Finding Aid for the Anna Ryder Dickey Collection Biomed.0213
Finding aid prepared by Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division staff.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2006.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Business Number: 310-825-4988
Fax Number: 310-206-1864
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Anna Ryder Dickey collection
Creator:
Dickey, Anna Ryder
Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0213
Physical Description:
3 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1889-2000
Abstract: This collection contains photographs (albums and separates), ephemera, and inscribed books documenting the friendship between
Anna Ryder Dickey and celebrated naturalist and wilderness conservationist, John Muir. The albums document two Sierra Club
nature trips that Muir, Mrs. Dickey, her adolescent son, Donald R. Dickey, and others took to Yosemite National Park, and
Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks, in 1896 and 1902 respectively. Of special note are six pictorialist style presentation
photographs of John Muir alone or with Mrs. Dickey, taken by the Pasadena photographer Kraig. The book inscriptions, letters,
and notes provide further proof of the Muir-Dickey friendship, while the books themselves, newspaper clippings, and magazine
extracts highlight aspects of Muir's work, philosophy, and life story.
Physical Location: Held at UCLA Library Special Collections. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access
special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Gift of Mr. Donald R. Dickey, Jr. to the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, University of California, Los Angeles, January,
2001.
Mr. Dickey Jr.'s generous gift also included circa 180 glass "lantern" slides, hand-colored, of Californian, Canadian and
Algerian land- and sea-scapes, people, firds, flowers and mammals. These had been taken by Donald R. Dickey Sr. and illustrated
many of his public lectures. The slides are housed in the History and Special Collections Division with similar materials
of Ms. Collection #59, the Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection.
[Identification of item], Anna Ryder Dickey collection (Collection 213). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and
Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division staff.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9953318403606533
ANNA RYDER DICKEY was born December 23, 1863 in Dubuque Iowa and died May 4, 1928 in Pasadena, California. She was the mother
of Donald Ryder Dickey, Sr. and the grandmother of Donald Ryder Dickey, Jr. (from whom the collection was obtained). Prior
to moving to Pasadena, she lived in Dubuque, marrying Ernest M. Dickey in 1885. The scrapbooks, photographs of John Muir,
and related ephemera, were accumulated while residing in Pasadena (specifically, the area known as San Rafael Heights). As
evidenced by the photographic material and several personal notes in the ephemera, she maintained a close friendship with
Muir during this time.
DONALD RYDER DICKEY, Sr. (1887-1932), who is featured in several of the photographs in Scrapbook #2, was the son of Ernest
and Anna Ryder Dickey. He was a respected innovator in and practitioner of wildlife photography and collector of Pacific Coast
mammals and birds. In 1902, at age 16, he and his mother joined a Sierra Club group in travel up the King's River Cañon, eventually
climbing and reaching the summit of Mount Whitney. The participants of this trip included John Muir, C. Hart Merriam, Dr.
Henry Gannett, as well as historian Theodore Hittell and landscape artist William Keith.
During his senior year at Yale University, Dickey was stricken by a serious heart condition. Allowed to graduate because of
his high academic standing, he returned to his parents' home in Pasadena for two years of rest. During this time he gradually
returned to his former interest in the outdoors and began photographing and collecting birds and small mammals. Eventually
he determined to establish a research center for vertebrate zoology in Southern California, with a study collection of specimens,
with photographs and books to support it. The collection, which focused mainly on southwestern fauna of California and Mexico,
but also included the birds of Laysan Island, and fauna of Michigan, New Brunswick, and Central America, was housed at the
California Institute of Technology in the 1920s, and came to the University of California, Los Angeles after his death.
JOHN MUIR (1838-1914) was born in Dunbar, Scotland. In 1849 he and his family immigrated to Portage, Wisconsin. Muir was internationally
renowned as a writer, naturalist and forest conservationist, particularly in his advocacy for the preservation of Yosemite
Valley and adjacent wilderness areas of the Sierra Nevada's during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also the
first acting president of the Sierra Club from its founding in 1892 until his death. Through his publications and advocacy
for environmental causes, Muir became one of the strongest figures in the early environmental and ecological movement within
the United States.
