Avila and Fraters families photographs and papers, 1859-1917

View only results with digital items
Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Abstract:
A collection of family photographs and documents related to the Avila and Fraters families, their friends, and other Californio families of Los Angeles.
Extent:
2.34 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English and Spanish.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Avila and Fraters families photographs and papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of photographs and documents dating from 1859 to 1917, related to the Avila and Fraters families and other native Californio families of Los Angeles. The photographs are mostly studio portraits of individuals and family groups dating from the 1860s to the 1890s. The collection belonged to Joseph August Fraters (1873-1936) and Petra Avila Fraters (1873-1951), and includes their wedding portrait (1898), portraits of Petra, their children Joaquin and Ysabel, and their house in Los Angeles. There are also three framed photographs of Petra and her parents Felipe Avila (1832-1900) and Prudenciana Ruiz de Avila, and four tintypes.

Other people who appear in photographs are: Ernest (Anastacio) Avila; Francisca Avila; Francisco Avila; Hernaldo Avila with his wife Maud C. Gorham (born in Iowa) and four children; Lugarda and Elizabeth Avila (sisters); Luisa Avila; Tomas Avila; Susana Machado Bernard (1839-1907), with five children; T. J. Cordoza; Ernest Gibelin Du Py; Maria Elena Hurlbert; Felipe Lugo; Petra Lugo (Vignes); Serafina Macias; Sacramenta Moulton (daughter of Elijah T. Moulton); Christina Palomares; Concepcion Palomares; Francisca "Pancha" Sepulveda; Ruperto Serrano; and Hortense Yorba. There are several unidentified portraits of men, women and children.

Box 2 contains Petra Avila's autograph album (1889-1896), which has handwritten notes, poems and drawings by family members and friends, with color decals of love sentiments attached to some pages. The signers added their Los Angeles neighborhoods after their names: Compton, Vernon, Florence, Green Meadows and Tajuata. There are entries by Petra's siblings Ernest, Hernaldo, Anastacio, and Carolina Avila; P. [Pedro?] Lugo; and others with surnames that include Van Dorn, Belieu, Palomares, Schulze, Wright, Redding, Fogal, Rivera, Sanchez, Ochoa, Stoppel, Sawyer and Browning. Box 2 also includes the following documents and papers: Los Angeles County tax receipt for seven dollars (Felipe Avila, 1859); communion and confirmation certificates for Ysabel and Anastasio Avila (1875, 1878); a decorative marriage license for Joseph August Fraters and Petra Avila (1898); a wedding announcement for Hortensia Yorba and Porfirio R. Palomares (1901); a San Rafael, California Carnival and Street Fair program (1902); a souvenir collection of halftone photographs of San Francisco earthquake ruins; a funeral announcement in Spanish for Enrique Abila (Avila); and Graciosa Vejar's Immaculate Heart College graduation announcement (1913), and marriage announcement to William Pipkin, 1917.

There are also 14 programs for minstrel shows and concerts organized and performed by prisoners at San Quentin Prison, 1900 to 1903. The programs appear to be mimeograph copies with drawings, song titles and names of organizers and performers of the San Quentin Band and San Quentin Minstrel and Comedy Company.

Biographical / historical:

"Tajuata" in the autograph album is likely a reference to Rancho Tajuata, a Mexican land grant property owned by the Avila family, located in present-day Watts, in the city of Los Angeles.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Joaquin Fraters, September 19, 1968.
Processing information:

Suzanne Oatey processed the collection in 2018 and wrote a finding aid in 2023.

Arrangement:

Photographs arranged by family name.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

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:

[Identification of item]. Avila and Fraters families photographs and papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
Website