William Ashburner collection of photographs from the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, 1867-circa 1875, bulk 1867-1869

Summary

Creators:

Ashburner, William, 1831-1887

Abstract:

Views of natural features and scenery, members of the survey party and their camps. Locations include the Sierra Nevada range of California and Nevada and numerous sites in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Several Central Pacific Railroad views are included.

Extent:

148 mounted photographic prints : albumen ; images chiefly 20 x 27 cm, mounts 46 x 62 cm. 149 digital objects

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

The William Ashburner collection of photographs from the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel is a set of 144 large format photographic prints taken on the Clarence King surveys of 1867-1869. The photographs are chiefly by Timothy O'Sullivan, although some have been re-attributed to Andrew J. Russell. This set belonged to survey party member (and later University of California regent) William Ashburner, and is believed to have been compiled by or for him, personally.

The set is focused on the western portion of the King Survey and includes locations in California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Each mount bears a manuscript caption, in pencil, at the lower right edge. (These captions were later traced over in pen, sometimes obscuring legibility.) The collection is arranged according to numbers original to the set, written below each image. This numbering differs from other sets of views from this survey. The set begins with views of survey camps and group portraits of survey members, taken in various (unidentified) locations. The remainder follow a geographical progression, roughly west-to-east, from California's Mono Lake and Donner Pass, through northern Nevada and northern Utah, to Shoshone Falls, Idaho and the southwest corner of Wyoming. The East Humboldt Mountains, Wastach Mountains and Uinta Mountains are heavily represented, as are Shoshone Falls and Virginia City and the Washoe mining district of Nevada. The set ends with views that appear to be out of geographic sequence, with some California (Sierra Nevada) scenes, Central Pacific Railroad scenes (in unidentified locations), and images of several Native Americans.

Some of the Utah views (near Salt Lake City and in the Uinta Mountains), although long credited to O'Sullivan, have been re-attributed to Andrew J. Russell and dated to 1869, based on research by Glenn Willumson (in Framing the west: the survey photographs of Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Yale Univ. Press, 2010. p. 177-185). These prints are slightly larger in size (up to about 23 x 28.5 cm) than those with unquestioned attributions to O'Sullivan. Willumson's re-attributions to Russell have not been universally accepted at the time of issue of this finding aid, so both photographers' names remain associated with questionable items in this listing.

The Ashburner collection, its arrangement, and its sometimes-unique captioning has been discussed in detail by Francois Brunet, in his article "Revisiting the Enigmas of Timothy O'Sullivan" (History of Photography v. 31 no. 2 (Summer 2007) p. 97-133).

Four additional photographs by O'Sullivan have been appended, by the Library, to the end of the Ashburner set (items 145-148). These four items were a gift to the library from historian Francis P. Farquhar.

Six of the original 144 images have been missing from the set for decades, including all four views of the Mono Lake region (items 9-12). Captions for these items are present on the manuscript listing that accompanies the photographs, probably made at the time the set was given to the university, circa 1885. The captions have been included in this guide.

Acquisition information:

Bulk presented in 1884-1885 to the University Library by survey party member William Ashburner, with four later additions from the collection of Francis P. Farquhar.

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Note:

Seven items bear O'Sullivan's monogram in the negative: "T.H.O'S." Many items are numbered in the negative in a sequence that does not match ink numberings on mounts. In some cases these numbers have been noted in the item descriptions in this guide, but this has not been done thoroughly.

Related resources

Other descriptive data:

Formerly housed in 2 volumes, apparently bound by the library.

On printed mounts, with ms. captions. Captions differ from official captions found elsewhere, but seem to have been made by a survey member. Within the item descriptions in this guide, title variations found on copies elsewhere have often been noted. The variants found are chiefly from the holdings of the Library of Congress (LoC) or the George Eastman House (GEH).

Formerly classified, by Library, as ff/F594.U55. Labels remain on each mount.

Exact dates and print measurements, when supplied in item descriptions, have been provided by researcher Susan Williams, former curator at the Oakland Museum of California.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

Website