Thomas Family Photograph Album, 1892-1898

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Summary

Abstract:
A personal photograph album chiefly depicting mining engineer Chester A. Thomas (1874-1920) and Thomas family members between 1892 and 1898 in mining camps in Virginia City and Sutro, Nevada; at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California; visiting Harvard University and Cambridge, Massachusetts; and at Camp Merritt at the Presidio, San Francisco, in 1898.
Extent:
1.5 Linear Feet (104 photographs in 1 album : chiefly cyanotype prints ; images chiefly 12.5 x 16.5 cm, volume 21 x 17 cm)
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Thomas Family Photograph Album, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

A personal photograph album of 104 images with handwritten captions chiefly depicting Chester A. Thomas (1874-1920) and Thomas family members between 1892 and 1898 in mining camps in Nevada (pages 1-29); at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California (pages 30-33); visiting Harvard University and Cambridge, Massachusetts (pages 38-49); and at Camp Merritt at the Presidio, San Francisco, in 1898 (pages 33-37 and 50-65). The album includes 20 cyanotype photographs (12.5 x 16.5 cm) of the mining camps in Virginia City and Sutro, Nevada (where Thomas's father, Charles Thomas, was superintendent of the Sutro tunnel), including: mining equipment, miners, locomotive cars, interior views of the mine shaft, buildings and mules. Some of the images are of Camp Merritt, at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, where California volunteers assembled in May-June 1898 for transport to the Philippines during the Spanish American War. Thomas, a member of Company K of the United States Cavalry Volunteers, is depicted as well as other soldiers, including members of the 51st Iowa Volunteers.

Biographical / historical:

Mining engineer Chester Ashley Thomas (1874-1920), known as "Chet," was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1874. Thomas's father, Colonel Charles Cotesworth Thomas, was a mining engineer and became superintendent of the Sutro tunnel of the Comstock Lode, Nevada in 1871. Chester Thomas graduated from Stanford University in 1898 and became a member of the First California Volunteers at Manila, 1898-99, during the Spanish American War. Thomas became a mining engineer and later manager of American Smelters Securities Co. He died in 1920 while in Dawson, Alaska.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alan H. Robertson, August 1964.
Processing information:

This collection was previously known as the "Nevada Mining Photograph Collection, 1892-1893."

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

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]. Thomas Family Photograph Album, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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