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Abbott (Charles H.) photographs
MS.110  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • 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