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Finding Aid to the Edward A. Rogers collection of Cardinell-Vincent Company and Panama-Pacific International Exposition photographs
circa 1914-1925
BANC PIC 2015.013
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Edward A. Rogers collection of Cardinell-Vincent Company and Panama-Pacific International Exposition photographs
Date (inclusive): circa 1914-1925
Date (bulk): 1915
Collection Number: BANC PIC 2015.013
Photographer:
Cardinell-Vincent Co.
Photographer:
H.S. Crocker & Co.
Collector:
Rogers, Edward A.
Physical Description:
Approximately 9,100 photographs
Repository:
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
Abstract: The Edward A. Rogers collection is the largest known vestige of the archive of the Cardinell-Vincent Company, the official
photographers of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. It comprises approximately 6,700 photographic prints
housed in albums, 2,166 glass negatives, 124 film negatives, and 115 panoramic film negatives. The great majority of images
document the exposition throughout its 1915 run, but some commercial photographs taken by Cardinell-Vincent date from the
decade after the fair. During the construction period in 1913 and 1914 the exposition's photographic contract was held by
H.S. Crocker & Co., and a significant number of their images are present.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in
English
Physical Location: Many Bancroft Library collections are stored off-site and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Access Information
Collection is open for research.
NEGATIVES: RESTRICTED. Use online digital images only. Originals available by appointment only. Inquiries should be submitted
to Bancroft Reference via the Reference Inquiry form.
NITRATE NEGATIVES: CLOSED TO RESEARCH DUE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESTRICTIONS. Use online digital images only.
Conditions of Use
Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction
of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions,
privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond
that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[Identification of item], Edward A. Rogers collection of Cardinell-Vincent Company and Panama-Pacific International Exposition
photographs, BANC PIC 2015.013, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Alternative Form of Materials Available
Digital images available for the majority of negatives.
Related Material
Official photographs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (BANC PIC 1939.006)
Charles C. Moore albums of Panama-Pacific International Exposition views (BANC PIC 1959.087)
Cardinell-Vincent Co. photographs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and other San Francisco subjects (BANC PIC
2015.005)
Panama-Pacific International Exposition records (BANC MSS C-A 190)
Removed or Separated Material
Cardinell-Vincent Co. credit reports book. No. 3. (BANC MSS 2017/161)
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Panoramic photographs
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco)
Glass negatives
Nitrate negatives
Photographs
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
Exhibitions
Arrangement
This finding aid has been arranged by the library in three format-based series: 1) Albums and Photographic Prints, 2) Negatives,
and 3) Panoramic Negatives. Negatives have been further subdivided by storage size (4x5, 5x7, 8x10 and oversize 11x14 and
12x20: note that negatives stored in a given size may be that size or smaller; e.g. 8x10 may contain items larger than 5x7
inches and smaller than 8x10 inches.)
Within each series, arrangement follows the original order established by Cardinell-Vincent. Negatives were systematically
numbered and captioned by Cardinell-Vincent. These numbers are unique, regardless of negative size (i.e., a single numeric
run appears to have been used to number all negatives.) When received by the library, the negatives were not in any apparent
order, and the library has restored them to numeric order, within each storage size designations. Panoramic negatives have
their own numeric sequence, with most preceded by a "P".
There is some evidence that Cardinell-Vincent changed negative numbers on some items, indicated by occasional annotations
on original negative sleeves. Also, the numeric sequence was found to be approximately chronological, but not strictly so.
We conjecture that the many photographers submitted their negatives in batches to a central office according to various deadlines,
and clerical staff numbered and logged them as batches were received. Any number of circumstances or delays may have led to
some batches being numbered somewhat out of chronological order.
The album pages, although disbound and boxed, have been kept in their original volume and page number order, which generally
follows a Cardinell-Vincent numeric sequence. However there are jumps in the numbering runs of the albums that are not easily
explained. The albums were clearly a small part of a much larger volume run that has not survived. Most bear original volume
numbers on the covers, with one number present being a duplicate, perhaps suggesting there was a run of volumes for each format
(size) of negative (e.g. 8x10 v.3 and 4x5 v.3 could both exist.) The volumes now present as volumes 1-10 were originally
volume numbers 1, 2, 3, 3 (4x5), 4, 8, 10, and three unnumbered. Pages have been re-housed to boxes, and covers have been
stored separately or, if unmarked, have been discarded.
The Edward A. Rogers collection of Cardinell-Vincent Company and Panama-Pacific International Exposition photographs was a
gift of the family of Edward A. Rogers in 2014.
Processing/Project Information
Processed by Bancroft Library staff from 2016 to 2018, supported by grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH).
Biography/Organization History
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915, located on San Francisco Bay just inside the Golden Gate, was
a world's fair celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal and all the progress in industry and commerce suggested by such
an occasion. It also marked the rebirth of San Francisco a mere nine years after the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and
fire. Participants in the fair included thirty-two states and U.S. territories and twenty-eight foreign countries.
The Cardinell-Vincent Company were the official photographers for the Exposition from late 1914 to its opening on February
20th, 1915, and throughout the nine months of the fair to closing day in early December, 1915. They had a large staff of photographers
and a monopoly on photographic imagery. Even amateur photography was closely regulated and licensed in order to protect this
monopoly. The H.S. Crocker Company held the photographic contract for the period of construction, in 1913-1914. Both companies
were stationary firms, and used photographic imagery to create view books, postcards, and countless illustrated souvenirs.
