The California Museum of Photography’s William Amos Haines Collection (c. 1905-1940) consists of approximately 800 original panorama gelatin silver film negatives taken with Kodak Cirkut cameras as well as prints both vintage and modern. While Haines took many photographs of landmarks, tourist destinations, and landscapes on the East coast and Midwestern United States, the bulk of the subject matter is of the American West. This collection of panoramas focuses predominantly on national parks, beaches and popular tourist destinations. Haines also photographed many of the West’s growing cities with particular attention paid to municipal buildings and birdseye views of urban areas.

William Amos Haines was born on November 2, 1877 in New York. He married Florence Kepple in 1905. This same year he began making panoramas in Conneaut, Ohio. Together he and his wife traveled the eastern coast of the United States in a teardrop trailer making panoramas. While traveling William sent negatives back to his father, De Forest Haines in Conneaut to be made into prints. Unfortunately, many of these negatives were lost or destroyed. Haines sold numerous panorama prints to schools during this time. In 1914, Haines and his wife moved to Glendale, California. Haines begins to focus on west coast subject matter after moving but he continued to travel photographing national parks and landmarks, as well as municipal buildings and cities. Haines retired from traveling in 1935. William Amos Haines passed away in 1953 at the age of 75.

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