Overview of the Collection
Access
Administrative Information
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Related materials in the Huntington Library
Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Overview of the Collection
Title: Mildred E. Baker Travel Scrapbook Collection
Dates (inclusive): 1927-approximately early 1970s
Bulk dates: 1927-1941
Collection Number: photCL 237
Creator:
Baker, Mildred E., 1899-1987
Extent:
13 volumes in 6 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains scrapbooks chiefly containing narratives, snapshots, and
clippings documenting
summer canyoneering and camping trips to the American Southwest, the Colorado River, and the Canadian Rockies
by Mildred E. Baker (1899-1987) in the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as some volumes related to Baker's activities and
interest in bookbinding, poetry, and the Woodcraft League of
America in upstate New York with bookbinder John F. Grabau (1878-1948).
Language: English.
Access
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
Administrative Information
Publication Rights
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], Mildred E. Baker Travel Scrapbook Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Provenance
Volumes 11 and 13, gift of Mildred Baker McVey, March 1974; Volumes 1-10 and 12, gift of McVey, October 1990.
Biographical Note
Mildred E. Baker (later Mildred McVey) (December 23, 1899-March 20, 1987), also known as "Millie," was a secretary for an
investment firm and
a botanist for the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. During summers in the 1930s and early 1940s,
Baker took extensive camping and canyoneering trips with two friends:
teacher Florence A. Huck (1895-1980) and social worker Katherine Crisp, also of Buffalo. In 1940,
she took part in the "Nevills Expedition," with Norman Nevills, rafting down the Green and Colorado Rivers
from Wyoming to Lake Mead; she became one of the first women to successfully travel
the full length of the Colorado River.
In the 1940s, she became friends
with Otis Marston, river-runner and historian of the Colorado River and Green River regions, and communicated with
him about her travel experiences in the American Southwest. In the 1940s, Baker married Philip Rosa, but they later divorced.
Around 1948, Baker moved to
Encinitas, California, and married
Chester Lee McVey (1894-1968) in 1959. They later lived in Laguna Hills, California.
Bibliography
Shaffer, Marguerite S. "Playing American: The Southwestern Scrapbooks of Mildred E. Baker," in
The culture of tourism,
the tourism of culture : selling the past to the present in the American southwest,
ed. Hal K. Rothman (Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2003)
Scope and Content
This collection contains thirteen scrapbooks chiefly containing narratives, snapshots, and clippings documenting
summer canyoneering, camping, and tourism trips to the American Southwest, the Colorado River, the Canadian Rockies, and Wyoming
by Mildred E. Baker in the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as volumes related to Baker's activities and interest in
bookbinding, poetry, and the Woodcraft League of
America in Upstate New York with bookbinder John F. Grabau in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Most of these
volumes reflect the participation of two Baker's friends from Buffalo: Florence A. Huck and Katherine Crisp, who frequently
traveled with Baker and were also involved in
bookbinding activities.
Baker's scrapbooks follow a general pattern: they include typescript narratives describing her trips illustrated with her
own snapshots and handwritten captions, as well
as clippings from magazines and newspapers, occasional bits of poetry, and printed ephemera. Most of the travel volumes include
lists of identified flowers, shrubs, trees, ferns, and birds seen on the trip, reflecting Baker's interests in botany and
ornithology. Many of the volumes also have additional printed items laid in,
with some dating through the early 1970s. All of the volumes are bound in decorative bindings stamped "Grabau," and most have
marbled paper over the pasteboards.
Volumes 1-2 and 4-5 reflect Baker's experiences chiefly at Sunset Hill,
the summer home and artist's retreat of bookbinder John F. Grabau, near Buffalo, New York, presumably as part of the "Ojenta
tribe" of the Woodcraft League of America.
These volumes include poetry and photographs of the landscape, camping and other outdoor outings and group events, and bookbinding,
including images of binding specimens by
both Grabau and Baker.
Many of the volumes document Baker's trips to the American Southwest, including her experience as one of the first women to
raft the
full-length of the Colorado River as part of the 1940 "Nevills Expedition" led by Norman D. Nevills. Her scrapbook of this
trip (volume 11) includes photographs of Nevills and his wife, Doris Nevills,
and fellow participants including mining engineer John S. Southworth of Glendale, California, botanist Hugh C. Cutler
of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and future Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.
