F.H. Maude was a photographer and photographic collector of the American Southwest. Relocated from England to Los Angeles, California, Maude ran a commercial photography business, acquiring local photographers’ collections in addition to his own work. This collection depicts the urban development of Los Angeles and San Francisco at the turn of the nineteenth century, as well as the rural surrounding areas and wildernesses. Native tribes of the American West are also heavily represented, with a focus on the Acoma, Navajo, Havasupai and Zuni communities.

Frederic Hamer Maude was born in 1858 in Little Mollington, Cheshire, England to Thomas James Maude and Louisa Emily Hamer, a well-off and distinguished couple. He attended prestigious schools in both the towns of Rugby and Highgate, and in 1883 he earned a medical degree at the University of Aberdeen. During Maude’s short-lived medical career, he explored his interest in photographic arts at the Royal Photography Society in London. Maude left England in 1887 for California by way of Canada, settling in Ventura. By 1895 Maude had relocated to Los Angeles and bought the commercial photography business of C.B. Waite on West 1st Street. Maude’s purchase included the large inventory of Waite’s own photographic negatives, well known works featuring views of Southern California. Maude changed the name of the business to F.H. Maude & Co. and began selling Waite’s collection as well as other local photographers’ works with an imprint of his own name, as was common practice at the time. Maude led a successful career by selling prints to individuals and to publications and began specializing in lantern slides. Maude’s photographic expertise and notoriety grew, as he twice served as president of the Los Angeles Camera Club, lecturing on the photographic arts and on his own body of work. Maude’s photography is best known for its focus on the American Southwestern desert and mountains; images made possible by arduous expeditions to the Grand Canyon and to various Native American pueblos. However, his importance to California history lies more in his acquisition and aggregation of other local photographers’ collections rather than in his own work. Maude’s name last appeared in the city directory in 1924 alongside a mentioned profession, and so it is presumed that this was the year that he retired from active business. Maude continued to travel the Southwest with his camera equipment for decades after retirement. He passed away in Los Angeles in 1959 at the age of 100.

42.1 linear feet (Boxes: letter, ½ letter) Photographs and negatives.

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