Riverside and Los Angeles area views, circa 1880-1889

Summary

Creators:

Isaiah West Taber and others

Abstract:

Photographs include views of Pasadena, missions, ostrich farms, agriculture, orange groves, landscapes, a multiplate panorama of Los Angeles, and numerous booths decorated with flowers, each representing a Southern California city in an exposition or fair.

Extent:

1 album (52 photographic prints) ; albumen ; 18 x 28 cm. 52 digital objects

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of an album of 52 albumen prints, photographed in part by Isaiah West Taber, circa 1880-1889. Included are photographs of Pasadena, missions, ostrich farms, agriculture, orange groves, landscapes, a multi-plate panorama of Los Angeles, and various structures entirely decorated with flowers, each representing a Southern California city in an exposition or fair. Captions are handwritten or typed on the photographs; some are supplied for the container list.

Biographical / historical:

Isaiah West Taber was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on August 17, 1830. Taber went to sea at the age of fifteen and spent several years working on whaling ships in the North Pacific. He came to California in 1850, where he spent four years working first as a miner, then a farmer. Taber returned to New Bedford in 1854 where he studied dentistry and began a dental practice. An interest in amateur photography eventually became his life-work. He settled in Syracuse, New York, where he opened his first studio. In 1864 he returned to California at the inducement of the photographers Bradley and Rulofson, whom he worked for until 1871. Taber established the "Taber Gallery" at No. 12 Montgomery Street in 1871. His highly successful business was well-known for portraiture and a vast stock of California and Western views -many of which were the unacknowledged works of other photographers. Taber's success and stature in California and abroad are evident in his being awarded the photographic concession of the Midwinter Fair of 1893-94 in San Francisco, his being sent to London in 1897 to photograph the pageant of the Queen Victoria Jubilee, and his commission to photograph King Edward VII. Taber's career ended in 1906 when his entire collection of glass plates, view negatives and portraits on glass were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire. He died February 22, 1912.

(Sources: Hart, James D. A Companion to California. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978, p.439; Murray, W. H. The Builders of a Great City: San Francisco's Representative Men. San Francisco: The Journal, 1891, p.329-330; and Burdette, Robert J. American Biography and Genealogy. California edition. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., [191-], p. 756-761.)

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

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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