Access
Use Restrictions
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content of Collection
Processing Information
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Charles H. Abbott photographs
Creator:
Abbott, C. H.
Identifier/Call Number: MS.110
Physical Description:
4 Linear Feet
4 photograph boxes
Date (inclusive): circa 1915-1935
Abstract: This collection contains photographs
taken by Abbott during his tour of duty as a member of the 23rd Engineers in Europe during
and after WWI.
Language of Material:
English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions
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
Charles H. Abbott photographs, MS 110, Special Collections and Archives, University
Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Charles Abbott.
Biography
Charles Henry Abbott was born in small lumber town of Cambro, Michigan in 1894. The family
moved west to Portland, Oregon when he was young. He lived there until after high school
when he followed his brother to Hawaii to work on a pineapple plantation. While in Hawaii,
he served in the Hawaiian National Guard. Charles was drafted into the Army, 23d Engineers
on Nov. 16, 1917. The next four years were spent on the front lines of WWI in Europe. During
and after the end of the WWI, Chuck photographed the war torn landscape. After the war he
traveled throughout Europe and eventually ended up in New York, where he formed
Chas. H. Abbott Photography and sold sets of his war photos. With
money from the sale of the photographic sets he was able to open an exotic bird shop on
Fifth Avenue with his German partner. The business prospered until the Depression in Germany
destroyed the trade in exotic birds.
While in New York, Charles met and married the daughter of a wealthy rug merchant and had a
daughter. When the pet shop closed, the Abbotts moved to Florida and opened "Abott's Joint",
a dance hall and casino on the coast. The hurricane of 1928 destroyed the dance hall and
ended the first marriage. Mrs. Abbott and their baby daughter went back to New York, and
Chuck, at the request of his sister, came west to Carmel, California. In Carmel, he opened a
small coffee shop on Main Street. After approximately five years in business and with the
realization that the coffee shop was a dead end, he was persuaded move to Palm Springs by
Nellie Coffman, proprietor of the Desert Inn.
There he became known as the "Cowboy Host". He would serve up breakfast rides and barbecues
for the rich and famous patrons of the Desert Inn, regaling them with stories and cowboy
songs. The breakfasts and dinners became such a hit that during the off-season, he traveled
to the East Coast to host "Cowboy" dinners for the wealthy East Coast patrons.
In the late 1939 or so, Chuck was hired by the Tucson Sunshine Club to
be the "Cowboy Photographer", the handsome Stetson wearing photographer who specialized in
taking pictures of important people visiting the Tucson resorts. The photos would be sent to
their hometown papers, bringing publicity to Tucson. Local Tucson photographers were furious
that the Sunshine Club didn't hire one of their own and formed a committee to protest the
hiring of Chuck Abbott. Esther Henderson, co-owner of one of the town's
most well-known photography studio was elected chairwoman. She protested Abbott's hiring but
was told it was too late to do anything about it. Chuck was warned about the protest and
went to see her to smooth the waters. Esther at first refused to see him, but later went for
drinks. The next weekend they went on a picnic, taking their cameras to shoot pictures
together and within two months, they were married.
They remained in Tucson, raising two sons, Carl and Mark, and working as free-lance
photographers and for " Arizona Highways". On vacations they would
travel around the country documenting the rise of "the mall" in America and "Downtown
Ecology". In 1962 the Abbotts retired to Santa Cruz, California. There they fought to
revitalize the downtown, advocating for a pedestrian mall and saving the Victorian houses
that remained. In 1965, when their son Mark was drowned while body surfing in the waters off
Lighthouse Point, the Abbotts decided to donate a lighthouse to the
city in honor of their son. Five years earlier, the city had purchased all of the lighthouse
property except for the area immediately around the still active wooden Coast Guard tower.
In 1967, the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse was built adjacent to the
wooden tower that it would replace. The lantern room from the decommissioned Oakland Harbor
Lighthouse was used atop the new lighthouse, and Mark's ashes were buried at the base of the
tower. Chuck known as the "Father of the Mall", died in 1973. Esther lived on in their
original home, alongside her son, daughter-in-law and grandsons until her death in 2003.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains photographs taken by Charles H. Abbott during his tour of duty in
the 23rd Engineers during World War I. These photographs constitute the "Overseas War
Views", photograph sets produced and sold by Abbott after the war. Also included are two
sets of "war views" collected by Abbott, one for the French public and one for the German
public, documenting the German Revolution, ca. 1918-1919.
Processing Information
Processed by M. Carey November 2009. Encoded by M. Carey.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1914-1918 -- Photographs
Photographs