The collection documents the formal but close friendship that existed between Anna Ryder Dickey and John Muir in the last
20 years of his life, with two photo albums, separate photographs, letters, notes, and inscriptions. The numerous photographs
also picture the looks of an earlier California and provide a little early history of the Sierra Club.
Housed separately with Ms. Collection #59, the Donald R. Dickey [Sr.] Photographic Collection, are 180 glass lantern slides
of scenery and wildlife which were also part of Donald R. Dickey Jr.'s generous gift to UCLA.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Photographs, 1896-1910. 2 albums and 6 folders
- Series 2. Ephemera, 1889-2000. 8 folders
- Series 3. Books, 1901-1965. 10 volumes
Donald Ryder Dickey photographic collection (Collection 59). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald Ryder Dickey field notes (Manuscript collection 110). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald R. Dickey personal photo album (Manuscript collection 301). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald Ryder Dickey personal papers (Manuscript collection 296). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photograph albums
Zoologists -- United States -- Archives
Nature photography -- California
Natural history -- California -- Pictorial Works
Dickey, Donald R. (Donald Ryder)
Muir, John
Photo Album 1 Subseries 1. 1896
Softcover album consisting of 16 leaves, with 98 black and white photographs mounted on 30 pages. It documents an early Sierra
Club trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (Kings Canyon known at that time as General Grant National Park) and
Yosemite National Park (Yosemite Valley). The photographs on each page are identified and described from: a) original notations
written directly in the album; b) a handwritten partial list of photographs which was found inside the album; c) added descriptive
text, indicated by brackets [ ]; pagination has also been added.
box 1, folder 2
box 1, folder 3
box 1, folder 4
Page 4.
box 1, folder 5
box 1, folder 6
Page 6.
Four photographs: a) Mts. Brewer and University [mountain peaks and valley partially covered with snow]; b) breaking camp
[four women and three men with packed duffel bags ready to depart]; c) Mrs. Sears. [mounted on a horse, holding a packed duffel
bag on the horse's neck]; d) Camp Colby [group of people in a wooded camp site, with strung paper lanterns and an American
flag in view].
box 1, folder 7
box 1, folder 8
box 1, folder 9
box 1, folder 10
box 1, folder 11
Page 11.
Five photographs: a) East Vidette [view of mountain peak, with a group of people on horseback in the foreground]; b) Roaring
River [includes a youth ready to immerse a fishing net into the water]; c) Bullfrog Lake; d) Com. Dep't. [outdoor kitchen
area ]; e) Giant Forest [man and woman standing at the base of a large Sequoia tree].
box 1, folder 12
box 1, folder 13
box 1, folder 14
Page 14.
Five photographs: a) Mist Falls; b) sequoia [four unidentified people posing at the base of a massive Sequoia tree]; c) Woodside
[six unidentified people resting at a makeshift campsite]; d) lunch [view of seven people having lunch at a campsite; hanging
paper lanterns and raised American flag in view]; e) King's River.
box 1, folder 15
box 1, folder 16
Page 16.
Three photographs: a) Com. Dep't. [blurry photo of campsite commissary]; b) The Original 10 [group of men and women standing
or sitting in an unidentified meadow]; c) mountains and clouds [photograph not identified, but may be an area below Mist Falls
in Kings Canyon National Park].
box 1, folder 17
box 1, folder 18
box 1, folder 19
box 1, folder 20
box 1, folder 21
box 1, folder 22
box 1, folder 23
box 1, folder 24
box 1, folder 25
box 1, folder 26
box 1, folder 27
box 1, folder 28
box 1, folder 29
box 1, folder 30
Photo Album 2 Subseries 2. 1902
Softcover album consisting of 17 leaves, with 46 black and white photographs mounted on 19 pages. It documents an early Sierra
Club horseback trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (Kings Canyon then known as General Grant National Park), with
a side trip to the summit of Mt. Whitney. The participants were identified in an "Sierra Club Bulletin" article, May 1947,
p. 86, as: John Muir, C. Hart Merriam, Henry Gannett, Theodore H. Hittell, William Kieth, Anna Ryder Dickey, Donald R. Dickey,
Marian O. Hooker, Alicia Mosgrove, Helen Green, and "two Kinnie boys". Identification and description of the photographs come
from the notations written directly in the album, with additional text or comments indicated by brackets [ ]. The page numbers
have been added.
box 2, folder 1
box 2, folder 2
box 2, folder 3
box 2, folder 4
box 2, folder 5
box 2, folder 6
box 2, folder 7
box 2, folder 8
box 2, folder 9
box 2, folder 10
Page 10.
