Finding Aid for the Donald R. Dickey Personal Photo Album ca. 1921-1926
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for the Sciences
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Title: Donald R. Dickey Personal Photo Album,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1921-1926
Collection number: 301
Creator: Dickey, Donald R. (Donald
Ryder), 1887-1932
Extent:
1 boxed photo album, 39 x 28 cm.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections
for the Sciences
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: Leatherette photographic album with 38 leaves, 138
mounted and 2 loose photographs. The photos, taken mostly by Donald R. Dickey,
document his and his wife Florence's honeymoon in Maine and New Brunswick, where
Dickey was photographing wildlife with stop action film equipment. In addition,
about half of the photographs show images of the exterior and interior of the
Dickey home and gardens in Pasadena, over the span of some years.
Physical location: History and Special Collections Division,
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, University of California, Los
Angeles
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
Collection is open for research. Contact the History and Special Collections
Division, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, University of California, Los
Angeles, for information.
[Identification of item], 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.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
6315625
Gift of Donald R. Dickey, Jr. to the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, January 2001.
Donald Ryder Dickey (1887-1932) was an adventurous, pioneer wildlife
photographer as well as an ornithologist and mammalogist. He was well known in
his time for: his photographs (both still and moving) of birds and mammals; his
lectures on wildlife; and eventually, for his substantial specimen collection of
birds and mammals. Drawn to outdoor life in his childhood and youth, he
considered this nothing more than a hobby until he experienced a serious heart
attack in his senior year at Yale and was sentenced to immediate and complete
bedrest. Allowed to graduate with his class because of his high academic
standing, he returned after graduation to his parents' home in Pasadena for two
years of inactivity. He visited a friend's ranch in the Ojai Valley after about
a year, and there, from his steamer chair, he began to observe, and after a time
to photograph, local birds and their nests. [EDIT][DELETE]
As Dickey became stronger he also became more active, taking longer and
longer photographic jaunts and starting to collect small mammals in an amateur
way. When he had finally regained full strength, in about 1916, he found that he
was "too interested by that time in what started as a hobby, to forego it for a
conventional business life." Eventually he determined to establish a research
center for vertebrate zoology in Southern California, consisting of a study
collection of specimens with photographs and books to support it. In 1926 the
California Institute of Technology provided housing for the by-then-sizeable
collection and named Dickey "Research Associate in Vertebrate Zoology"; in 1940
the collection was moved to UCLA. The collection covers North and Central
America, but focuses mainly on southwestern fauna including the Pacific slopes
of Mexico and Central America, with important pictorial records also of the
birds of Laysan Island, Hawaii, and the large mammals of New Brunswick,
Canada.
In June, 1921, Dickey married Florence Van Vechten Murphy and they had one
son, Donald Jr. They built a home in Pasadena, California.
The collection consists of one photo album, black leatherette, with 138
mounted and two loose black and white photographs. The first half of the album
has 61 photographs taken by Donald R. Dickey and his team on his honeymoon in
Maine and New Brunswick, showing: the group in the field with stop action film
equipment; with a camouflaged camera in a canoe; busy in and around the camp
cabin; deer and moose caught in stop action; landscape views; and Mr. and Mrs.
Dickey around the camp. The second half of the album contains 79 images of the
Dickey home on Rosemont Ave., Pasadena, CA. They show many aspects of the
house's exterior, interior views of a number of rooms, and document the gradual
development of the beautiful and extensive gardens. Loose within the album was
also an advertisement for The Farnham Nelson Co., Roslindale, MA with a
photograph titled "A Wild Deer Photographed at Night by Donald R. Dickey".
UCLA BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY HISTORY AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS FOR THE SCIENCES.
Manuscript Coll. #59: "Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection"
UCLA BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY HISTORY AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS FOR THE SCIENCES.
Manuscript Coll. #110: "Donald Ryder Dickey Field Notes"
UCLA BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY HISTORY AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS FOR THE SCIENCES.
Manuscript Coll. #213: "Anna Ryder Dickey Collection"
UCLA BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY HISTORY AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS FOR THE SCIENCES.
Manuscript Coll. #?: "Dickey, Donald R. Papers, 1914-1920"
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Dickey, Donald R.
(Donald Ryder), 1887-1932
Wildlife photography
photograph albums
Box 1
Personal photo album. ca. 1921-1926
Physical Description: leatherette covers, 39 x 28 cm.
Scope and Content Note
Part 1. Honeymoon Trip: Snapshots of Florence and Donald R. Dickey and their
guides and camp crew in and around the log cabin camp, doing chores, relaxing,
and out with photographic equipment in canoes and on land. Deer and moose caught
by stop action photography. Some landscape shots of rivers and lakes. Part 2.
Dickey Pasadena Residence: Extensive documentation of the exterior, interior,
and garden areas of the family home in Pasadena and shots of the family dog.
Note
Pt.1: 59 mounted and 2 loose prints; Pt.2: 79 mounted prints. Sizes
range from 3x4" to 8x10". No prints are identified.