Title:

[Photographs from the Reuel Ford Pray family papers]

Creator/Contributor:

Pray (Family, Westwood, Calif.), creator, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Thompson, P. J., photographer.

Creator/Contributor:

Loomis, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1857-1935, photographer.

Volume 1: album of profesisonal photographs taken in 1915 by P.J. Thompson documenting the operations of the Red River Lumber Company and scenes of Westwood, Calif., including various logging activities (logging camp, laying trailroad tracks, falling trees, railroad transport of logs, and drying), various lumbering activities (winter sawing, box factory, molding department, cross cutting), company offices, company department store, Westwood train station, Westwood Hospital, Westwood Dairy, residences, school scenes and vocational training, recreation scenes, El Solano Hotel, Hotel Seville and the Westwood Club (a dry establishment). Volumes 2 and 3: albums of real photograph postcards, chiefly snapshots taken 1913-1916, depicting everyday scenes of leisure and recreation pertaining to the Pray family, and some scenes of Westwood, logging, and various trains and automobiles. Volume 4: snapshots and group portraits pertaining to the childhood and youth of Reuel Ford Pray, Jr., taken approximately 1907-1920. PIC boxes 1 and AX folders include snapshots, disbound albums and a few portraits pertaining to the Reuel Ford Pray family and the Westwood area; other local scenes by Thompson and other professional photographers of the region, including some views of early eruptions of Mt. Lassen (1914-1915); a view of a 1927 flood in Chester, Calif.; and 2 views of Akeley, Minnesota, the first home of Red River Lumber Co, and where R.F. Pray resided prior to moving to California. PIC box 2 contains miscellaneous ojbects, including an unused notebook owned by Mr. W.J. Walker (perhaps Willis J. Walker, the son of Thomas Barlow Walker, founder of Red River Lumber Co. and the town of Westwood); a piece of wood with a menu printed on one side; a membership badge/ribbon for the Westwood Fire Department; and a thin sheet of plywood cut in the shape of Paul Bunyan's ox, Babe. Also includes two wooden figurines of Paul Bunyan (both housed in OBJ box 1), whose legend was often used in the Red River Lumber Company's marketing efforts. Collection also includes 2 copies of a logging scene depicting 2 men with axes at the base of a giant pine tree (C folder), and various small objects (all shelved in BANC PIC 19xx.031:224): 3 pins (Westwood Fire Dept. and Westwood S.S.); mirror decorated with photograph advertising new administration building of Pickering Lumber Co., Kansas City, MO; small plastic fireman's helmet, with hand-written initials WFD (Westwood Fire Department); signature stencil for M.A. Wright; quill knife and ink eraser, with engraving on handle: Red River Lbr. Co., Reno, Nevada. Also includes a nitrate negative (shelved in NNEG, no matching print is present): snapshot of a lake scene, possibly in the Westwood region.

Date:

1900 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Lumbering -- California -- Photographs

Forest products industry -- California -- Westwood

Forêts -- Exploitation -- Californie -- Photographies

Forest products industry

Lumbering

Westwood (Calif.) -- Photographs

Lassen Peak (Calif.) -- Photographs

California

California -- Lassen Peak

California -- Westwood

Red River Lumber Company -- Photographs

Red River Lumber Company.

Pray family -- Archives

Pray, Reuel Ford -- 1874-1944 -- Photographs

Jr -- Pray, Reuel Ford -- 1906-1987 -- Photographs

Pray, Ruth Wright -- 1876-1963 -- Photographs

(Legendary character) -- Bunyan, Paul

(Legendary character) -- Bunyan, Paul

Pray family

Title devised by cataloger.

Includes 1 nitrate negative and various objects.

Identified professional photographers include P.J. Thompson (Susanville) and B.F. Loomis (Redding).

Contents of volumes 2, 3 and 4 removed from original albums and stored in PIC box 3. Original albums of vols. 2 and 3 discarded. Original album of volume 4 stored in ALB box.

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

SMALL OBJECTS (BANC PIC 19xx.031:224): RESTRICTED. Requests for use of original must be approved by the appropriate curator.

NITRATE NEGATIVE: CLOSED TO RESEARCH DUE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESTRICTIONS.

Small objects filed in Historical Objects Miscellany Collection and shelved as BANC PIC 19xx.031:224--OBJ (carton 16).

Transferred from the Reuel Ford Pray family papers (BANC MSS 2018/197).

Purchase ; From Argonaut Book Shop ; 2018.

Reuel Ford Pray, Sr. (April 10, 1874-April 16, 1944) was the general manager of the Red River Lumber Company located in Westwood, California for almost 30 years before accepting a similar position with the Hutchinson Lumber Company of Oroville, California. His wife, Ruth Wright "Birdy" Pray (February 29, 1876-July 23, 1963), owned and operated an apartment building on Clay Street, San Francisco. Their son, Reuel Ford Pray, Jr. (July 16, 1906-April 11, 1987) attended Hitchcock Military Academy in San Rafael, California and the University of Nevada, Reno, graduating as a mechanical engineer who helped design the tail controls for the DC-3, invent a solid waste pump, and design a Navy submarine guidance missile inspection system.

Photographs from the Reuel Ford Pray family papers, BANC PIC 2018.091, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Type:

graphic

Archives.

Photographs.

Photograph albums.

photoprint

approximately 500 photographs in 2 albums, 3 boxes and 6 oversize folders : chiefly gelatin silver prints ; sheets 52 x 31 cm or smaller

English

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library/unprocessed-collections-form

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

SMALL OBJECTS (BANC PIC 19xx.031:224): RESTRICTED. Requests for use of original must be approved by the appropriate curator.

NITRATE NEGATIVE: CLOSED TO RESEARCH DUE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESTRICTIONS.

Small objects filed in Historical Objects Miscellany Collection and shelved as BANC PIC 19xx.031:224--OBJ (carton 16).