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Thomas Family Photograph Album: Finding Aid
photCL 144  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Access
  • Administrative Information
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Content
  • Related Materials in the Huntington Library
  • Indexing Terms

  • Overview of the Collection

    Title: Thomas Family Photograph Album
    Dates (inclusive): 1892-1898
    Collection Number: photCL 144
    Extent: 104 photographs in 1 album : chiefly cyanotype prints ; images chiefly 12.5 x 16.5 cm, volume 21 x 17 cm
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo Archives
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2129
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    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.
    Language: English.

    Access

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

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    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.

    Provenance

    Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alan M. Robertson, August 1964.

    Cataloging Note

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

    Biographical Note

    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.

    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.

    Related Materials in the Huntington Library

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Subjects

    Thomas, Chester A., 1874-1920 -- Photographs.
    Harvard University -- Photographs.
    Stanford University -- Photographs.
    Military camps -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs.
    Mines and mineral resources -- Nevada -- Sutro -- Photographs.
    Mines and mineral resources -- Nevada -- Virginia City -- Photographs.
    Mining camps -- Photographs.
    Mining engineers -- Photographs.
    Soldiers -- Photographs.
    Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Military personnel -- Photographs.
    Cambridge (Mass.) -- Photographs.
    Presidio of San Francisco (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    San Francisco (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Sutro (Nev.) -- Photographs.
    Virginia City (Nev.) -- Photographs.

    Forms/Genres

    Photographs.