The history and dispersal of the archival photograph files of the Cardinell-Vincent Company and the Panama-Pacific International
Exposition Company are not fully documented. It appears that Cardinell-Vincent kept custody of their photograph archives for
some decades after the exposition, and they were not part of the archives of the Exposition Company. The Panama-Pacific International
Exposition Records, originating with the Exposition Company, also included many photographs, but chiefly those taken during
the construction period under the contract with H.S. Crocker & Co. The records of the Exposition Company were given to The
Bancroft Library ((BANC MSS C-A 190) by the Trustees of the War Memorial, San Francisco in 1938 and 1939, and this gift included
thousands of photographic prints (BANC PIC 1939.006), chiefly of the 1913-1914 construction period, in ledger book albums
similar to those used by Cardinell-Vincent. Other photographic prints were given to the San Francisco Public Library by the
Exposition Company. The Cardinell-Vincent Company negatives and ledger albums appear to have been dispersed in the third quarter
of the twentieth century, with the largest (and only documented) dispersal being a February 1979 sale of over 10,000 negatives
at the California Book Auction Galleries in San Francisco. These were sold in 260 small lots.
Edward A. ("Ed") Rogers was proprietor of Photographers Supply, on Bryant Street in San Francisco. The date he acquired the
negatives and albums of photographs is not known, but they were in his possession by the 1970s, and perhaps much earlier.
He had a copy of the 1979 auction catalog from the California Book Auction Galleries, but the library has not been able to
identify any of the auction lots among the Rogers collection, so it is assumed all parts of his collection were in his custody
prior to this sale. The negatives and albums were stored in the offices of his photographic supply warehouse, and from time
to time he gave historians access to the albums, resulting in publication of some images (in, for example, Donna Ewald and
Peter Clute's 1991 "San Francisco Invites the World", and Laura Ackley's 2014 "San Francisco's Jewel City.") Ed Rogers died
in September 2013.
Scope and Content Note
The Edward A. Rogers collection is the largest known vestige of the archive of the Cardinell-Vincent Company, the official
photographers of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. It comprises approximately 6,700 photographic prints
housed in albums, 2,166 glass negatives, 124 film negatives, and 115 panoramic film negatives. The great majority of images
document the Exposition throughout its 1915 run, but some commercial photographs taken by Cardinell-Vincent date from the
decade after the fair. During the construction period in 1913 and 1914 the exposition's photographic contract was held by
H.S. Crocker & Co., and a significant number of their images are present.
Building exteriors and grounds views are numerous and depict the neo-classical designs of the various architects engaged to
create the pavilions and courtyards. Night views of electrical illumination of the fair are of interest for their grand use
of relatively new technology. A few dozen uncommon views of The Joy Zone document its amusement attractions, including construction
views of the Gettysburg attraction, workers on the Panama Canal model, the Grand Canyon attraction, and the Creation attraction.
Approximately 350 negatives and 1,250 prints document building interiors and exhibits. Exhibit subjects encompass technology,
agriculture, transportation, domestic consumer products, and health. Examples include: the O-Cedar Mop Co., Heinz 57, Dutch
beer and products, bottled water, tobacco, MJB coffee, Columbia Gramophone, International Harvester, the Red Cross, the Holland-America
Steamship Line, Hoosier kitchen cabinets, Baldwin pianos, Eureka vacuums, "Primitive Man," the Mouth Hygiene Association of
America, Bausch & Lomb Optical, and Cutter Laboratories, among many others.
Art works, attractions, performances, events, and group portraits are well represented. Attendees from honored groups posed
for group portraits, usually in panoramic format, or were photographed at banquet tables. Events such as ground-breakings
and dedications, visits by celebrities or officials (e.g. Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan)
are found. Gatherings to watch aviators barnstorming over the bay are a highlight, including one view of the fatal crash of
Lincoln Beachey. Athletic events, automobile races, parades, a "Peace Pageant," livestock shows and horse races, polo matches,
Chinese kite flying, and Japanese sumo wrestling are all documented, among many other topics.
Some photographs of non-PPIE subjects are included. Cardinell-Vincent continued in commercial photography after the close
of the fair, and about 200 images are present of Bay Area locations between 1915 and 1925. Commercial or public buildings
are pictured, as well as group portraits at events and commercial product images. The panoramic negatives include some striking
broad landscape views of small towns and rural valleys in the greater Bay Area – regions that would see heavy development
and suburbanization in the century after they were taken.
Physically, the Rogers collection consists of 2,166 glass negatives (ranging from approximately 4x5 inches to 12x20 inches),
and 10 ledger volumes (termed "albums") containing approximately 6,700 photographic prints. In addition, there are 124 film
negatives and 115 panoramic Cirkut camera film negatives.
Note
In most cases, negatives and prints were not matched and there is little correlation between surviving prints and negatives.
When matching negatives and prints were noticed, a reference from one to the other was noted.
Captions for negatives, when present, have been transcribed from original sleeves, which have been photocopied to archival
paper and stored with negatives. Most photographic prints in albums were captioned, and these too were transcribed for this
finding aid. When no captions or insufficient captions were present, titles were devised by library assistants and recorded
within square brackets. Transcriptions are not precise in that obvious abbreviated words have been spelled out to aid in
search and retrieval.
Transparent adhesive labels are present on many negatives identifying photographer as "H.S. Crocker official photograph" or
"Cardinell-Vincent Co. San Francisco. Official Photographers, P.P.I.E."
Additional exhibit building locations, architectural names, and works of art were identified using the following books:
- Official Catalogue of Exhibitors Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. Published for the Division of Exhibits by the Wahlgreen Company, official publishers, 1915.
- San Francisco's Jewel City: The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, by Laura Ackley. Published by Heyday, Berkeley, CA, 2015.
- The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition; a pictorial survey of the art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition, described by Stella G. S. Perry. Published by San Francisco, P. Elder and Company, 1915.