Guide to the Branson DeCou Archive MS.038

Processed by Visual Resource Collection staff
University of California, Santa Cruz
2002
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz 95064
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu


Contributing Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Branson DeCou Archive
Creator: DeCou, Branson, 1892-1941
source: DeCou, Elsie Vera Stanley, 1901-1997
Identifier/Call Number: MS.038
Physical Description: 118 Linear Feet 85 boxes, 25 drawers, 5 items
Date (inclusive): 1910-1941
Date (bulk): 1920-1941
Abstract: Glass lantern slides, negatives, photographic albums, notebooks, travelogues, and miscellaneous artifacts that document DeCou's travels in five continents and subsequent travel lecture tours ca. 1920-1941.
Physical Location: Stored in Special Collections and Archives: Advance notice is required for access to the collection.
Language of Material: English

Access

Collection open for research. Audiovisual media is unavailable until reformatted. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access to audiovisual media.

Publication Rights

Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.

Preferred Citation

Branson DeCou Archive. MS 38. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Elsie DeCou, August 1971. Additional gifts from Gail Frazar and Heather Frazar-Smith in 2023. (Gail Frazar was a neighbor of Elsie DeCou.)

Alternative Form of Material Available

This collection has been partially digitized. Images from this collection are available through UCSC Library Digital Collections.

Biography

Photographer and travelogue lecturer Branson DeCou journeyed the world for thirty years before his death in 1941 at the relatively young age of 49. He was born October 20, 1892, in Philadelphia, a city with a long history of photographic invention, from the pioneer Langenheim brothers to the work of Thomas Eakins. The city also has a tradition of collecting and publishing photographs--the Library Company of Philadelphia, American's oldest cultural institution, had exceptional holdings of photographic works well before 1900--as well as active associations for professionals and amateurs such as the Philadelphia Photographic Exchange Club and the Philadelphia Photographic Society.
DeCou's father was in the wholesale shoe business in Philadelphia, but the family relocated to New Jersey where Branson attended Blair Academy in Blairstown. Upon graduation in 1910 he entered the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken where he more fully developed his interest in photography. After a year, however, he left to initiate what would become a lifelong pursuit of touring the world.
The fabulous Panama Pacific International Exposition of San Francisco's 1915 World's Fair attracted an enormous number of visitors, including Branson DeCou, who in a series of photographs recorded the Fair's night effects so effectively that they were brought to the attention of Underwood and Underwood, a leading American photographic concern, for publication. The wide circulation of these images encouraged DeCou to begin his own work in travelogue lecturing, allying his interests in travel and photography. He embarked in a field that was widely popular at the time as a form of entertainment and education. Since the mid-1800s, public and private lantern slide shows were put on by photographers in clubs, schools, lodges, and museums on a variety of themes including world travel, religion, temperance, comic subjects, or literary retellings. DeCou traversed America speaking to local community organizations such as the Union League Club of Chicago, the New Jersey Orange Women's Club, and also lecturing in academic and cultural institutions such as the University of Hawaii and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In each venue the travelogue was illustrated with an average of 150 hand-colored lantern slides and the images synchronized to music. He called his shows "Dream Pictures" and advertised them as a "fascinating new form of entertainment." His promotional brochures exclaimed "with the aid of the dissolving shutter and double stereopticon exquisitely colored slides are projected perfectly synchronized to the music of the masters reproduced on the Victrola, the combination of the two inspiring emotions." DeCou was available for single engagements on selected subjects such as "Jungle Bound Angkor" or he could be booked for a complete series given in the form of a continuous trip "Around the Southern Hemisphere: South Africa, South America, Australia, Tasmania, and the South Sea Islands."
DeCou was apparently highly successful, as these testimonials from several engagements convey. "The slides were the most beautiful that we have ever had the opportunity to view. As for the lecture, you had them so spellbound that they forgot to get uneasy and restless even in the uncomfortable camp chairs. Your enunciation is clear and the little witty personalities that you inserted were very kindly received. You have the gift of side-stepping the stereotyped line of talk usual in travelogues," observed a reviewer for the Newark Camera Club of New Jersey. "You surely have reason for a swelling of the chest over that magnificent audience and its evidence of deep satisfaction with the evening," wrote Charles Atkins, Director of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Each of the programs had its own title: "Alluring Bali: The Last Paradise," "Ever Captivating Paris," "The Garden of Allah: Algeria and Tunisia," and also its special music: Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C Sharp Minor for "Nature's Supreme Spectacle: The Grand Canyon of the Colorado," the second movement of Haydn's Trio in G Major for the "Wonders of San Marco."
In March of 1932 DeCou made a second marriage to Elsie Vera Stanley, a fellow lecturer. For the last nine years of his life they traveled extensively, and together they continued to present what then were called "musical travelogues, illustrated with masterpieces of art and photography." Often Elsie, in a booked two week long engagement, would lecture one evening on a specific country and Branson would perform on the next. For reserved single admission the price would be 75 cents, for a series ticket the cost was $2.00. Ever the constant travelers, the DeCous appear to have established temporary residencies in several cities, including Hollywood, California, where they held screenings for cultural notaries. "I must tell you how delighted we all were with the lovely DeCou pictures and music. My guests included Rex Ingram, Mr. and Mrs. William DeMille, etc.--all of who enjoyed them tremendously," wrote Ruth St. Denis of Los Angeles.
Branson died of a heart attack on December 12, 1941, at the home of his mother, Mrs. Charles Berwin of East Orange, New Jersey. He had come to New Jersey after completing a lecture tour in the Eastern section of the country. Elsie continued to lecture for several years using Branson's slides. She lived in California in Carmel, Laguna Beach, and eventually San Marcos, where she died on the first day of January, 1997, at the age of 96. In the decades after Branson's death she continued to travel, often observing the changes in culture and landscape, and frequently commenting that the pollution of some world regions made her heartsick. Some of her correspondence, for example, notes that in 1984, at the age of 83, she had spent the winter in Europe, three months in Nairobi, and had also been to Manila and Hong Kong.
The days of lecturing with lantern slides were long over, however. Commercial color slides had been available since the 1940s, replacing the magical, hand-tinted and luminous lantern slides as a more accurate and expedient way to provide instruction and entertainment to viewers. Elsie, at the suggestion of fellow Carmel resident Ansel Adams, proposed that the newly inaugurated campus of the University of California in nearby Santa Cruz be the recipient of her late husband's photographic work. In 1971, UCSC's University Library received Branson's artistic inheritance of 10,000 photographic images. The works covered every part of the world: from Laplanders to South Pacific Islanders, from Japanese pagodas to Egyptian pyramids. Through DeCou's vision we, who have inherited the images, can see life before industrialization, the destruction of World War II, the effects of urbanization, and the loss of local craft and cultural traditions.
Biography by Christine Bunting, Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Scope and Content

