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
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.