Bug Tunnel and outcroppings. (Mount Beauty Mine?).
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 179
June Bug Tunnel. (Mount Beauty Mine?)
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 180-181
Industrial activity (mining?)
Note
Glass plate negative
Box 1, Item 182-183
Hillside houses.
Note
Glass plate negative. Note on (183): "Don't print from this."
Box 1, Item 186
25th Street showing Reed Hotel and Public Library. [Also shows Adams Bros. photographers.] Flag at half mast.
Note
Negative; print is backwards
Box 1, Item 187
Street scene with French Hotel.
Box 1, Item 190
Building in rocky landscape. "CH" painted on one slab.
Box 1
Lantern slides (Items 191-198)
Box 1, Item 196
Three Luiseños, San Luis Rey.
Box 1, Item 197-198
Hot Springs basket maker.
Negatives
Access Information
Advance arrangements for viewing negatives must be made with the Curator of Photographs.