The Branson DeCou Archive consists of 8,000 hand-tinted 3-1/4" x 4" glass lantern slides used in years of travel lecture tours covering many countries of the world, from circa 1920-1941. There are also accompanying negatives, 48 photographic albums, notebooks, travelogues, slide storage boxes, slide projectors, and films.

Arrangement

The archive is divided into 8 series: Photographic Albums, Notebooks and Travelogues, Lantern Slides, Photographic Prints, Negatives, Realia, Films and Personal. The majority of the materials are arranged into geographic divisions, by country or area.

Processing Information

Collection processed by Visual Resource Collection staff. In 1999 the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation of New York, provided a grant to support to preserve, digitize and catalog 1,475 lantern slides of Italy. Grants from the American Irish Foundation and the Friends of the UCSC Library have enabled small portions of the collection to be indexed and preserved. Subsequent additions in 2023 were processed by Kate Dundon.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Voyages and travels
Africa
Ireland -- Photographs
Lantern slides
Italy -- Photographs
Oceania -- Photographs
Australia -- Photographs
North America -- Photographs
South America -- Photographs
Asia -- Photographs
Europe -- Pictorial works
DeCou, Branson, 1892-1941
DeCou, Elsie Vera Stanley, 1901-1997

 

Photograph Albums 1920-1941

Scope and Contents

This series contains photoalbums of black and white photographs.

