Views of Calaveras and Mariposa Counties, California, 1890

Summary

Creators:

Désiré Fricot

Extent:

43 photographic albumen prints, 20 x 25 cm.; mounted and bound in album, 26 x 31 cm. 43 digital objects

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

The Views of Calaveras and Mairposa Counties, Calif. album contains 43 albumn prints taken in 1890 by Désiré Fricot. The album features many scenic views of the forest land of the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, as well as various other subjects, some of which are related to the Fricot family's mining interests. Calaveras County points of interest pictured in the album include the San Antonio Creek, Colwell Creek, and Hobe Ide's Ditch areas of Sheepranch (written as "Sheep Ranch" in the captions); Murphy's; San Andreas; the timber land of W.H. Clary; the Sheep Ranch Mine of J.B. Haggin; the residence and hoisting works of André Chavanne; the Columbus Mine of Jules Fricot (Désiré's father); and the Big Trees area of the county, including photographs of the "Mother of the Forest" and "Pioneer's Cabin" trees, and a dancing hall constructed atop the stump of a giant tree. Mariposa County points of interest include views of the Yosemite Valley; the town of Wawona; and the "Wawona" and "Grizzly Giant" big trees.

Individuals identified in the collection include Peter Davis, resident of Sheepranch, and Judge C.V. Gottschalk of San Andreas. Also pictured is an unidentified Native American. Appearing in several prints is a man likely to be Désiré Fricot.

The prints, most of them numbered, are mounted to the numbered album leaves. One leaf --between prints No. 8 and No. 11 --appears to be lacking. Manuscript captions appear on the mounts beneath the prints and, occasionally, adjacent to the leaf numbers. Affixed to both the spine and front cover of the album are labels reading, "Calaveras Co. & Yosemite Valley." The inside front cover bears the inscription, "Taken 1890 by D. Fricot." A title page bears the inscription, "A monsieur le juge C.V. Gottschalk, Souvenir respectueux et amical, San Francisco 13 Octobre 1890. D. Fricot."

Biographical / historical:

Désiré Fricot (1868-1940) was the son of Jules Nicolas Fricot, a french émigré who became a California mining pioneer. Part of a larger community of French prospectors, the Fricot family owned and operated a number of mines in the Grass Valley and Nevada City areas of Nevada County, as well as in Calaveras County. They also owned real estate in San Francisco, and were apparently active in French diplomatic and consular activities in California and Hawaii.

In addition to mining, Désiré Fricot was also a translator of French language documents into English. In 1940, the California Historical Society published his translation of and introduction to André Chavanne's The Burning of the Golden Gate in July 1862. The Impressions of a Survivor, André Chavanne (in California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 19, no.1, pp. 27-42), an account of the steamship Golden Gate. In 1944, the same organization published his California Unveiled: A Translation of Treny's La Californie Dévoilée (reprinted from The California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 4, December 1943, and vol. 23, no. 1, March 1944).

Acquisition information:

The Views of Calaveras and Mariposa Counties, California album was purchased in 1976.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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