Moon (Carl) Collection of Family Photographs and Ephemera, approximately 1860s-1930, bulk 1900-1920

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Summary

Title:
Carl Moon Collection of Family Photographs and Ephemera
Dates:
approximately 1860s-1930, bulk 1900-1920
Creators:
Moon, Carl, 1878-1948. Moon, Grace, 1877-1947.
Abstract:
Family photographs, albums, clippings and other items relating to the early life and career of photographer Carl Moon (1878-1948) and his wife, Grace Moon.
Extent:
173 photographs and ephemera in 5 boxes.
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

Carl Moon Collection of Family Photographs and Ephemera. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection focuses on the personal lives of photographer Carl Moon and his wife Grace, who wrote a series of children's books revolving around Hopi and Navajo culture in the Southwest. There are several portraits of both of them, some taken by Carl, as well as portraits of other Moon relatives. A photo/clipping album contains many scenes of their early home life in Pasadena, California, with their two children, along with clippings about their careers. There is one view of Grace Moon at El Tovar studio in the Grand Canyon.

Another album details several generations of the Moon family in photographs dating from the mid-19th to early-20th centuries. The photos are identified in ink or pencil, and there is one baby photo of Carl Moon.

There are several photographs of Moon's mother, Lucy Brunetta Moon, and five of her daily diaries. Also included are reproductions of artwork by Grace Moon, and some original drawings by Ernest Moon (Carl's brother). An interesting commercial item is a 1909 brochure for Hotel El Tovar at the Grand Canyon featuring photographs of the hotel (it's unclear if they were taken by Moon).

Biographical / historical:

Carl E. Moon (also spelled Karl) was born in Wilmington, Ohio, in 1878, to parents Sylvester B. Moon and Lucy Brunetta Moon. After graduation from high school, he served two years with the Ohio National Guard before apprenticing with various photographers in Ohio, West Virginia and Texas. He moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1903, where he set up a photography studio and began making "art studies" of the Native Americans of the Southwest, both in photographs and in oil paintings, sometimes living for weeks at a time in Navajo villages. From 1905-1906, Moon had a short-lived partnership in Albuquerque with businessman Thomas F. Keleher, called the Moon-Keleher Studio. After the partnership dissolved, Moon continued working, photographing carefully selected Indian "'subjects"' in a romantic, posed style. His photographs began appearing in magazines and he exhibited at the Museum of Natural History in New York. President Theodore Roosevelt invited Moon to exhibit his Native American photographs at the White House.

In 1907, Moon signed a contract with the Fred Harvey Company to produce photographs for what would be the Fred Harvey Collection of Southwest Indian Pictures. Beginning in 1911, he operated out of El Tovar Studio in the Grand Canyon. While employed by the Fred Harvey Co., he also worked as a photographer for the Santa Fe Railroad. For seven years, from 1907 to 1914, Moon photographed the native people of the Southwest, in his studio and in their villages. His images appeared (often uncredited) in brochures and publications for both companies.

Moon resigned from Fred Harvey Co. in 1914, and he and his second wife, Grace Purdie Moon, moved to Pasadena, California, where he continued to work as a photographer and painter. In 1923, Henry E. Huntington purchased from Moon 293 large, mounted photographic prints and 12 oil paintings (12 more paintings were purchased in 1925). This remains the largest and most complete collection of Carl Moon's work extant.

In 1924, Moon began work on "Indians of the Southwest," a set of 100 of his finest prints. Published in 1936, only ten copies were ever produced. With his wife Grace, he also wrote and illustrated many children's books about the Indians of the Southwest. Moon died in 1948, in San Francisco, at the home of his daughter.

Acquisition information:
A portion of the collection was purchased and the remainder was donated by Louis F. D'Elia and Michael D. Salazar, 2008.
Processing information:

This collection was processed by Jennifer A. Watts and the original paper finding aid was prepared in November 1994.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized in 5 boxes:

  • Boxes 1-2: Portraits and other photographs
  • Box 3: Artwork; high school diplomas; family photo album (bulk 1905-1916)
  • Box 4: Moon family portrait album (mid-19th to early-20th c.)
  • Box 5: Journals and ephemera

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on January 28, 2014.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Suzanne Oatey.
Date Prepared:
© 2014
Date Encoded:
Machine readable finding aid encoded by Diann Benti in January 2014 and updated in May 2014 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

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:

Carl Moon Collection of Family Photographs and Ephemera. 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
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