Arrangement

The material is arranged in original order, following loose geographic divisions. Albums 1-8,46 Africa and Asia, Albums 8-32,47 Europe, Albums 29-34,36-42,44-45 North America, Albums 35,41-43 South America, Albums 44-45 Australasia.
Box 1

Africa, California, Canada

Box 2

Algeria, Tunisia

Box 3

Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco

Box 4

Java, Singapore, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Mombassa (Kenya), Zanzibar, Tanganyika, Republic of South Africa, Natal

Box 5

Zululand (Natal), Bechuanaland (Botswana), Rhodesia, South Africa, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, West Indies, Martinique

Box 6

Hawaiian Islands, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia

Box 7

Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, Java

Box 8

Portugal, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Italy, Japan, China, Philippines, India, Austria, Central Europe

Box 9

Ireland, S. S. Normandie (ocean liner)

Box 10

England, Scotland, Wales

Box 11

England, Holland, Germany, Belgium, France

Box 12

Switzerland, Germany (Rhine), Belgium, Holland, England, Ireland

Box 13

France, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark

Box 14

France, Russia, Finland, Denmark, England

Box 15

Norway, Sweden, Denmark

Box 16

Iceland, Norway, Sweden

Box 17

Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France

Box 18

Belgium, Holland

Box 19

Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Monaco

Box 20

Italy, Austria, Germany, France

Box 21

Italy

Box 22

Italy, England

Box 23

France, Switzerland, Italy

Box 24

Madeira, Morocco, Portugal, France, England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden

Box 25

Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria

Box 26

Madeira, Spain, Italy, Capri, Sicily, Israel, Egypt, Rhodes (Aegean Sea), Turkey

Box 27

Syria, Israel, Egypt, Italy

Box 28

Spain, Morocco, Algiers, Carthage, Tunisia, Italy, Sicily, Yugoslavia

Box 29

Turkey, Russia, Greece, Bermuda, Canada (Quebec), California, Arizona, New Mexico

Box 30

Sweden, Russia, Denmark, France, West Indies, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands (U.S.), Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba

Box 31

New Mexico, California, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Madeira, Portugal, Spain, France, New England

Box 32

Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, New Mexico, Madeira, Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Denmark

Box 33

Alaska, Canada

Box 34

Canada, Wyoming, California, Montana, Washington, Oregon

Box 35

Mexico

Box 36

California

Box 37

California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming

Box 38

Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado

Box 39

Bahamas, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, California, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Idaho

Box 40

California, Alaska

Box 41

California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Florida, West Indies, Curacao, Haiti, Virgin Islands (U.S.), Antigua, Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico,

Box 42

Peru, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, California, Arizona, Mexico

Box 43

Panama, Colombia, Equador, Peru

Box 44

Hawaiian Islands, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Java

Box 45

Hawaiian Islands

 

Notebooks and Travelogues 1920-1941

Scope and Contents

This series contains notebooks and travelogues covering North American, Asian, and European countries, many of which include programs, pamphlets, and flyers. DeCou used these notebooks in producing his slide shows and lectures.
Box 48

Angkor-Wat Bali

Box 48

British Columbia and the Selkirks 1935

Box 48

Springtime Motoring in California. Our Romantic California and Our Pacific Coast. 1938

Box 48

Canadian Rockies Vol. 1

Box 49

Canadian Rockies 1942

Box 80, Folder 3

Travelogue pages: Canadian Rockies, South America circa 1930s-1940s

Box 49

China and Korea 1924, 1934

Box 49

Our American Wonderland Series: Colorado

Box 49

Egypt: Living Pattern of the Nile

Box 50

India

Box 50

Mediterranean

Box 50

Our American Wonderland Series: The Pacific Northwest and Glacier National Park 1921

Box 50

Russia

Box 51

Glorious Switzerland: The Spell of Lake Geneva 1936

Box 51

Venice and Northern Italy

Box 51

The West Indies

Box 51

Yellowstone Park

Box 51

Yosemite, Sierra Nevadas, Mt. Ranier

Box 52

Acadia

Box 52

Alaska

Box 52

Athens

Box 52

Bryce Canyon and Salt Lake

Box 52

Egypt

Box 52

England/Scotland

Box 52

Florida

Box 52

France/Paris

Box 52

Germany

Box 52

Guatemala

Box 52

Hawaii 1937

Box 52

Holland

Box 52

Holy Land

Box 52

Iceland and Norway

Box 52

Ireland

Box 52

Italian Lakes

Box 52

Italy

Box 52

Japan

Box 52

Java

Box 52

London

Box 52

London Notes

Box 52

Mexico, Information

Box 52

Mexico, Notes 1933

Box 52

New England

Box 52

New Mexico, Unusual Southwest and Grand Canyon

Box 52

Norway and Iceland

Box 52

Quebec

Box 52

Southern Arizona

Box 52

Sweden and Denmark

Box 52

Dream Pictures programs

Box 52

Miscellaneous notes, travelogues

Box 52

Travel Pamphlets

Box 52

Ireland of the Welcomes by D.L. Kelleher

Box 52

Ireland - Official Tourist Guide

Box 52

Things Seen in Holland

 

Lantern Slides 1920-1941

Scope and Contents

This series contains 8,000 1/4"-4" hand-tinted glass slides.

