Photograph Album from Charles F. Lummis to Susanita Del Valle: Finding
Aid
Finding aid prepared by Diann Benti, Michelle Sanchez and Jennifer
Watts.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical
Gardens
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
© April 2013
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Photograph Album from Charles F. Lummis
to Susanita Del Valle
Dates (inclusive): 1888
Collection Number: photCL 504
Creator:
Lummis, Charles Fletcher,
1859-1928
Extent:
83 cyanotype photographs in 1 album; album 13 x 21.5 cm. (5.25 x 8.5
in.)
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: An album of 83 cyanotype photographs by American journalist,
author, and ethnologist Charles F. Lummis given as a gift from Lummis to Susanita
Del Valle in 1888. (Susanita was a nickname for Susana Carmen Del Valle
(1871-1907)). The majority of photographs depict Rancho Camulos in Ventura County,
California, as well as members of the Del Valle family, who owned the rancho. Lummis
included several self-portraits as well as scenes that invoke a romantic view of
19th century California ranch life. In addition, there are two original poems
inscribed by Lummis to Susanita Del Valle.
Language of Material: English
Administration 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
Photograph Album from Charles F. Lummis to Susanita Del Valle. The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Provenance
Purchased from the heirs of the Del Valle family in 2011 with funds provided by
the Studier family in memory of Carol Jackson Cook and Donald Wrentmore Cook.
Access
Due to the fragility of the album, access to the original item is granted only by
advance permission of the Curator of Photographs. Open to qualified researchers by
prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
contact Reader Services.
Historical Note
In 1884, Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928) walked from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Los
Angeles, California, in a public relations gambit to announce his new job as city
editor of the
Los Angeles Times. The provocative New Englander went
on to become an outspoken and influential promoter of California and the American
Southwest. Lummis wore many hats during his illustrious forty-year career:
incendiary journalist; editor of
Out West magazine; Los Angeles city
librarian; presidential advisor; patron of artists and writers; and cultural
preservationist. In addition, Lummis was a talented photographer, producing
thousands of photographs between 1885 and 1920. Lummis started making photographs in
1885, soon after his arrival in Los Angeles. He favored the cyanotype process which
was popular among amateur photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The cyanotype, notable for its blue tone, is made by bringing sensitized paper into
contact with a negative in direct sunlight. The print is then washed in a solution
of distilled water.
The album,
Views of Camulos, which Lummis gave to Susanita Del Valle,
is one of the earliest and most comprehensive albums produced by Lummis. In
American Character: The Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the
Rediscovery of the Southwest
(Arcade Publishing, 2001), the author
explores Lummis’s relationship with the Del Valle family that led to the creation of
the gift album, noting that “Lummis had paid his first visit to Camulos soon after
reaching Los Angeles and had fallen in love with the place. The Del Valles became
lifelong friends” (Thompson, 123). The album makes clear Lummis’s infatuation with
life at Rancho Camulos in its many photographs of the landscape, daily activities,
and the Del Valle family. An inveterate womanizer, the married Lummis developed a
romantic attraction to the sixteen-year-old Susana Carmen Del Valle (1871-1907), the daughter of Susana Avila and Juventino
Del Valle (1841-1919).
Between 1887 and 1888, Lummis wrote numerous letters to Susanita which discussed,
among other things, his plans for a divorce that would enable him to marry her.
Apart from his interest in Susanita, Lummis may also have seen commercial potential
for his Rancho Camulos photographs. Helen Hunt Jackson visited Camulos in 1882 and
including observations about ranch life in her bestselling-novel
Ramona (1884). Lummis’s publication of
Home of Ramona:
Photographs of Camulos, the Fine Old Spanish Estate Described by Mrs. Helen Hunt
Jackson as the Home of “Ramona”
(1888) was the first publication to link
Rancho Camulos to the Helen Hunt Jackson novel. The gift album provides a unique and
expanded set of photographs that Lummis used to champion Camulos as the original
home of the fictional character Ramona.
