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Santa Cruz County Historic Photograph collection
MS.427
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Santa Cruz County Historic Photograph collection
Identifier/Call Number: MS.427
Physical Description:
102 Linear Feet
153 flats, 33 negative boxes, 1 carton, 2 flat file
drawers
Date (inclusive): circa 1866-1995
Date (bulk): 1875-1965
Abstract: This collection contains original and
copy prints of Santa Cruz County from 1866-1995.
Language of Material:
English
Collection open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Santa Cruz County Historic Photograph Collection. MS 427. Special Collections and Archives,
University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
The vast majority of the photographs were acquired by the UCSC library as part of the
Preston Sawyer Collection, MS82. Other photographs were donated by various individuals and
sources between 1968-2000.
Biography / Administrative History
Preston Sawyer, the main source for the photographs in this collection, was a proofreader
and historical writer, born in Santa Cruz in 1899. He wrote the weekly column, "Santa Cruz
Yesterdays" in the
Santa Cruz Sentinel. He and his brother Ariel Sawyer ran
the Sawyer Tile Company. As a youth, Preston Sawyer worked in the early movie industry
located in the Santa Cruz mountains. A prolific amateur photographer, he took hundreds of
pictures of actors, directors, film crews, and locations. He also recorded his family,
friends, neighbors, pastimes, his tenure at Santa Cruz High School and the
Sentinal
, as well as local businesses and merchants. Sawyer and his family members
were voracious collectors who bought and exchanged photographs and postcards of early Santa
Cruz and surrounding areas. After his death in 1968, UCSC acquired his photographs.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection includes 154 boxes of original photographs, copy prints, vintage postcards,
oversize prints, albums, and 33 boxes of negatives. There is a small number of tintypes and
magnesium plates, as well as Santa Cruz ephemera. Some of the local Santa Cruz photographers
and studios represented are: Charles (C.L.) Aydelotte, C. Aichberg, Alice Halsey, Kroughs,
McKean and Ort, Ole Ravnos, Reese, W.H. Sherer, George Webb, and Wicklund.
The collection spans more than 100 years of Santa Cruz city and county development and
activity. The photographs document communities and towns, some now gone; businesses and
stores; industries: logging, mining, farming, ranching; the natural surroundings: beaches,
forests, rivers, creeks, lagoons; cultural events and entertainment: theater, exhibits,
celebrations, parades; institutions: government, churches, schools, libraries; military
displays and recreation: team sports, camping, and fishing; and means of transportation:
railroads, streetcars, airplanes, automobiles, ships and boats. It reveals the daily lives
of Santa Cruz residents and where they lived, worked, played, and worshiped. The bulk of the
photographs document the city of Santa Cruz, but there are many photos of the North and
South county as well. Other large portions include the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Casino, and
the nascent film industry in Santa Cruz including actors, directors, and film crews on
location.
Photographs are arranged by size and by topical subject.
Series include:
- Series 1. Agriculture
- Series 2. Animals
- Series 3. Beaches
- Series 4. Boardwalk and Casino
- Series 5. Businesses
- Series 6. Civic Organizations and Government
- Series 7. Communications and Utilities
- Series 8. Cultural Activities
- Series 9. Disasters
- Series 10. Entertainment
- Series 11. Hotels, Cottages, and Apartments
- Series 12. Industries
- Series 13. Landmarks
- Series 14. Military
- Series 15. Nature
- Series 16. People
- Series 17. Recreation
- Series 18. Religion
- Series 19. Residences
- Series 20. Social Services
- Series 21. Towns and Communities
- Series 22. Transportation
- Series 23. Oversize
- Series 24. Albums
- Series 25. Miscellaneous and Ephemera
- Series 26. Negatives
Processed by Debra Roussopoulos in 2017.
Photographs were organized according to a topical scheme created by local historians and
staff of Special Collections. Duplicates are stored with the originals.
After Preston Sawyer's death, and between 1968-1995, a group of local historians and
relatives of Sawyer including Esther Lucille Fields Rice, Ariel Sawyer, John and Vivian
Byrne, and Harold Van Gorder, dedicated significant time identifying photographs in the
collection. Rice spent her retirement visiting the homes of early Santa Cruz residents and
their families, sorting through thousands of photographs that were solicited from the
community, and contributed to the invaluable information found in this visual record of
Santa Cruz.
Many original photographs were made into vintage postcards by Preston Sawyer directly
directly after the image was produced. Sawyer annotated and stamped each postcard with the
date.
Finding aid revision statement
This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project in 2021-2022.
Previous versions of this finding aid are available upon request.
MS82 Preston Sawyer Collection
"Santa Cruz County History", Santa Cruz Public Library,
https://www.santacruzpl.org/history/
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Santa Cruz County (Calif.) -- History