Leonard J. Rose Family Photograph Collection: Finding Aid
Finding aid prepared by Brooke M. Black, August 3, 2012, and updated by Diann Benti in March 2018.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical
Gardens
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
© 2018
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Overview of the Collection
Title: Leonard J. Rose Family Photograph Collection
Dates (inclusive): Approximately 1850-1979
Bulk dates: 1888-1941
Collection Number: photCL 156
Creator:
Rose, L. J. (Leonard John), 1827-1899.
Extent:
152 photographs in 3 boxes and 1 folder.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains 152 photographs of the family of Leonard John Rose (1827-1899),
the Rose family's ranch and vineyard "Sunny Slope" in San Gabriel, California, their residences, and horses owned by the
family, chiefly dating from the late 19th century.
Language: English.
Access
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
Administrative Information
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Leonard J. Rose Family Photograph Collection, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Provenance
Gift of Mrs. Markel Gallagher, February 1980.
Album 2, Items 71-73, gift of William J. Coffill, July 2015.
Biographical Note
Leonard John Rose (1827-1899) was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1827. His family moved to the
United States in 1839, where they lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then moved to Waterloo,
Illinois. Rose attended Shurtliff College in Illinois. He became a mercantilist, trading goods
up and down the Mississippi River, and opened a general store. Leonard John Rose married Amanda
Markel Jones in Iowa in 1851.They had ten children: Annie (Sanderson), Nina R. (Wachtel), Daisy
(Montgomery), Maud (Easton), Mabel (Pike), Harry Ezra Rose, Leonard "Leon" John Rose Jr., Guy
Rose, and Roy Rose. After a child died in the 1850s, Rose sold his store, organized an emigrant
train, and left Iowa for California in 1858. Native Americans assaulted their party by the
Colorado River in New Mexico; the family spent close to two years in Santa Fe.
In 1860, Rose
arrived in Southern California where he bought a 2000-acre estate in the San Gabriel Valley
called “Sunny Slope.” On his property, Rose cultivated grapes, oranges, walnuts, produced wine
and brandy, and bred trotter horses. Despite his economic successes, Rose fell into debt and
sold Sunny Slope in 1887, beginning a term as California State Senator for Los Angeles that same
year. Rose committed suicide in 1889, survived by his wife, Amanda Rosa, and eight sons and
daughters. His son, Guy Rose, became renowned plein air painter.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of 152 photographs of the family of Leonard John Rose (1827-1899); the Rose family ranch and vineyard,
"Sunny Slope," in San Gabriel,
California; residences; and horses owned by the Rose family, chiefly dating from the late 19th century.
An earlier archivist divided the collection into “volumes” 1 and 2, though the photographs in “volume 1” are loose.
Only volume 2, Items 1-35, are bound in an album. The prints range from late 19th-century cabinet cards to copy prints of
19th century photographs.
The latest photographs are two 1979 color snapshots of Mrs. John Gallagher, and among the earliest images is a reproduction
of a portrait of L. J.
and Amanda Rose on their wedding day, ca. 1850 (Volume 2, Item 7).
Many of the photographs are cabinet card studio portraits of family members, especially the children of L.J. and Amanda Rose,
including Nina Rose
Wachtel (and her husband John V. Wachtel), Guy Rose, Mabel Rose Dixon, Maud Rose Easton. Many of the card photographs have
imprints of Los Angeles photography studios including
Steckel & Lamson and T.G. Schumacher. Among the photographs of the Sunny Slope Farm are stereographs by W.M. Godfrey (Volume
1, Items 13a and 14-14a) and stereographs and
unmounted prints by Carleton Watkins (Album 1, Items 17-29 and 75 and 76). Notably, there are three photographs of interiors
of the Rose residence on Grand Avenue in Los Angeles,
which include displays of the types of card photographs included in this collection (see Volume 1, Items 48 and 50, and Volume
2, Item 49).
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
Indexing Terms
Subjects
Rose, Guy, 1867-1925.
Rose, L. J. (Leonard John), 1827-1899.
Rose, L. J. (Leonard John), 1862-
Race horses -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Ranch life -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Ranchers -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Sunny Slope Ranch (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Additional Contributors
A.E. Nichols & Co., photographer.
Godfrey, W. M. (William Mollock), 1825-1900, photographer.
Putnam (Photographers), photographer.
Penelon & Addis, photographer.
Schumacher, Frank G., 1861- photographer.
Steckel & Lamson, photographer.
Watkins, Carleton E., 1829-1916, photographer.
Forms/Genres
Photographs.
