Visual Materials
Organ cactus, Mexico
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Ocotillo Cactus (Fouquier Splendena). On the Sonora Desert. Mexico
Visual Materials
This set of photographs by Frederick Monsen focuses on Native Americans of the Southwest in mostly candid views taken in Pueblo communities, approx. 1886-1911. Photographs include portraits, ceremonies, dances, pueblos, livestock and scenes of daily activities. A smaller portion of the collection consists of landscapes, cliff-dwellings, ruins, gold miners, wagons and scenes of pioneer life in the West. Some photographs were made by Monsen while he was with U.S. Geological Surveys (including the Brown-Stanton survey of 1889), and others during his own photography trips. The majority of Native Americans pictured are Hopi and Navajo, but there are also Paiute, Apache, and Pueblo Indians. There are a few views of Mojave Indians of Southern California, and natives of Baja, Mexico. There are several views of Indian children, shown with and without clothes, in their daily activities. Scenes of non-Indian Western life include men in covered wagons on trails, gold prospectors and stagecoaches. There are many artistic landscape views of canyons, buttes and mesas; Death Valley; salt beds; ancient ruins; cactus and other desert plants. Unusual subjects of note are three photographs of skeletons in the deserts of Arizona and one view of the covered bodies of prospectors being carried on burros. The prints are all signed by Monsen and have typed or handwritten captions on the back, written by Monsen.
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Cactus hedge at Mission Solano
Visual Materials
A large grouping of pricklypear cactus.
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Yucca mohaviensis forest near Palmdale
Visual Materials
Men and women gathered under yucca trees in a desert area.
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Cactus garden portfolio, Huntington Gardens
Visual Materials
Collection of 13 photographs by artist and photographer Christine Laptuta. Collection contents: 12 black-and-white, platinum and palladium prints depicting eye-level views of cactus and other plants in the Desert Garden of the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. The prints were made by contact printing strips of 120 mm film made with a Holga camera. These images are approximately 2.25 x 13 inches and smaller. In addition, there is one very large panoramic print created by digitally scanning the film to create an archival pigment print measuring 19 x 110.5 inches.
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Photographs of the Feast of the Dead festival in Los Angeles' Chinatown, 1902 October
Visual Materials
Nine photographic postcards documenting the Chinese community's Feast of the Dead festival in Los Angeles' Old Chinatown, October, 1902. The religious celebration invoked Taoist rituals to honor the dead, and was popularly called the Feast of the Dead, though other translations may be Ta Chiu festival or Dajiao festival. The event took place every three years in Los Angeles' Chinatown, and lasted several days. The images depict Chinese participants in traditional and festive dress; children in decorated carts; men carrying puppets or effigies; and a procession carrying a long paper dragon. Crowds are seen gathered around the Los Angeles Plaza area, and one image shows a group carrying Chinese banners and the American flag.
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