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California Mission Sketches by Henry Miller, 1856
BANC PIC 1905.00006--B
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Collection Title: California Mission Sketches by Henry Miller,
Date: 1856
Collection Number: BANC PIC 1905.00006--B
Extent:
38 pencil sketches, 28 x 45 cm.
38 digital objects
Artist:
Miller, Henry
Repository:
The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Languages Represented:
English
Originals not available for use. Use viewing prints with call no. BANC PIC 1905.00006--PIC.
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],
California Mission Sketches by Henry Miller, BANC PIC 1905.00006--B, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Digital Representations Available
Digital representations of 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.
Unknown.
This collection of 38 pencil sketches of the California Missions are the earliest known attempt to depict the Missions in
a series (1856). The artist Henry Miller was identified in
Pioneer Notes from the Diaries of Judge Benjamin Hayes, 1929, pages 132-133. *
Henry Miller originally planned to sketch the principal towns and scenery of the eastern counties of Alta California, in order
to publish his observations and illustrations. He deemed himself too illiterate to accomplish this, and decided instead to
prepare for a panorama that would "embrace all that is remarkable and peculiar in this state."* He traveled through the southern
counties, braving bandits, wild animals, and high fares for travel through mining districts. He slept in fields, and survived
with little funds; earning extra money by selling sketches along the way. He traveled along "the main road leading from Mission
to Mission,"* from San Francisco to San Diego. He started his journey from San Francisco on February 5, 1857, and left Los
Angeles on October 13, 1857 to return to San Francisco aboard the steamship
Seabird.
Note
*
Account of a Tour of the California Missions, 1856; the Journal & Drawings of Henry Miller.
San Francisco,
Book Club of California,
1952.