Sources used in the creation of this finding aid include: Autry National
Center. “Braun Research Library.” Accessed February 2013.
http://theautry.org/research/braun-research-library
Dawson, Michael. Appraisal Report Prepared by Michael Dawson for The
Huntington Library, July 2011.
Thompson, Mark.
American Character: The Curious Life of Charles
Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest.
New York:
Arcade Publishing, 2001.
Scope and Content of Collection
The photograph album chronicles Charles F. Lummis’s time with the Del Valle family
at Rancho Camulos in Ventura County, California, from 1887 to 1888. There are many
photographs of the Del Valle family, particularly the Del Valle daughters, with whom
Lummis is shown playfully interacting. Family gatherings include a local Catholic
priest, couples dancing, and young women playing instruments. Views of Rancho
Camulos, the surrounding landscape, and architectural features such as the placita,
the chapel, and the south veranda, are also prominently featured.
The front cover of the photograph album bears the embossed title of “Susanita Del
Valle,” while the spine’s title says, “Views of Camulos.” An inscription on the
third page reads: “Susanita Del Valle, with the best wishes of Chas. F. Lummis—Feb.
3, 1888.” Some of the pictures appear in
The Home of Ramona: Photographs of
Camulos, the Fine Old Spanish Estate Described by Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, as
the Home of "Ramona,"
by Charles F. Lummis, published in Los Angeles in
1888. The Huntington Library holds a copy of this book (RB 35644) as well as a
second edition (RB 252770). Both copies are illustrated with original cyanotypes by
Lummis, many of which are in
The Home of Ramona.
Related materials in the Huntington Library
Alternative Form of Materials Available
Indexing Terms
Subjects
Coronel, Antonio Franco -- Photographs.
Del Valle, Reginaldo F. (Reginaldo Francisco), 1854-1938
-- Photographs.
Lummis, Charles Fletcher, 1859-1928 -- Photographs.
Adobe houses -- California -- Ventura County -- Photographs.
Dance -- California -- 1880-1890 -- Photographs.
Indians of North America -- Fiction -- Photographs.
Ranches -- California -- 1880-1890 -- Photographs.
Rancho Camulos (Ventura County, Calif.) -- Photographs.
Del Valle family -- Photographs.
Ventura County (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Forms/Genres
Cyanotypes.
Photograph albums.
Photographs.
Self-portraits.
Item 2
[Del Valle family portrait]
Five members of the Del Valle family seated on a bench. There is an older
woman, Ysabel Valera Del Valle, three boys, and a man, Reginaldo Del
Valle (son of Ysabel).
Item 3
[Portrait of Nena and Susanita Del Valle]
Two girls at fountain: (1) Nena Del Valle (with guitar), and (2) Susanita
Del Valle.
Item 4
[Image of Camulos and ranch, from the north]
Item 5
[Image of Camulos]
View of side of house, picket fence, and foggy hills.
Item 6a
[Ysabel and Nena Del Valle]
Item 9
The placita, looking north.
Item 12
The placita, looking north.
Item 13b
[A view of the south veranda]
Item 15
[Nena Del Valle, Susanita Del Valle, Ysabel Del Valle, Natalia
Del Valle, Enedina Del Valle, and Priest]
Item 17
[Interior of the chapel at Camulos]
Item 18
[Image of the corner of the house]
Item 21
[Image of the pool in the placita]
Item 22
[View of the pool and trees in the placita]
Item 23a
[View of the chapel porch]
Item 24
[Image of embroidered lace]
Item 26
[View of the hills near Camulos]
Item 28
[Image of Camulos]
Lane bordered by picket fence.
Item 31
[Man on horseback, south veranda]
Item 34a
[A man standing on a porch]
Item 36a
[The cross on north hill]
Item 37
[Portrait of Nena Del Valle, Ysabel Del Valle, Susanita Del
Valle, and Charles Lummis]
Item 39
[Man sitting in an orchard]
Item 42
[Charles Lummis dancing with Susanita Del Valle]
Item 46
[Image a cloth with embroidered lace edging]
Item 47
[Portrait of Alice Bowers, Enedina Del Valle, Natalia Del Valle,
and eight children]
Item 48
[Nena Del Valle with a guitar]
Item 49
[Seven women playing instruments]
Group of women and girls playing instruments: (1) Rosa Del Valle (2) Nena
Del Valle (3) Ysabel Del Valle (4) Josepha Del Valle (5) Woman with horn
(6) Alice Bowers (7) Enedina Del Valle.
