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Dickey (Anna R.) collection
Biomed.0213
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Anna Ryder Dickey collection
Creator:
Dickey, Anna Ryder
Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0213
Physical Description:
3 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1889-2000
Abstract: This collection contains photographs (albums and separates), ephemera, and inscribed books documenting the friendship between
Anna Ryder Dickey and celebrated naturalist and wilderness conservationist, John Muir. The albums document two Sierra Club
nature trips that Muir, Mrs. Dickey, her adolescent son, Donald R. Dickey, and others took to Yosemite National Park, and
Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks, in 1896 and 1902 respectively. Of special note are six pictorialist style presentation
photographs of John Muir alone or with Mrs. Dickey, taken by the Pasadena photographer Kraig. The book inscriptions, letters,
and notes provide further proof of the Muir-Dickey friendship, while the books themselves, newspaper clippings, and magazine
extracts highlight aspects of Muir's work, philosophy, and life story.
Physical Location: Held at UCLA Library Special Collections. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access
special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Gift of Mr. Donald R. Dickey, Jr. to the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, University of California, Los Angeles, January,
2001.
Mr. Dickey Jr.'s generous gift also included circa 180 glass "lantern" slides, hand-colored, of Californian, Canadian and
Algerian land- and sea-scapes, people, firds, flowers and mammals. These had been taken by Donald R. Dickey Sr. and illustrated
many of his public lectures. The slides are housed in the History and Special Collections Division with similar materials
of Ms. Collection #59, the Donald Ryder Dickey Photographic Collection.
[Identification of item], Anna Ryder Dickey collection (Collection 213). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and
Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division staff.
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interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
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processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9953318403606533
ANNA RYDER DICKEY was born December 23, 1863 in Dubuque Iowa and died May 4, 1928 in Pasadena, California. She was the mother
of Donald Ryder Dickey, Sr. and the grandmother of Donald Ryder Dickey, Jr. (from whom the collection was obtained). Prior
to moving to Pasadena, she lived in Dubuque, marrying Ernest M. Dickey in 1885. The scrapbooks, photographs of John Muir,
and related ephemera, were accumulated while residing in Pasadena (specifically, the area known as San Rafael Heights). As
evidenced by the photographic material and several personal notes in the ephemera, she maintained a close friendship with
Muir during this time.
DONALD RYDER DICKEY, Sr. (1887-1932), who is featured in several of the photographs in Scrapbook #2, was the son of Ernest
and Anna Ryder Dickey. He was a respected innovator in and practitioner of wildlife photography and collector of Pacific Coast
mammals and birds. In 1902, at age 16, he and his mother joined a Sierra Club group in travel up the King's River Cañon, eventually
climbing and reaching the summit of Mount Whitney. The participants of this trip included John Muir, C. Hart Merriam, Dr.
Henry Gannett, as well as historian Theodore Hittell and landscape artist William Keith.
During his senior year at Yale University, Dickey was stricken by a serious heart condition. Allowed to graduate because of
his high academic standing, he returned to his parents' home in Pasadena for two years of rest. During this time he gradually
returned to his former interest in the outdoors and began photographing and collecting birds and small mammals. Eventually
he determined to establish a research center for vertebrate zoology in Southern California, with a study collection of specimens,
with photographs and books to support it. The collection, which focused mainly on southwestern fauna of California and Mexico,
but also included the birds of Laysan Island, and fauna of Michigan, New Brunswick, and Central America, was housed at the
California Institute of Technology in the 1920s, and came to the University of California, Los Angeles after his death.
JOHN MUIR (1838-1914) was born in Dunbar, Scotland. In 1849 he and his family immigrated to Portage, Wisconsin. Muir was internationally
renowned as a writer, naturalist and forest conservationist, particularly in his advocacy for the preservation of Yosemite
Valley and adjacent wilderness areas of the Sierra Nevada's during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also the
first acting president of the Sierra Club from its founding in 1892 until his death. Through his publications and advocacy
for environmental causes, Muir became one of the strongest figures in the early environmental and ecological movement within
the United States.
The collection documents the formal but close friendship that existed between Anna Ryder Dickey and John Muir in the last
20 years of his life, with two photo albums, separate photographs, letters, notes, and inscriptions. The numerous photographs
also picture the looks of an earlier California and provide a little early history of the Sierra Club.
Housed separately with Ms. Collection #59, the Donald R. Dickey [Sr.] Photographic Collection, are 180 glass lantern slides
of scenery and wildlife which were also part of Donald R. Dickey Jr.'s generous gift to UCLA.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Photographs, 1896-1910. 2 albums and 6 folders
- Series 2. Ephemera, 1889-2000. 8 folders
- Series 3. Books, 1901-1965. 10 volumes
Donald Ryder Dickey photographic collection (Collection 59). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald Ryder Dickey field notes (Manuscript collection 110). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald R. Dickey personal photo album (Manuscript collection 301). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Donald Ryder Dickey personal papers (Manuscript collection 296). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photograph albums
Zoologists -- United States -- Archives
Nature photography -- California
Natural history -- California -- Pictorial Works
Dickey, Donald R. (Donald Ryder)
Muir, John