Arrangement

The slides are first arranged by geographic divisions then alphabetically by country.
Drawer 1

Miscellaneous

Drawer 1

Africa

Drawer 1

East Africa

Drawer 1

South Africa

Drawer 1

Algeria

Drawer 1

Egypt

Drawer 1

Morocco

Drawer 2

Morocco

Drawer 2

Zimbabwe

Drawer 2

Tunisia

Drawer 2

Asia/Near and Middle East

Drawer 2

Israel/Palestine

Drawer 3

Israel/Palestine

Drawer 3

Syria

Drawer 3

Turkey

Drawer 3

Bali

Drawer 3

Singapore

Drawer 3

Japan

Drawer 3

Phillipine Islands

Drawer 3

Italy

Drawer 3

Austria

Drawer 3

Vienna

Drawer 3

Salsbury

Drawer 3

Belgium

Drawer 3

England

Drawer 4

England

Drawer 4

Ireland

Drawer 5

Ireland

Drawer 5

Scotland

Drawer 5

Wales

Drawer 5

Czechoslovakia

Drawer 5

Denmark

Drawer 6

Denmark

Drawer 6

Finland

Drawer 6

France

Drawer 7

France

Drawer 7

Germany

Drawer 8

Germany

Drawer 8

Greece

Drawer 8

Holland

Drawer 9

Holland

Drawer 9

Hungary

Drawer 9

Italy

Drawer 10

Italy

Drawer 11

Italy

Drawer 12

Italy

Drawer 12

Monaco

Drawer 12

Norway

Drawer 12

Poland

Drawer 12

Portugal

Drawer 12

Ukraine

Drawer 12

Russia

Drawer 13

Russia

Drawer 13

Baltic States

Drawer 13

Estonia

Drawer 13

Spain

Drawer 14

Spain

Drawer 14

Sweden

Drawer 14

Switzerland

Drawer 15

Switzerland

Drawer 15

Yugoslavia

Drawer 15

Americas

Drawer 15

North America

Drawer 15

Canada

Drawer 15

Alberta

Drawer 15

British Columbia

Drawer 16

British Columbia

Drawer 16

Nova Scotia

Drawer 16

Quebec

Drawer 16

Mexico

Drawer 16

United States

Drawer 16

New England

Drawer 17

New England

Drawer 17

The West

Drawer 17

Pacific Northwest

Drawer 17

The Southwest

Drawer 18

The Southwest

Drawer 18

Alaska

Drawer 18

Arizona

Drawer 19

Arizona

Drawer 19

California

Drawer 20

California

Drawer 20

Colorado

Drawer 21

Colorado

Drawer 21

Montana

Drawer 21

New Mexico

Drawer 21

Oregon

Drawer 21

Utah

Drawer 21

Washington

Drawer 22

Washington

Drawer 22

Wyoming

Drawer 22

Central America

Drawer 22

Panama

Drawer 22

West Indies

Drawer 22

Bahama Islands

Drawer 22

Cuba

Drawer 23

Cuba

Drawer 23

French West Indies

Drawer 23

Guadalupe

Drawer 23

Martinique

Drawer 23

Hispanola

Drawer 23

Haiti

Drawer 23

Jamaica

Drawer 23

Dutch West Indies

Drawer 23

Curacao

Drawer 23

Puerto Rico

Drawer 23

U.S. Virgin Islands

Drawer 23

South America

Drawer 23

Bolivia

Drawer 23

Brazil

Drawer 23

Peru

Drawer 23

The Oceans

Drawer 23

Atlantic Ocean

Drawer 23

Bermuda Islands

Drawer 24

Bermuda Islands

Drawer 24

Madeira Islands

Drawer 24

South Pacific

Drawer 24

New Guinea

Drawer 24

Polynesia

Drawer 24

Hawaiian Islands

Drawer 24

Australasia

Drawer 24

Australia

Drawer 24

New Zealand

Drawer 24

Extras

Drawer 25

Miscellaneous slides

 