Envelope 1
Article on horses, 1941, by Thornton Chard “California Horses of the Gay 90’s Tracing to Arab and Barb Blood”
Items 1-8
Family portraits
Includes portraits of L.J. Rose, L.J. Rose, Jr., and Guy Rose, and a copy print of a painting by Guy Rose.
Items 9-14
Sunny Slope Ranch, various views
Includes stereographs by W. M. Godfrey, No. 41 of Grape Gathering at Sunny Slope (Items 14 and 14a), approximately 1870, and
a variant of No. 40 of L.J. Rose's Residence (Item 13a).
Items 15-30
Sunny Slope Ranch, various views (includes photographs by C. E. Watkins)
All photographs by Watkins date to 1877 or 1880. Includes a cabinet card photograph of the Sunny Slope Ranch winery and vineyard
by photographer E.C. Bichowsky (item 15); two Carleton Watkins stereographs (items 19a and 24a); and
unmounted 9.5 x 15.5 cm prints by Watkins corresponding to published Watkins' New Series stereographs:
- Watkins' New Series #4419 View from Lake Vineyard, B.D. Wilson's, San Gabriel (left side) and #4420 (right side) (Item 17)
- Watkins' New Series #4432 At the Residence of L.J. Rose, Esq., Sunny Slope, San Gab'l., Cal. (Item 18)
- Stereograph number unidentified [view of Sunny Slope vineyard] (Item 23)
- Watkins' New Series #4458 Palm Trees, San Gabriel (Item 20)
- Watkins' New Series #4433 At the Residence of L.J. Rose, Esq., Sunny Slope, San Gab'l., Cal. (Item 21)
- Watkins' New Series #4435 At the Residence of L.J. Rose, Esq., Sunny Slope, San Gab'l., Cal. (Item 22)
- Stereograph number unidentified [View of road leading to Rose residence] (Item 23)
- Watkins' New Series #4431 At the Residence of L.J. Rose, Esq., Sunny Slope, San Gab'l., Cal. (Item 24)
- Watkins' New Series #4439 A Bee Ranch, San Gabriel, Cal. (Item 25)
- Watkins' New Series #4448 Old Adobe, Mission San Gabriel, Cal. (Item 26)
- Watkins' New Series #4449 [Adobe building] (Item 27)
- Watkins' New Series #4630 Mission San Gabriel, Estab. Sept. 8th, 1771, Cal. (Item 28)
- Watkins' New Series #4631 Mission San Gabriel, Estab. Sept. 8th. 1771, Cal. (Item 29)
Item 31
House on Rosemead Ranch [photograph by F.G. Schumacher]
Item 32
“Stamboul” horse and trainer [photograph by F.G. Schumacher]
Items 43-44
“Rosebud,” home of L. J. Rose, Jr., and log schoolhouse.
Items 45-51
Residence at 4th, Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
Chiefly card photographs by Putnam, 1893, and copy prints.
Items 52-67
Miscellaneous
Chiefly miscellaneous copy prints as well as a card photograph of the Rose Hotel in Ventura by Brewster (Item 55) and a street
view of the Rose Building in downtown Los Angeles,
at 367 1/2 North Main Street (Item 54).
Items 68-74
Scenes from the Trek to California [copy prints]
Item 75
C. E. Watkins' New Series #4427 At the Residence of L.J. Rose, Esq. Sunny Slope, San Gab'l.
Item 76
C. E. Watkins' New Series stereograph #4434 At the Residence of L.J. Rose, Esq. Sunny Slope, Sa Gab'l.
Folder 1, Item 42
Panorama of the Rosemead Ranch barns.
Physical Description: 15 x 35 cm
Box 2
Photograph album (Items 1-35)
Physical Description: volume 29 x 24 cm
Photograph album containing 35 Rose Family studio portraits including L. J. Rose and his wife, Amanda Rose, and family members,
including their children, chiefly at young ages, and members of the Sanderson family.
Box 3
Loose photographs (Items 36-70)
Item 36-45
Portraits of Rose family members (includes two color photographs, 1979)
Item 46-54
Portraits of Rose family members and horse
Includes tintype of a horse with an African American trainer (Item 53); a carte-de-visite by Penelon & Addis (Item 46);
a view of Sunny Slope house of Wachtels by A.E. Nichols & Co. (Item 49); a view of Maude and Daisy Rose
in their bedroom in the Grand Avenue House by Howland and Chadwick (Item 50).
Item 55-59
Miscellaneous historic copy prints
Item 60
[Card photograph with four portraits of Ruth Montgomery, toddler]
Item 61-67
Portraits of Rose family members
Item 68-70
Rose, Guy: 2 clippings and a booklet from the Kanst Art Gallery
Item 71
Photograph of Mrs. Wachtel
Item 72
Photograph of Mrs. Amanda Rose
