Collection Guide
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Joseph N. LeConte photograph collection.
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Collection Overview
Title:
Joseph N. LeConte photograph collectionSierra Club collection
Creator/Contributor:
LeConte, Joseph N. (Joseph Nisbet), 1870-1950, creatorCreator/Contributor:
Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984Abstract:
The collection consists primarily of photographs taken in the Sierra Nevada, but also includes LeConte family photographs
and photographs taken at various spots in California (including UC Berkeley views and views after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
and fire.) Some negatives from LeConte's travels abroad are present.
Date:
1890-1920 (issued)Subject:
Sierra Club -- Pictorial worksNote:
Title devised by cataloger.
Collection composed of 9 boxes (photographic prints), 7 boxes (lantern slides), 46 boxes (glass negatives), 13 boxes (nitrate
film negatives), and 3 cartons (original annotated negative sleeves, with negatives removed).
Photographic prints (5x7) made by Ansel Adams from the original glass plate negatives while held by the Sierra Club. Approximately
2,000 or more prints were made between 1965 and early 1968 as part of a grant-funded projected initiated by University of
California, Berkeley doctoral student in geology and geophysics, Robert R. Curry. Limited funds meant only a selection of
the LeConte negatives could be printed, but Curry indicated that those printed represented "over 80 percent of the negative
collection made between 1890 and 1910." Curry was apparently involved in selection. One set of prints was made for the Sierra
Club (San Francisco), and a second, perhaps larger, set was given to the Bancroft Library by Curry in May 1968. The negatives
were turned over to The Bancroft Library by the Sierra Club in 1974 as part of the larger transfer of Sierra Club records
and photographic collections. The numbering of the prints and negatives is discontinuous; the missing numbers are not accounted
for. Curry noted evidence that LeConte himself discarded damaged negatives and crossed them off of his notebook inventory,
however some are not accounted for that have not been crossed off.
Some prints titled on back in the hand of Ansel Adams, who copied the information from LeConte's annotations on negative sleeves.
Any vintage prints owned by LeConte are believed to have been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Some
vintage prints survive in various Sierra Club albums (BANC PIC 1971.031 : various volumes).
Negative numbers 10,000 and higher were not numbered by LeConte, but were later assigned (by R. Curry) to un-numbered images.
They appear to date to the 1890s.
For more on LeConte's photographic work, see Sierra Club Bulletin v.29 no. 5. p.41-46 (1944).
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
1971.034--PIC 10125- (1 box) : UNPROCESSED. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. Inquiries regarding these materials should be submitted to
The Bancroft Library via the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form.
ORIGINAL NEGATIVES: RESTRICTED. USE VIEWING PRINTS ONLY (Stored off-site as BANC PIC 1971.034--PIC) : Use only by permission
of the appropriate curator.
NITRATE NEGATIVES CLOSED TO RESEARCH DUE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESTRICTIONS.
Additional LeConte photographs will be found in various albums of the Sierra Club collection, (including numerous original
LeConte albums) and in four albums of prints prepared by Ansel Adams in 1944 (BANC PIC 1971.071--ALB). In some cases these
albums duplicate items in the present collection, but in other cases the albums contain photographs not found here.
Unpublished finding aid available, consisting of captions copied from LeConte's notebooks.
Type:
graphicPhysical Description:
photonegative
photoprint
ca. 5,000 items (glass & film negatives, lantern slides, and photographic prints)
Language:
English
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
1971.034--PIC 10125- (1 box) : UNPROCESSED. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. Inquiries regarding these materials should be submitted to
The Bancroft Library via the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form.
ORIGINAL NEGATIVES: RESTRICTED. USE VIEWING PRINTS ONLY (Stored off-site as BANC PIC 1971.034--PIC) : Use only by permission
of the appropriate curator.
NITRATE NEGATIVES CLOSED TO RESEARCH DUE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESTRICTIONS.