Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Additional collection guides
Descriptive Summary
Title: Adam Clark Vroman (1856-1916) Collection, 1895-1912
Dates: 1895-1912 (glass negatives)/1920s-1930s (film positives)
Collection Number: P-001
Creator/Collector:
Vroman, A. C. (Adam Clark), 1856-1916
Extent: 54.7 linear feet (Boxes: letter, 5x7, 19 ov)
Online items available
Repository:
Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Los Angeles, California 90007-4057
Abstract: Adam Clark Vroman was an amateur photographer and bookstore owner. He made several expeditions to the Southwest from his home
in Pasadena, California, to photograph the American Indians living in Arizona and New Mexico at the turn of the Twentieth
Century. Included is a visual account of these expeditions which were led by the late Dr. Frederick Webb Hodge to the pueblos
of New Mexico and Arizona. Over half of this collection deals with the ruins of ancient cliff dwellings and with the life,
customs, and activities of the American Indians of the Southwest. Many are pictured in "Photographer of the Southwest" and
"Dwellers at the Source." The rest of the collection is primarily concerned with Yosemite Valley, the California missions
before restoration, Pasadena and surrounding areas. There are also negatives of a trip taken by Vroman to the Eastern United
States. These images include Illinois, Pennsylvania, and the Library of Congress. Vroman photographed in Japan in 1909 and
in Europe in 1912.
Language of Material: English
Access
Research is by appointment only.
Publication Rights
Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the Seaver Center. The Seaver Center does not claim copyright
to images, however it is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain permission from any copyright holder. In addition culturally-sensitive
materials, including photographs of ceremonies and sacred places of Native Americans, are restricted in their use and are
not available for reproduction or publication.
Preferred Citation
Adam Clark Vroman (1856-1916) Collection, 1895-1912 . Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum
of Los Angeles County
Acquisition Information
The bulk of the collection was purchased from the estate of A. C. Vroman by the Los Angeles County School District before
1920, for use in the Audio-Visual Division. The collection was later transferred to the Los Angeles County Museum.
Biography/Administrative History
Adam Clark Vroman (1856-1916), a native of LaSalle, Illinois, moved to Pasadena, California, in 1892. He was an amateur field
photographer who worked primarily with glass plate photography and was the founder of Vroman’s Bookstore located in Pasadena.
His impressive body of photographic work from the late 1890s and early 1900s documents his multiple expeditions to the pueblos
and mesas of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, several of these trips alongside Dr. Frederick Webb Hodge with the Bureau
of American Ethnology. Vroman’s close friendship with the natives, notably the Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo, allowed him to capture
intimate images of their daily lives and customs as well as the lands that they inhabited. These photographs provide a stark
contrast from common depictions of the time period that portrayed American Indian peoples as either exotic subjects or as
savages. His work during this period also reflects his extreme fondness of the glowing, superior quality of light found in
the Southwest region. During these expeditions he worked primarily with a 6 ½” x 8 ½” view camera as well as with 4”x5” and
5”x7” cameras. Between 1895 and 1905, Vroman documented the interiors and exteriors of the Spanish missions in California
prior to the restoration of the buildings. He photographed areas in California such as Pasadena, Yosemite National Park, as
well as the eastern region of the United States, including Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Vroman was also an
avid art collector with an interest in the crafts of Native Americans and treasures from Japan and the Far East. He spent
the last years of his life traveling to the East Coast and Canada, as well as to Japan and to countries in Europe. He died
in Altadena, California, in 1916 of intestinal cancer.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection numbers approximately 2,200 negatives made between 1895-1912 by Vroman. Much of the collection came from the
Visual Education Division of the Los Angeles County Schools, thus the notation of the V.E.D. number on the inventory list.
The collection is numbered and housed according to the original Vroman numbers. The finding aid is organized primarily by
geographic region, with a small section organized by subject. Photographs taken by Vroman from 1895-1904 during his Southwest
expeditions capture the daily lives and customs of American Indians living in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and areas
of the Navajo Indian Reservation. These images include portraits of members of these communities as well as photographs of
pueblos, mesas, cliff dwellings, the overall landscape of these regions, and photographs of stone carvings in Mexico. There
are photographs taken by Vroman between 1895-1912 of many well-known sites in California such as Yosemite National Park, the
Spanish missions, as well as buildings and scenes of nature in Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Diego, and other areas throughout
the state.
Indexing Terms
Arizona.
Art objects, Japanese.
California.
Cliff dwellings–Arizona–1890-1930.
Colorado.
Hopi Indians.
Illinois.
Indian arts–United States.
Indians of North America.
Indians of North America–Antiquities.
Indians of North America–Dwellings.
Indians of North America–Portraits.
Landscapes–Southwestern States.
Massachusetts.
Mesas–Arizona
Mexico.
Missions–California.
Monuments–Washington (D.C.)
Navajo Indian Reservation
Navajo Indians.
Navajo textile fabrics.
New Mexico.
Pennsylvania.
Pueblos–Southwestern states–Pictorial works.
Spanish mission buildings–California.
Utah.
Virginia.
Vroman, A. C. (Adam Clark), 1856-1916
Washington (D.C.)
Yosemite National Park (Calif.)
Zuni Indians.
Vroman, A. C. (Adam Clark), 1856-1916
Additional collection guides