Digital images and original negatives of the stagecoaches on Mount Hamilton, Lick Observatory telescope and buildings, and the Hotel Vendome (San Jose, California), taken by Fredrick W. Hill in 1892.

A biography provided by the donor states that Fredrick Hill was born in Dawley, England, in 1864. He and his family immigrated to New England in the mid-1870s. He worked in the printing press manufacturing industry from 1881 to 1948, in Taunton and Whitman, Massachusetts, and Rutherford, New Jersey. Hill designed at least several printing presses (Patent No. 2,330,359, September 1943). In 1892 he married Nellie F. Eaton, and they traveled across the United States from Taunton by train, taking many photographs along the way with Hill's Kodak camera. In May, 1892, their journey took them through the West, including San Francisco, where they took a side trip down to San Jose to visit Mount Hamilton. After viewing Lick Observatory, Hill's fascination with telescopes led him to design and make his own telescopes, including grinding the glass for the lenses. The Hills lived in Chicago after their trip west, eventually moving back to New England in the mid-1890s.

49 images

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The images are available to researchers by appointment with the Curator of Library and Archives. Scanned images may be provided instead of original negatives for preservation reasons.