These lantern slides depict urban, agricultural, and nature scenes of California in the 1870s. The slides acted as a visual accompaniment to real estate developer Charles Victor Hall’s traveling lecture promoting California's resources and benefits, aimed to encourage New Englanders and Europeans to relocate to California. This collection is significant in its images of Native Americans in California, mainly in the Yosemite area, and views of prospecting and mining.

Charles Victor Hall (1854-1933) was born in 1854 in San Francisco, California, but grew up in Los Angeles. He was a precocious student, giving the valedictory at Los Angeles Grammar School on November 25, 1869. As a young man, he wrote poems and articles for local newspapers. From 1876 to 1880, he edited and published his own Hall’s Land Journal, promoting the agriculture and resources of Southern California. Around this time, Hall created a lantern slide lecture about California and its climate, agriculture, trade, and industry; he traveled to the Eastern United States and Europe with the aim that his lecture would persuade people to immigrate to California, bringing with them their families and businesses. Hall later worked as a real estate agent in Los Angeles before trying his hand in the oil industry. After successfully drilling a number of oil wells at Olinda Ranch in Brea, California, Hall retired to his ranch at Buena, California in 1912 and passed away in 1933.

166 lantern slides and 3 copy negatives in 4 boxes: slides 8 x 8 cm. (3.25 x 3.25 in.)

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