Title: Antonio Franco Coronel (1817-1894) Collection

Dates: 1857-1913

Collection Number: P-157

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 1.25 linear feet (Boxes: 4 letter, ½ legal, 3 legal; ov folders)

Repository: Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Abstract: Photographs of the Coronel family members and friends and of Southern California views. Primarily 19th century portraits produced on cartes de visite and cabinet cards of individuals and groups from southern California. Also images pertaining to the Coronels’ relationship with author Helen Hunt Jackson; Native American portraits and outdoor scenes; a number of portraits of individuals and groups in dramatic poses and dressed in theatrical costumes. Also a group of framed lithographs, ca. 1870, being portraits of Spanish viceroys in New Spain and Mexican leaders and presidents. English and Spanish. ca. 1857-1913, undated. See also GC 1001 Antonio F. Coronel (1817-1894) Papers

Language of Material: Spanish; Castilian

Research is by appointment only

Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder

[Identification of item]. Antonio Franco Coronel (1817-1894) Collection. Collection Number: P-157. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Antonio Franco Coronel was born October 21, 1817 in Mexico. He and his family were members of the Híjar-Padrés Colony reaching Alta California in 1834. Settling in Los Angeles, his father Ignacio Coronel, Antonio Coronel and his sister established a school. For the rest of his life, he served various public offices: Assistant Secretary of the Tribunals of the City of Los Angeles (1838); Judge of the First Instance (1843); Captain of the Auxiliary Companies and Visitor of the Southern Missions (1844); Representative to the General Congress of Towns (1846); Member of the Body of Magistrates in charge of regulation and order of Irrigation (1847-1848); County Assessor of Los Angeles (1850-1851-1852); Mayor of Los Angeles (1853); Member of the Common Council (ranging from 1854 to 1867); State Treasurer (1867-1871); Commissioner on the State Board of Horticulture. In 1873 Coronel married Mariana Williamson, and he died in 1894. Mariana Williamson de Coronel (born Mary Burton Williamson) in San Antonio Texas, in 1851, was the eldest daughter of Nelson Williamson, a native of Augusta, Maine and Gertrudes Romana de Williamson, of Mexican birth. She was raised fluent in both the English and Spanish languages. Her family came to California in 1859. She was educated in the public schools of Los Angeles and in the College of the Sisters of St. Vincent. She was only 22 years old when she married the much older Coronel. In 1895 she remarried, to Dr. C. Edgar Smith of Los Angeles, but they divorced by 1900. The collection has references in the most recent photographs (i.e. 1913) to “Mariana Coronel de Dominguez”, indicating perhaps she remarried a third time. Details of her life are nil after her divorce from Smith, and several genealogical web sources indicate that she died June 20, 1917. Sources used for biographical note: An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1889), 425-428. Kate Phillips, Helen Hunt Jackson, A Literary Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 242. National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: J. T. White, 1904), 566. Los Angeles Herald, December 23, 1900 (California Digital Newspaper Collection).

Photographs of the Coronel family members and friends and of Southern California views. Photographs of the Coronel family members and friends and of Southern California views. Primarily portraits produced on cartes de visite and cabinet cards, along with some daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, lithographs, and more modern photographic prints. Many of the photos were taken at southern California studios, but some derive from Mexico. The Coronels had an abundance of friends, and many of those acquaintances were from El Monte, Los Angeles, and Sonora, Mexico. Many were inscribed to Mariana with terms of endearment. Several items pertaining to the Coronels’ relationship with author Helen Hunt Jackson. The Coronels influenced her writing of the novel Ramona, according to a Jackson biographer. Many Native Americans portraits, such as ones presented by A. Frank Randall; still others are outdoor scenes, perhaps when the Coronels toured asistencias with or without Jackson. A number of portraits of individuals and groups in dramatic poses and dressed in theatrical costumes. Also a group of framed lithographs, ca. 1870, being portraits of Spanish viceroys in New Spain and Mexican leaders and presidents. A portion of the photographs is housed separately in collection GC-1001. The entire collection is also described in The Antonio F. Coronel Collection, Exhibition Room Third Floor, Chamber of Commerce Building (Los Angeles: Baumgardt Publishing Co.,1906) and in the Los Angeles County Museum Quarterly, vol. 14, n. 4 (1958), pages 4-7. English and Spanish. ca. 1850-1900. See also GC 1001 Antonio F. Coronel (1817-1894) Papers