Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: Henry Hebard West photograph album

Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0098.1998

Physical Description: 1 album 1 album (942 photographic prints) : b&w ; 28 x 21 cm. (album)

Title from box.

Photographs are mounted on rectos and versos of 140 leaves of thin white paper, numbered 1-277, and arranged two, four, or six to a page; West's detailed typed captions below, supplying locations, dates, names of people, and historical background; some names have been added later in pen or pencil; 21 newspaper clippings pertaining to people in the photographs-many are obituaries--are affixed to some pages.

Tipped in on first leaf: souvenir portfolio of 11 double-sided colored postcards of Los Angeles, unfolding accordion-style from an envelope printed with oranges and leaves; addressed to Mrs. A.E. Foreman, Joplin, Mo. from Mrs. G.W. Foreman, 2606 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, Cal.

Bound in light blue paper covers, with ms. title in black ink on upper cover: "Old photograp[h]s, 1896 on--"; secured with two brass fasteners.

Date: 1896-1937

Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

Language of Material: English .

Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9966204613606533 

[Identification of item], Henry Hebard West photograph album (Forms part of the Photographers Collection (Collection 98)). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

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Los Angeles resident, Southern Pacific Railroad employee, and candid photographer. Henry Hebard West was born in on Jan. 23, 1872 in Red Oak, Iowa, where he spent his childhood, and attended high school at East Ward School. His father, George M. West was a prominent local builder and architect, and the large comfortable homes, sturdy schools, and impressive commercial buildings he built contributed greatly to Red Oak's reputation as a well-maintained and progressive town. Sometime after 1882, the family moved to Los Angeles, where they lived at 240 South Griffin Ave. in a house built by George West. H.H. West worked as a Western Union telegraph operator, and as stenographer to Frank E. Prior, Asst. Superintendent of the Los Angeles Division of the Southern Pacific Railroad, supervised all arrangements, train orders, and dispatches for President McKinley's special train in the Division during the president's visit to Los Angeles in 1901.

Album of photographs and newspaper clippings, primarily of Los Angeles and vicinity, but also including many photos of travels to Northern California, the Midwest, and New England, compiled by Henry Hebard West between 1896 and 1937. Most of the photos are portraits of the West family in Los Angeles, where they lived at 240 S. Griffin Avenue, in a house built by the photographer's father. Prominent in the photos throughout the album are West's parents, George and Wilhemina (Lemberger) West, and his siblings, Guy, Wayne, Wilson, and Nella, West's wife, Mertie Whitaker West, and their children, Elizabeth, Frances, and Henry Hebard Jr., known as Hebard, as well as numerous friends, neighbors, pets, and family automobiles. The photos provide a first-hand look at the architecture, interior decoration, furniture, clothing, hair styles, and transportation of the period. They document the life of the West family over a span of forty years, as they age, marry, raise children, enjoy outings to nearby city parks, beaches, hotels, and missions, and vacation together in Northern California, returning again and again to places like Yosemite, Silver Lake, Gem Lake, June Lake, Convict Lake, and Minnelusa to camp; sled; hike; trout fish; and hunt deer, rabbits, doves, and sage hens. West took his camera along wherever he traveled, and was able to record interesting and unusual shots of visits to Los Angeles by Presidents McKinley in 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1903; the death and destruction in the streets of San Francisco following the earthquake and fire of 1906; and camp life at the Presidio during the Spanish American War of the men of Company M of the 51st Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, most of whom he knew from his years growing up in Red Oak, Iowa. Other photos record West's trip in August 1900 with his mother back east, to Red Oak, Ottumwa, and Burlington, Iowa, Chicago, and Aurora, Illinois; and his business trip in Jan. 1917 to Chicago, New York, Coney Island, Brooklyn, Boston and other New England cities, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Niagara Falls. Early views of Los Angeles include Chinatown in 1897, the "cribs" of the prostitutes working on Alameda St, between Macy and Fifth Streets, the Sawtelle Veterans Home (Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers), the old City Market at Third and Central, and patients and staff of County Hospital. West also preserved a 1910 portrait of "lady bullfighters" in the Plaza de Toros in Hermosillo, Mexico, sent to him by his friend from County Hospital, Dr. Bim Smith. Several photos show the massing of the athletes at the 1932 Olympics, held in July 1932 in Los Angeles. The album concludes with a series of photos of West's son, Hebard, as a Boy Scout, vacation shots with friends in Manhattan Beach, Palm Springs, and Arrowhead Lake during the early 1930s, and a West family reunion in 1935.

Forms part of the Photographers' collection (Collection 98).  Available at UCLA Library Special Collections.

For background and early photos of the West family in Red Oak, Iowa, cf. Red Oak / S.M. Senden (Arcadia Publishing, ©2008).

See also "Correspondence and notes used by H.H. West in compiling the 'Descendants of Hezekiah West, '" five illustrated scrapbooks of documents and letters, available at the Los Angeles Public Library. UCLA Library Special Collections also holds ca. 10,000 negatives taken by H.H. West, accompanied by a detailed index to the images. This album contains prints of some of the negatives in that collection.

Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online: H.H. West Collection (4686 items).