Visual Materials
Photographs of California Petroleum and Asphalt Company plant, Carpinteria
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Photographs of Fort Ross structures and Carpinteria petroleum mine
Visual Materials
Photographs of Fort Ross, California church, hotel and Russian blockhouse in 1903, and in 1906 after damage from earthquake. Also photographs of men in the mine of the California Petroleum and Asphalt Company, Carpinteria, California.
photPF 1023-1033
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Miscellaneous photographs of California and other places
Visual Materials
Consists of six items including photographs, cyanotypes, one postcard, and one packet of 12 small prints. photPF 740 is a photograph of the El Molino Viejo; photPF 741 is a photograph of Lake Memphremagog, Vermont; photPF 742 is a postcard of the birthplace of Nathan Hale; photPF 747 is a packet containing 12 small views of the damage caused by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake; photPF 748-749 are two still-life cyanotypes taken at the laboratory of asphalt paving plant at Carpenteria, depicting a skull with a hat (labeled "the prof") and a pair of old miner shoes.
photPF 740-749
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California Petroleum and Asphalt Company: blueprints and working drawings
Manuscripts
The collection consists of 450 items from 1875 to 1929, and includes letters, manuscripts, business documents, and 32 maps and drawings related to the business interests of James Filmore Crank and the development of Los Angeles County. Of particular note is the collection's focus on city and interurban railways, including the Los Angeles Cable Railway Co., Pacific Railway Co., Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad Co., and Los Angeles Development Co. There are also materials related to the wine industry (Sierra Madre Vintage Co. and Lamanda Park, California), the Fair Oaks Ranch in Pasadena, the Azusa Land and Water Co., and education in California private schools during the late nineteenth century. Correspondents in the collection include: John Dustin Bicknell, Albert Filmore Crank, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Joseph H. Hoadley, Collis Potter Huntington, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Edwin Burritt Smith.
mssCrank
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Photographs of Siemens hydroelectric plants in Mexico
Visual Materials
A group of seven 8 x 10-inch photographs of the first hydroelectric power plants built in Mexico in the early 20th century. Siemens & Halske were contracted to develop and build the electrical power projects. The captioned and dated photographs depict the Tenango dam on the Necaxa River, 1916, with worker's housing and buildings; power lines; a substation and plant in Pachuca; and the Nonoalco steam plant, 1929. One interior view of a power plant includes two Mexican workers.
photPF 26029
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Standard Felt Company, Alhambra, California, photographs
Visual Materials
A group of 76 photographs, 1910s to 1930s, of the Standard Felt Company, 29-115 Palm Avenue, Alhambra, California. Images depict buildings, workers, and the felt manufacturing process, including workers picking through bales of wool and using heavy machinery. Some images are of women workers, and products made by the company. A two-page typed history of the company by an unknown author accompanies the collection. Also includes two boxes of glass plate negatives.
photCL 241
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Asphalt and Bituminous Sandstone Deposits of part of the McKittrick district, Kern County, California (1945)
Visual Materials
A collection of photographs and maps compiled by American geologist and petroleum engineer Ralph Arnold (1875-1961), documenting his pioneering work in oil and mineral exploration, chiefly in the Western United States, Mexico and Venezuela, from 1900 to 1954. The collection centers on 64 photograph albums that span 50 years of Arnold's life and work. Photographs are accompanied by Arnold's typed captions identifying geological features; oil and mining activities; technical data; and dates and locations, i.e. often an oil or mining "district" or "field," such as "Sunset Field" (California). Subject matter includes geological and topographical features such as rock formations, faults and schisms, mountain structure, geothermal activity, and open land with potential drilling or mining spots. Earthquake faults are seen and described in many of Arnold's California investigations. There are also views of small and large-scale oil operations (by individuals and by organized companies); details of oil flow and reservoirs; asphalt; drilling equipment; workers and fields of oil wells. Arnold's work took him all over the Western United States, particularly California oil fields, but also Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, Alaska and other states. From 1911-1916 he was primarily in South America, and in the 1920s-1940s, mostly in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Mining operations are the focus of some albums, showing investigations for tin, gold and other minerals; mines and ore processing, all with detailed descriptions. Arnold also often photographed people: colleagues and business associates, oil lease owners on their properties; workers (particularly Black and Asian workers in Venezuela); and friends and family. Personal photographs are throughout the album, such as of his wife, Winninette, and their two daughters; Stokes family members (Winninette's family) in South Pasadena; and alumni of Pasadena High School and Stanford University. Arnold was an avid gardener and the albums contain detail views of cactus and tropical plants, and scenes of Arnold collecting wild orchids in Trinidad, Venezuela and Mexico. The maps date from 1880-1948 and include U.S.G.S. and geological maps, California oil fields and well locations; layouts of mines, and various tract maps showing oil company-owned land.
photCL 311