The Harry Pidgeon Negatives collection consists of approximately 1550 glass plate negatives. The collection captures the adventures of Pidgeon on his two sailing adventures around the world, as well as on various trips across North America. Pidgeon's photographs document his time working in lumber camps in the Sierra, Alaska, and building his boat the "Islander" in Los Angeles, as well as while traveling the Mississippi River, Hawaii, Oceania (including Fiji, Samoa, New Guinea), South Africa, Panama, and the Caribbean.

Harry Pidgeon was born in 1869 in Iowa, and moved to California in 1884 to work in ranching. Pidgeon relocated to Alaska for a time, but returned to California to work in lumber camps in the Sierra Nevada. In 1917, Pidgeon built the "Islander," a 34-foot yawl. Between 1921 and 1924, Pidgeon completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe on his boat, becoming only the second person to accomplish this feat. His trip included stops in Samoa, Fiji, New Guinea, Christmas Island, Mauritius, Cape Town, Ascension Island, the Panama Canal, which he documented with his camera, and later wrote about in his book, "Around the World Single-Handed." Pidgeon completed a second solo circumnavigation between 1932 and 1937. Pidgeon died in 1954 in San Pedro, California.

approximately 1550 glass negatives

All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Original negatives are available by appointment, but must be handled by the Curator of Collections. Images should be requested by their print identification numbers.