Online content
Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Wood, Romanzo E. (Romanzo Erastus),
- Abstract:
- Extent:
- Items: 1 Box Linear Feet: 1
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
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R. E. Wood Scrapbook. California State University, Chico
Background
- Scope and content:
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The Scrapbook contains photographs, newspaper clippings, advertisements and articles about and by R. E. Wood, landscape photographer and inventor. The bulk of material is of Santa Cruz, but also includes Mount Shasta, Lake Tahoe, and Napa. Wood made booms and matches, invented gopher and squirrel rodent traps, Together with his wife Mary they put on Optical Lantern or Steroscopticon exhibitions, and offered their services as landscape photographers. He was a correspondent for the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Tahoe Tattler newspapers. The original use of the book was of as a ledger, listing names with dates ranging from 1869 to 1873. Many pages were removed, and photographs and newspaper clippings of his columns and advertisements for their services and inventions were pasted over. Images from the scrapbook as well as other photographs are cataloged separately in the Historic Photograph collection. The scrapbook and photos of contains the images of Santa Cruz County, Napa County Lake Tahoe vicinity, Sonoma County, Bodie, Glenn County, Shasta County, Copper City, Monterey County, and Pacific Grove.
- Biographical / historical:
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Romanzo Erastus Wood, or R. E. Wood, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts August 10, 1838. In 1859 he came west on the Oregon-California trial arriving in Napa County, California. Wood married Mary Elizabeth Olmstead Wade October 17, 1864 and had a daughter Cleo Emma. The Woods moved to Santa Cruz County in 1868 and settled at Troutdale Farm near Bear Creek just above the San Lorenzo River. Wood supported himself in a variety of ways: as an inventor of rodent traps, farmer, manufacturer of matches, brooms and knives. He wrote for the county newspaper the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Together with Mary they also travel around California putting on Lantern Stereoscopic shows and offering their services as landscape photographers. In 1881 they moved to Tahoe City. He wrote for the Tahoe Tattle and they continued their photography activities. They divorced in 1891. Wood married again to Phoebe S. Brown in 1892. He died April 1, 1925 in St. Helena, California.
- Acquisition information:
- Thomas L. Rodgers, December 9, 1991
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Collection is open for research without restriction.
- Terms of access:
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The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.
- Preferred citation:
-
R. E. Wood Scrapbook. California State University, Chico
- Location of this collection:
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California State University, Chico, Special Collections Meriam Library400 West First StreetChico, CA 95929-0295, US
- Contact:
- (530) 898-6603