Ralph Bowers Bowman San Diego Photographs Collection MS-0537
Lucas Buresch
Special Collections & University Archives
12/01/2017
5500 Campanile Dr. MC 8050
San Diego, CA 92182-8050
askscua@sdsu.edu
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Ralph Bowers Bowman San Diego Photographs Collection
Creator:
Bowman, Ralph Bowers
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0537
Physical Description:
5.33 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1922-1937
Language of Material:
English
.
The
Ralph Bowers Bowman San Diego Photographs Collection (1922-1937) includes scenes of the San Diego metropolitan area. Subjects of the photographs include landmarks, waterfront
scenes of fishing boats, freights ships and naval ships; Balboa Park; La Jolla; Point Loma; aerial views; street scenes; football
games; visiting dignitaries; and personal photographs of Bowman's children and family. Also documented by the photographs
are several road trips to St. Louis, the Imperial Valley, Phoenix and Prescott, Arizona, and the Yosemite Valley.
I. Photo Albums, 1922-1937
II. Negatives, 1923-1937
This collection is open for research. Any photograph with an identifiable family member may not be made use of by a third
party or licensed for commercial use without the permission of Julia E. Reid or her brother, Stewart Reid, during their lifetimes.
The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with
the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections
is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be
submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
Any photograph with an identifiable family member may not be made use of by a third party or licensed for commercial use without
the permission of Julia E. Reid or her brother, Stewart Reid, during their lifetimes.
Photo albums are unbound. Black paper is decomposing badly and produces a large amount of black dust when handled. Negatives
are housed in paper sleeves. Loose photo prints are housed in mylar sleeves.
James E. Lunbeck
2015-051
James E. Lunbeck is the partner of Julia E. Reid, the daughter of Ralph Bowers Bowman's daughter, Constance Bowman Reid. The
donors have chosen to donate the majority of Bowman's photographs of St. Louis and Phoenix to historical institutions in their
respective cities.
John and Jane Adams Postcard Collection, 1880-2007
G. Hamilton Hammon Scrapbook, 1911-1939
San Diego Corral of the Westerners Records, 1921-2013
San Diego Photograph Collection, 1870-1975
Identification of item, folder title, box number,
Ralph Bowers Bowman San Diego Photographs Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, San Diego State University Library.
Ralph Bowers Bowman (1878-1937) was a businessman who sold industrial machinery. After the death of his first wife he remarried
and moved his family from St. Louis to Phoenix to live with his mother, eventually settling in San Diego. His two daughters
by his first wife were Julia Bowman Robinson (1919-1985), an eminent mathematician and the first woman president of the American
Mathematical Society, and Constance Bowman Reid (1918-2010), a biographer of mathematicians. Around the time of his first
wife's death, Bowman took up photography, a hobby that would produce thousands of photographs. For a more detailed history
of Ralph Bowers Bowman and his family, see document titled "Ralph Bowman Photographs" by Julia E. Reid in the James E. Lunbeck
Donor File.
Processed by Lucas Buresch, November 2017.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
San Diego (Calif.)--Pictorial works
San Diego (Calif.)--History
San Diego County (Calif.)--Pictorial works
San Diego County (Calif.)--History--Sources
Photo Albums Series I 1922-1937
box 1, item 1
Photo Album #1 Item 1 1924-1933
Of special interest in this album are views of naval ships, commercial ships, and yachts in San Diego bay; and early aerials
views of downtown San Diego, San Diego Bay, Coronado Island, and North Island.
The album also includes views of San Diego area communities and landmarks, such as Balboa Park, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del
Mar, La Jolla, Lake Hodges Dam on the San Dieguito River, Miramar (Scripps Estate), Mission Beach, Mission Valley, Mission
Gorge and the Old Mission Dam, Ocean Beach, Oceanside, North Island airplane hangers, Point Loma, Rancho Santa Fe, Sunset
Cliffs, Torrey Pines Park, and the US/Mexico International Border.
Views of San Diego backcountry sites include: Cuyamaca Lake and Cuyamaca mountains, Descanso, Escondido, Jacumba, Julian,
Laguna Mountains, Lake Hodges, Mt. Helix, Mountain Springs Road/Grade, Pine Valley, Ramona, Rose Canyon, San Pasqual Battlefield
Monument, Santa Fe railroad at Kearny grade, Santa Ysabel, and Stonewall Peak.
Views in the Imperial Valley include Brawley, Calexico, El Centro, and the Salton Sea.
Views outside the San Diego area include Aguacaliente, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis Rey Mission, Los Angeles, and St. Louis,
Missouri.
The album also documents several road trips: from St. Louis to San Diego in August 1925; from San Diego to the Imperial Valley
via Mountain Springs Road in May 1925; and from Prescott, Arizona to San Diego in 1924.
box 2, item 1
Photo Album #2 Item 1 1922-1937
Of special interest in this album are views of naval ships, commercial ships, and yachts in San Diego bay; and early aerials
views of downtown San Diego, San Diego Bay, Coronado Island, and North Island; and flooding and flood damage in Mission Valley,
Oceanside, and Poway during February 1927.
The album also includes views of San Diego area communities and landmarks, such as: Balboa Park (including aerial views from
the California Tower), Del Mar, Downtown San Diego, Hotel Del Coronado, La Jolla, La Jolla Shores under development in 1930,
Mission San Diego de Alcala, Mission Bay, Mission Beach, Mission Gorge and the old Mission Dam, Mission Valley, Ocean Beach,
Oceanside, Old Town, Point Loma, San Diego Bay, San Diego High School Stadium, San Diego Historical Society (Presido Park),
San Diego's Santa Fe Railroad Station, San Diego Naval Hospital, San Diego State College stadium, San Diego Zoo, Sunset Cliffs,
Torrey Pines Park, and the US/Mexico International Border.
Views of San Diego backcountry sites include: Alpine, Banner grade, Campo, Carrizo Gorge and Carrizo Gorge Railway, Cuyamaca
mountains and Lake Cuyamaca, Descanso, Dulzura, El Cajon, El Monte Park, Flinn Springs Resort, Glen Oaks, Grossmont, Indian
Springs, Julian, Mt. Helix, Mountain Springs Road/Grade, Pine Valley, Poway, Ramona, San Pasqual Battlefield Monument, and
Santa Ysabel.
Views outside the San Diego area include Aguacaliente, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis Rey Mission, Los Angeles,
Hollywood, the Huntington Library and Museum in San Marino, Pasadena, Long Beach, the Imperial Valley, Salton Sea, and the
Yosemite Valley.
The album also documents several road trips: from San Diego to Phoenix in October 1923; from San Diego to Boulder Dam (Hoover
Dam) in April 1936; from San Diego to Yosemite Valley in June 1927.
box 3, folder 1
Negatives Folder 1 1923 May-1925 August
box 4, folder 1
Negatives Folder 1 1925 September-1927 May
box 5, folder 1
Negatives Folder 1 1927 June-1929 December
box 6, folder 1
Negatives Folder 1 1930 January-1933 March
box 7, folder 1
Negatives Folder 1 1933 April-1937 June
box 7, folder 2
Negatives Folder 2 undated
box 7, folder 3