Prints

Box 53

Ireland prints

Box 54

Ireland prints, printed by Gypsy Ray

Box 55

Unprocessed black and white photographs

Box 21

Africa

Box 21

Africa

Box 21

Arizona

Box 21

Brittany, France

Box 21

California

Box 21

California

Box 21

California

Box 21

California

Box 21

California

Box 21

California

Box 21

China

Box 21

China

Box 21

China

Box 21

China

Box 21

Guatemala

Box 21

Ireland

Box 21

Ireland

Box 21

Italy

Box 21

Japan Asahi

Box 21

London, England

Box 21

London, England

Box 21

London, England

Box 21

London, England

Box 21

Norway

Box 21

Peru

Box 21

Santa Barbara, California

Box 21

Scotland

Box 21

South America

Box 80, Folder 4

Cambodia and Japan circa 1930s-1940s

 

Negatives 1921-1940

Box 56

Hawaii

Box 57

Netherlands

Box 58

California

Box 59

Guatemala, Central America, Switzerland, Belgium

Box 60

France

Box 61

Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Norway

Box 62

British Isles, Scotland, Wales, England

Box 63

Mexico

Box 64

Italy

Box 65

Italy

Box 66

Italy

Box 67

Tangier, Nassau, Bermuda, Bali, Indonesia

Box 68

Peru

Box 69

Thailand, Cambodia, Korea, Japan

Box 70

Portugal, Madeira, Spain

Box 71

Yugoslavia, Cuba, Russia, Jersualem, Turkey, miscellaneous

Box 72

Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti, Chile

Box 73

Canada

Box 74

United States

Box 75

Ireland

Box 76

Ireland

Box 77

Ireland slides

Box 78

Unsorted glass plate negatives

 

Realia

Box 79

Printing block

Box 79

Three small lantern slide carrying cases

 

Three large lantern slide carrying cases

 

Slide viewing projector in carrying case

 

Stereoscope camera in metal carrying case

 

Film

Access Restrictions

Audiovisual media is unavailable until reformatted. Contact Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access to audiovisual media.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Gail Frazar and Heather Frazar-Smith in 2023.

Scope and Contents

24 16mm films created by DeCou.
Box 83

Yellowstone Park circa 1930s-1940s

Box 83

Spring cruise to Europe circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Petrified forest Grand Canyon north and south rim, Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Elsie in some, good film circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

California San Francisco series, Santa Barbara, Carmel, Hearst circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

San Francisco: Golden Gate Exposition 1939-01

Box 84

Sound Bali circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Puget Sound Seattle to Victoria circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Siwash Indians, Columbia River, salmon fishing circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Dakota Badlands, Black Hill, Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower, cattle on road circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Havana Cuba, two sunsets at sea 1941-06-01

Box 84

Horsesho st(sp?), Elsie's friends circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Good garden seconds circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Good garden seconds circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Yellowstone Park discards 1 circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Yellowstone Park discards 2 circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Yellowstone Park discards 3 circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Mauna Loa, silent color [illegible] circa 1930s-1940s

Box 84

Hollywood at night dupe 1942-03

Box 85

San Marino garden circa 1930s-1940s

Box 85

Zoo San Francisco at night circa 1930s-1940s

Box 85

Canadian Rockies circa 1930s-1940s

Box 85

Caribbean cruise II, Haiti, DeCou home and motel, good film circa 1930s-1940s

Box 85

DeCou discards: personal with B. DeCou, California circa 1930s-1940s

Box 85

Vancouver circa 1930s-1940s

 

Personal

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Gail Frazar and Heather Frazar-Smith in 2023.

Scope and Contents

Personal photographs of Elsie and Branson DeCou. Photo albums feature Branson and Elsie DeCou on travels throughout the western United States including Hawaii and Yellowstone, as well as Canada, Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Sweden, and possibly other locales. Includes photographs of Indigenous people circa 1930s, possibly Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies.
Box 80, Folder 1

Elsie DeCou personal and family photographs circa 1910s-1980s

Box 80, Folder 2

Poetry by Elsie DeCou circa 1940s-1980s

Box 81-82

Photograph albums circa 1920s-1940s