Logging Operations in Little River, California, circa 1870

Summary

Creators:

Hazeltine, M. M. (Martin Mason)

Extent:

5 digital objects 5 photographs on cartes de visite mounts, 7 x 10 cm.

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

The Logging Operations in Little River, California collection contains 5 cartes de visite photographs that have been attributed to photographer Martin M. Hazeltine. The collection features early views of the vicinity of the lumber mill town of Little River, in Mendocino County, California, which until 1864 was known as Bell's Harbor and Kent's Landing. Two of the views feature the mill area, showing the various mill structures, the log landing, and other surrounding buildings; two views are of the first wharf built in the harbor; and one view pictures loggers in a logging camp.

These photographs were previously attributed, by Eugene Compton, to Carleton E. Watkins. Watkins biographer and historian of photography Peter E. Palmquist revised this attribution to M.M. Hazeltine.

Biographical / historical:

Martin Mason Hazeltine was born on July 31, 1827, in Vermont. He and his brother George I. Hazeltine studied photography in St. Charles, Illinois, and then in New York City. In December of 1853 the two brothers moved to San Francisco where they operated a daguerreotype studio. Largely independently of George, M. M. Hazeltine continued in photography for decades, producing pictures of Yosemite and other scenic areas California, Oregon, and Idaho. In the mid-1860s (ca. 1866-1867), M. M. Hazeltine moved to Mendocino; his many photographs taken there and elsewhere were later published by such firms as J. P. Soule and Lawrence & Houseworth. He entered a partnership with J. J. Reilly in the 1870s based in Stockton and Yosemite Valley, but returned to Mendocino on and off until the 1880s. In the later part of his life, he lived in Idaho and Oregon. He died in 1903. (Source: Treadwell, T. K., and William C. Darrah. Stereographers of the World. Volume II -United States. [Byran, Texas] : National Stereoscopic Association, 1994. and Palmquist, Peter E., and Kailbourn, Thomas R. Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2000. )

Acquisition information:

The Logging Operations in Little River, California photographs were received as a gift from Cecil Mallory in 1957 via Eugene Compton.

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

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

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