Item 50
[Don Antonio Coronel and a woman dancing]
Item 51
[Six women playing instruments]
Group of women and girls playing instruments; all of the women, except
the one on the far right are numbered: (1) Ysabel Del Valle, (2) is Nena
Del Valle, (4) is Josepha Del Valle, (5) is Alice Bowers. The unnumbered
girl is Enedina Del Valle.
Item 52
[Portrait of Ysabel Del Valle with a guitar]
Writing on back of (52): “That fools in-rush / Where angels blush / To
tread, is melancholy; / But where—as here— / They both appear, / How
happy is the folly! / The artist might / In such a plight, / Be pardoned
for forgetting That ne’er was shown / So dull a stone / In such a
brilliant setting!” --handwritten by Charles Lummis.
Item 53
[Charles Lummis with four of the Del Valle girls]
Self portrait of Charles Lummis sitting in a chair with four young women
of the Del Valle family around him: (1) Del Valle family member (2)
Rimpau family member (3) Del Valle family member (4) Charles Lummis
pulling the wire to take the photo (5) Possibly Susanita Del Valle.
Item 54
[Dancing on the veranda]
Men, women, children dancing; couple at far left is Charles Lummis and
Susanita Del Valle.
Item 55
[Charles Lummis dancing with Susanita Del Valle]
Item 56
[Don Antonio Coronel and a woman dancing]
Item 57
[Dancing on the veranda]
Men, women, children dancing; couple at far left is Charles Lummis and
Susanita Del Valle.
Item 58
[Priest with Susanita, Nena, and Ysabel Del Valle]
Item 59
[View at Camulos looking toward the arbor]
Item 60
[Group portrait on veranda]
Men, women and children on a bench including: (1) Enedina Del Valle (2)
Susanita Del Valle (3) Charles Lummis (4) Smiling woman, possibly Nena
Del Valle (5) Natalia (Nachita) Del Valle (6) Priest.
Item 61
[Don Antonio Coronel and Felicidad Abadie dancing]
Item 62a
[Ysabel and Nena Del Valle seated on steps, one holding a
guitar]
Item 62b
[Nena Del Valle seated in a doorway with a guitar]
Item 63
[Charles Lummis dancing with Susanita Del Valle]
Item 64
[Charles Lummis dancing with Susanita Del Valle]
Item 65
[Eight women kneeling]
On back of (65): “A Santa Susanita” O Santa Susanita, / With solemn
upward eyes, / And lips like those of some soft rose, / What seek you in
the skies? / It cannot be to ponder / The stars that shine so clear; /
For far less bright the eyes of the night / Than those which watch them
here. / It cannot be to envy / The souls in that far land, / For
heaven’s complete about your feet— / Camulos where you stand. / I guess
the farther angels, / Beyond yon starry height, / Just bade you out to
say devout And sisterly good-night!” --handwritten and signed by Charles
Lummis.
Item 66
[Enedina, Susanita, and Natalia Del Valle]
Item 67
[Dinner under the arbor]
An image of a large group seated around a cloth-covered table set out
under the grape arbor at Camulos. Josefa Del Valle is seated at left and
is wearing a hat. Reginaldo Del Valle is seated on the right.
Item 68
[Portrait of four women]
(1) Unidentified girl (2) Ysabel Del Valle (3) Unidentified girl (4)
Possibly a Rimsau family member
Item 69
[Chumash man with a shovel]
Item 70a
[A painting in an oval frame]
Photograph of an oval-shaped painting in a frame depicting a young woman;
she may possibly be Isobel Del Valle.
Item 71
[A portrait of three women]
Item 72
[A portrait of two women]
Item 73
[A group portrait of nine women]
Item 74
[Still life of del Valle heirlooms]
Item 75
[Photograph of two paintings]
Right portrait may be Don Antonio Sarafino Del Valle.