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Portraits from the Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and
miscellany
MSP 1441
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Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
Title: Portraits from the Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and
miscellany
Creator:
Medina, Hipolita Orendain de, born circa 1847
Identifier/Call Number: MSP 1441
Physical Description:
8 folders
Date (inclusive): circa 1860-1906
Language of Material: Collection
materials are in English and Spanish.
Physical Location: Collection is stored
onsite.
CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates:
https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/
The collection was donated to the California Historical Society by the estate of F.V.
Brigante in 1963.
Hipolita Orendain de Medina was born in Mexico circa 1847. In the late 1850s, she settled
in San Francisco with her sister, Virginia, and their widowed mother, Francisca Tejada de
Orendain. According to family tradition, Francisca inherited a fortune from her late
husband, Jesus Orendain, who owned a Mexican silver mine. She invested her wealth in Oakland
waterfront property, married Virginia native Humphrey Marshall, and provided financial
support to a company of men fighting to liberate Mexico from French rule. Marshall died in
the American Civil War, and the Orendain family lost much of their fortune. To help support
the family, Hipolita and her sister Virginia worked as dressmakers in San Francisco. In
October 1869, Hipolita married Emilio (or Emigdio) Medina, a professional musician,
diplomat, and editor of the Spanish-language newspaper
La Republica; they had
four daughters, Josefina, Virginia, Zarina, and Mercedes. In 1880, the couple separated, and
later Hipolita referred to herself as a widow. She died circa 1922, and was buried in Los
Angeles.
[Identification of item], Portraits from the Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and
miscellany, MSP 1441, California Historical Society.
Portraits were removed from the CHS Portrait Collection and reunited into a single
collection by Louisa Brandt in 2017.
Portraits were transferred from the Hipolita Orendain de Medina correspondence and
miscellany (MS 1441).
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Director of Library and Archives. Consent is given on behalf
of the California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained
from the copyright owner. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original
materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Responsibility for any use, including copying, transmitting, or making any other use of
protected images, rests exclusively with the user. Upon request, digitized works can be
removed from public view if there are rights issues that need to be resolved.
The collection consists of 93 cartes de visite and 57 cabinet card portraits dated between
1863-1906, collected by Hipolita Orendain de Medina. The bulk of the photographs were taken
in Guadalajara, Mexico, and San Francisco, California, and depict Mexican and Mexican
American men, women, and children with whom Medina was connected by family ties or
friendship. Many of the photographs are inscribed to Medina, with affectionate messages in
English and Spanish. Major photographers in the collection include: the San Francisco
studios Bradley & Rulofson, Wm. Shew, Edouart's Photographic Gallery, Bayley &
Cramer's Studio, and Fowzer; and the Guadalajara studio Octaviano de la Mora.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Mexican Americans -- California -- San Francisco -- Portraits
Cabinet photographs
Cartes de visite
Tintypes