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Views of Calaveras and Mariposa Counties, California, 1890
BANC PIC 1976.033 -- fALB
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Collection Title: Views of Calaveras and Mariposa Counties, California,
Date: 1890
Collection Number: BANC PIC 1976.033 -- fALB
Extent:
43 photographic albumen prints, 20 x 25 cm.; mounted and bound in album, 26 x 31 cm.
43 digital objects
Photographer:
Désiré Fricot
Repository:
The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Languages Represented:
English
Collection stored off-site. Advance notice required for use.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted
in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted
to research and educational purposes.
[Identification of item],
Views of Calaveras and Mariposa Counties, California, BANC PIC 1976.033 --fALB, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Digital Representations Available
Digital representations of selected original pictorial materials are available in the list of materials below. Digital image files were prepared from selected Library originals by the Library Photographic Service. Library originals were
copied onto 35mm color transparency film; the film was scanned and transferred to Kodak Photo CD (by Custom Process); and
the Photo CD files were color-corrected and saved in JFIF (JPEG) format for use as viewing files.
Title: Grass Valley and Vicinity, Taken by D. Fricot
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1976.034 -- PIC
Title: Album of Photographs of Hawaii
Identifier/Call Number: BANC PIC 1976.032 -- fALB
Title: Berton & Co. Records, 1904-1934
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 70/7 c
The Views of Calaveras and Mariposa Counties, California album was purchased in 1976.
Désiré Fricot (1868-1940) was the son of Jules Nicolas Fricot, a french émigré who became a California mining pioneer. Part
of a larger community of French prospectors, the Fricot family owned and operated a number of mines in the Grass Valley and
Nevada City areas of Nevada County, as well as in Calaveras County. They also owned real estate in San Francisco, and were
apparently active in French diplomatic and consular activities in California and Hawaii.
In addition to mining, Désiré Fricot was also a translator of French language documents into English. In 1940, the California
Historical Society published his translation of and introduction to André Chavanne's
The Burning of the Golden Gate in July 1862.
The Impressions of a Survivor, André Chavanne (in
California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 19, no.1, pp. 27-42), an account of the steamship Golden Gate. In 1944, the same organization published his
California Unveiled: A Translation of Treny's La Californie Dévoilée (reprinted from
The California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 4, December 1943, and vol. 23, no. 1, March 1944).
The Views of Calaveras and Mairposa Counties, Calif. album contains 43 albumen prints taken in 1890 by Désiré Fricot. The
album features many scenic views of the forest land of the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, as well as various
other subjects, some of which are related to the Fricot family's mining interests. Calaveras County points of interest pictured
in the album include the San Antonio Creek, Colwell Creek, and Hobe Ide's Ditch areas of Sheepranch (written as "Sheep Ranch"
in the captions); Murphy's; San Andreas; the timber land of W.H. Clary; the Sheep Ranch Mine of J.B. Haggin; the residence
and hoisting works of André Chavanne; the Columbus Mine of Jules Fricot (Désiré's father); and the Big Trees area of the county,
including photographs of the "Mother of the Forest" and "Pioneer's Cabin" trees, and a dancing hall constructed atop the stump
of a giant tree. Mariposa County points of interest include views of the Yosemite Valley; the town of Wawona; and the "Wawona"
and "Grizzly Giant" big trees.
Individuals identified in the collection include Peter Davis, resident of Sheepranch, and Judge C.V. Gottschalk of San Andreas.
Also pictured is an unidentified Native American. Appearing in several prints is a man likely to be Désiré Fricot.
The prints, most of them numbered, are mounted to the numbered album leaves. One leaf --between prints No. 8 and No. 11 --appears
to be lacking. Manuscript captions appear on the mounts beneath the prints and, occasionally, adjacent to the leaf numbers.
Affixed to both the spine and front cover of the album are labels reading, "Calaveras Co. & Yosemite Valley." The inside front
cover bears the inscription, "Taken 1890 by D. Fricot." A title page bears the inscription, "A monsieur le juge C.V. Gottschalk,
Souvenir respectueux et amical, San Francisco 13 Octobre 1890. D. Fricot."