Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
INVENTORY OF EASTMAN'S ORIGINALS COLLECTION
D-51
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: EASTMAN'S ORIGINALS COLLECTION
Date (inclusive): 1997
Collection number: D-51
Origination: J.H. Eastman
Extent: 38 linear feet.
Repository:
University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special Collections.
Davis, California
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the
Special Collections Department.
Language:
English.
Collection and publication rights -except for the production of commercial postcards by commercial
establishments -were donated to the Regents of the University of California by Anne Fisher on March 22,
1994.
Collection is open for research.
From the Eastman's Originals Collection, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of
California, Davis. The collection is property of the Regents of the University of California; no part may be
reproduced or used without permission of the Department of Special Collections.
EASTMAN'S ORIGINALS COLLECTION, D-51, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of
California, Davis.
Jervie Henry Eastman was born, July 20, 1880, in White Cloud, Michigan. His family moved to northern
California in 1886. In 1898, Eastman launched his photographic career in Sisson, California (later named Mount
Shasta), as a view photographer. He became a partner in the Shasta View Company in 1907. Eastman lost his entire
stock of plates and cards in a fire in 1912.
In 1921, Jervie Henry Eastman moved to Susanville and established Eastman & Company as a commercial
photography and post card studio. In 1936 he hired Mirl Simmons, a young photographer from Hillsborough, West
Virginia, to help with the postcard photography. In 1947, Eastman and Simmons became partners. The business had
expanded to provide photographic supplies to southeastern Oregon and studios in Westwood, Weed, and
Susanville.
Eastman retired from photography in 1959 and sold his share of the business to Simmons. He died in Susanville
on February 11, 1969.
Simmons ran the Eastman Studios until 1980, when he retired and sold the business to John and Shirley Castle.
Mirl Simmons died on April 27, 1987, in Jamestown, California.
The Eastman's Originals Collection (the historical postcards and negatives) was sold to Anne Fisher in 1982.
She managed the collection until her retirement in 1994. She donated the collection to the University of
California, Davis, in 1994.
Photographs, negatives, and postcards for a wide variety of northern California locations and events, including
dam construction, logging, mining, food processing, and community buildings and activities.