Regular themes among the photographs include depictions of
the natural landscape including rock formations, mountains, rivers, and lakes; Native Americans; trading posts; cliff dwellings;
petroglyphs; lodgings;
and means of transportation including by train, automobile, airplane,
horse, and burro.
The volumes consist of:
Volume 1: [Sunset Hill "Christmas" scrapbook album]. 1927-1928
Locations referenced: Sunset Hill estate, Upstate New York
Volume 2: Sunset Hill and Algonquin Park "birthday" scrapbook album]. 1927-1933
Locations referenced: Sunset Hill estate, Upstate New York, and Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada
Volume 3: Navajo Mountain, 1931
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico
Volume 4: Anthology of Sunset Hill (Its Trails and Poets' Glen). 1934-approximately 1938
Locations referenced: Upstate New York
Volume 5: Some poems of Sunset Hill by Mildred E. Baker, Wm. P. Alexander and others. Christmas 1936
Locations referenced: Upstate New York
Volume 6: Memorable Days on Teton Trails. 1934
Locations referenced: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Volume 7: A Glimpse of the Old West. August 16th-September 2nd, 1935
Locations referenced: New Mexico
Volume 8: Wilderness Wanderings in Jasper and Mt. Robson Parks. July 3rd to 23rd 1936
Locations referenced: Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Volume 9: Trail Riding in the Canadian Rockies. July 23 to Aug. 8, 1937
Locations referenced: Alberta, Canadian Rockies
Volume 10: Peace of Rainbow and Canyon. July 2nd to 25th, 1938
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah
Volume 11: Rough Water. Down the Green and Colorado Rivers from Green River, Wyoming, to Boulder Dam, Nevada. June 20th-August
22nd, 1940
Locations referenced: Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
Volume 12: [Scrapbook of newspaper clippings related to the Nevills expedition]. 1940-1941
Locations referenced: Wyoming, Utah, Nevada
Volume 13: Turquoise Skies and Copper Canyon. 1942
Locations referenced: Arizona, Utah
Related materials in the Huntington Library
-
Otis R. Marston Papers
(Call number: mssMarston papers) contains correspondence with Baker and a typescript copy of Baker's journal during the Nevills
Expedition.
Arrangement
The volumes are arranged chronologically.
Indexing Terms
Subjects
Baker, Mildred E., 1899-1987 -- Photographs.
Crisp, Katherine -- Photographs.
Cutler, Hugh C., 1912-1998 -- Photographs.
Goldwater, Barry M. (Barry Morris), 1909-1998 -- Photographs.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948 -- Photographs.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948 -- Homes and haunts -- Photographs.
Huck, Florence A. -- Photographs.
Nevills, Norman D., 1908-1949 -- Photographs.
Southworth, John -- Photographs.
Nevills Expeditions -- Photographs.
Woodcraft League of America -- Photographs.
Artist colonies -- New York (State) -- Photographs.
Artist colonies -- New York (State).
Boats and boating -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Bookbinding -- Photographs.
Camping -- Photographs.
Canyoneering -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona -- Photographs.
Indians of North America -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
National parks and reserves -- Canada -- Photographs.
National parks and reserves -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Outdoor recreation -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Petroglyphs -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Rapids -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Rivers -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Travel -- Canada -- Photographs.
Travel -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Women travelers -- Canada -- Photographs.
Women travelers -- West (U.S.) -- Photographs.
Alberta -- Photographs.
Arizona -- Photographs.
Canada -- Photographs.
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.) -- Photographs.
Carlsbad Caverns (N.M.)
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Photographs.
Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Photographs.
Grand Teton (Wyo.) -- Photographs.
Green River (Wyo.-Utah) -- Photographs.
Louise, Lake (Alta. : Lake) -- Photographs.
Mogollon Mountains (N.M.)
Navajo Mountain (Utah) -- Photographs.
New Mexico -- Photographs.
Rainbow Bridge (Utah) -- Photographs.
Rainbow Bridge National Monument (Utah) -- Photographs.
Upstate New York (N.Y.) -- Photographs.
Utah -- Photographs.
Forms/Genres
Photographs.
Photograph albums.
Poems.
Scrapbooks.
Contributors
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948.
Grabau, John F., 1878-1948, binder.
Huck, Florence A.
Alexander, William P. (William Prindle), 1881-1956.