California Faces: Selections from The Bancroft Library Portrait Collection
Collection context
Summary
- Extent:
- 1,648 images selected from The Bancroft Library's Portrait Collection ; various sizes 1648 digital objects (1,659 images)
- Language:
- Collection materials are in English
Background
- Scope and content:
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California Faces consists of 1,648 photographic and other pictorial portraits of 5326 men and women prominent in California's history. The portraits, selected from The Bancroft Library Portrait Collection, offer a diverse selection of artists, writers, businessmen, politicians, scientists, entertainers, and others, primarily from the early nineteenth-century until the present. Individuals from the San Francisco Bay Area tend to predominate since the library's holdings are strongest in this area.
Many notable figures from California's pre-statehood and early statehood days are featured: Sir Francis Drake, the earliest Anglo to set foot on California soil; Patrick Breen and Eliza Donner from the ill-fated Donner Party; frontiersman Kit Carson, John Sutter, Lola Montez, and many others. Writers who were either born and raised in the state or who spent significant periods of time in California are included: traditional chroniclers of Western experience (Bret Harte and Jack London), modernists (Gertrude Stein), Beats (Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg), and even a few Pulitzer prize winners (John Steinbeck and William Saroyan). Other figures from the arts include dancer Isadora Duncan, actress Lotta Crabtree, and photographers Ansel Adams and Eadweard Muybridge. Politicians include many of the state's governors (including pre-statehood Mexican governors), senators, and congressmen. California's wealthy and powerful families are represented by the likes of Leland Stanford, the Hearsts, and the Spreckels.
The collection contains the work of many photographers, including I. W. Taber, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Carleton E. Watkins, Moulin Studios, Thomas Houseworth & Co., Bradley & Rulofson, William Shew, Peter Stackpole, Francis P. Farquhar, Johan Hagemeyer, William Keith, F. Gutekunst, Charles McMillan, Silas Selleck, Thors (San Francisco), Stewart & Skelton Studios, Schumacher Portraits, Ken McLaughlin, Sarony & Co., Hirsch & Kaye (San Francisco), and others.
Captions printed or handwritten on the photographs are reprinted in the container listing. Photograph numbers are the numbers assigned in the Portrait Collection. Users should always use these identification numbers when citing or requesting originals. Biographical notes on each individual accompany that individual's set of portraits in the container listing.
A Few Words About the Portrait Collection and the Selection Process
The Bancroft Library Portrait Collection is, archivally speaking, an "artificial" collection in that it is not provenance-based. For many years it was a convenient storage system for miscellaneous pictorial items acquired by the library. And, for many years, individual items were removed from larger collections and placed in this alphabetical collection. (This practice no longer occurs.) The Portrait Collection does not represent the library's complete holdings on any single person. Library users should always consult the on-line catalog for additional holdings.
The selection of individuals in California Faces is by no means exhaustive. Portrait selection was not based on each individual's perceived importance, but on the quality and number of portraits in The Bancroft Library's holdings. For some individuals, the portraits presented in this selection may be the only holdings in the Portrait Collection. And, many important figures may not be represented in California Faces simply because the library had no holdings in the Portrait Collection for that individual (although there may be holdings in other collections in the library). It should also be noted that during the course of selection, the focus and manner of the portrait selection changed. The original aim was to present a full sampling of the library's holdings for a smaller number of individuals. It was eventually decided to select a broader range of subjects with minimum representation of each. This accounts for the high number of portraits selected for Jack London, Earl Warren, Pat Brown, John Muir, and a few other individuals.
- Acquisition information:
- The portraits were acquired from various sources.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
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University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft LibraryBerkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
- Contact:
- 510-642-6481