Three photographs: a) Kern Cañon [from top of descent to Cold Soda Spring]; b) on summit of Whitney [nine people, three identified
as: D.R.D. (Donald R. Dickey), A.R.D. (Anna Ryder Dickey) and Muir; the others are Marian Hooker (grand-niece of Professor
Josiah D. Whitney), Alicia Mosgrove, Henry Gannett, Theodore H. Hittell, Helen Green, and an unidentified youth]; c) Mt. Whitney
[from Crabtree Meadows].
box 2, folder 11
box 2, folder 12
box 2, folder 13
box 2, folder 14
box 2, folder 15
box 2, folder 16
box 2, folder 17
box 2, folder 18
Separate Photographs Subseries 3. 1910
Physical Description: 6 folders
Six photographs of John Muir and Anna Ryder Dickey, taken in California circa 1910. Each one has been signed by the photographer
known as "Kraig." Approximately 6 x 4.5 inches, the photographs are each mounted on brown or gray paper, 9 x 12 inches.
box 3, folder 1
box 3, folder 2
box 3, folder 3
John Muir.
Side view of Muir seated in a garden.
a rubber stamp on verso of brown paper mount: "BRYAN-BRANDENBURG CO./ Engravers Electrotypers/ Order No. 29677/ Date rec'd
Jan 28 1925/ 232-36 East 4th St., Los Angeles, Calif; also on verso, two penciled handwritten printer's notes
box 3, folder 4
Mother Dickey and John Muir.
box 3, folder 5
box 3, folder 6
Ephemera Series 2. 1889-2000
Physical Description: 8 folders
Focus is on John Muir and his pursuits as a naturalist. Items consist mainly of newspaper and magazine articles and personal
handwritten letters and notes. Also included are a Sierra Club brochure, one printed poem (on Muir), and a pocket calendar
for the year 1889.
box 1, folder 1
box 2, folder 1
box 2, folder 1
box 3, folder 7
box 3, folder 8
box 3, folder 9
box 3, folder 10
box 3, folder 11
box 3, folder 12
Ephemera found in: "Our national parks", by John Muir, 1902. 1903-1925
a) penciled note from John Muir to Anna Ryder Dickey, dated Dec. 9, 1911, from Montevideo, Uruguay; b) newspaper clipping,
"Hombres de ciencia : El Doctor John Muir", identified in pencil as from "La Tribuna Popular", Dec. 7, 1911; c) book review
by Louise Morgrage of "The life and letters of John Muir", by William Frederic Badè; page 11 torn from "California Southland"
[no date; the magazine was published under this title from 1918 to 1929]; d) newspapers clippings about John Muir, one referring
to the Hetch Hetchy water project; e) printed poem [source unidentified] by Bailey Millard: "Muir of the Mountains".
box 3, folder 13
box 3, folder 14
Ephemera. 1932, 1934, 2000
Magazine articles: a) "For the birds: a great reason to go to Midway...", by Maria Streshinsky, in: "VIA", May/Jun 2000, pp.
46-47; b) obituary of Donald Ryder Dickey, in: "The Auk", 49(4): 517-518, Oct 1932; c) "An appreciation of Donald Ryder Dickey",
by Harry Harris, in: "The Condor", 36(2): 59-66, Mar/Apr 1934.
folder 1
folder 2
"Our national parks", by John Muir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1902. 1902
Author's autograph presentation copy, inscribed on upper free endpaper to Mrs. Ernest M. [Anna R.] Dickey, from Martinez,
September 1902; photograph, annotated by Muir ("my Yosemite cabin"), pasted on flyleaf; portrait pasted on p. [1]
Call Number: Biomed E 160 M896o 1902 Rare
folder 3
folder 4
folder 5
folder 6
folder 7
folder 8
folder 9
"Son of the wilderness; the life of John Muir", by Linnie Marsh Wolfe. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1945. 1945