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L. R. Higgins California Lantern Slide Collection
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Leonidas Raymond Higgins was a graduate of Brown University in 1884 and professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. He was also a resident of Flemington, New Jersey.
W.A. Fiske was librarian at the Chaffey Junior College of Agriculture in California in the 1920s.
This collection consists primarily of black and white glass lantern slides of California collected by L. R. Higgins dating from the 1910s-1920s, and possibly from the 1930s. Most of the slides appear to be the work of L. R. Higgins himself, and some are labeled as the work of his acquaintance W. A. Fiske. The two men photographed together throughout California in the 1920s, later exchanging lantern slides, which is evidenced by a letter included in the collection. Fiske is present in at least some of Higgins' photographs. Other photographs by Higgins may date later to the 1930s. This collection of personal snap shots was supplemented by copy prints from publications and lantern slides purchased from professional photographers.
Higgins organized the slides into different series using numbers, letters, and alphanumeric indicators that match manuscript descriptions in three accompanying notebooks. These series have been retained. A number of slides are unnumbered, but are described.
California locales and subjects include Pasadena and vicinity, Camp Baldy and vicinity, sequoias, Yosemite Valley, the High Sierras, the city and residences of Los Angeles, the Tournament of Roses, Spanish mission churches, the town of Riverside, colored slides of local semi-precious gemstones, and relief maps of California.
Manuscript notations about the slides include the exact locations of photographs; addresses of residences; notes on local landscapes, vegetation, geology, and minerals; and narrative accounts of the views and experience of hiking in the California landscapes. Correspondence includes one letter from Fiske to Higgins, and correspondence between Higgins and the Department of Geology at Princeton University.
This collection is arranged into three series.
Gift; 1942.
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No appraisal information is available.
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2012
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Collection Inventory
This series is arranged by format, and thereafter by enumerated series.
This series contains serialized lantern slides and two enumerated notebooks that describe them. The numbering of the slides consist of numbers (1-108), letters (A-Z and AA-SS), and alpha-numeric combinations (20b-20n). The two related notebooks contain numbered entries in the same formats. The manuscript material both describes the individual slides and provides a traveler narrative of the images in sequence.
Not all of the slides described in the notebooks are present.
Physical Description3 boxes
A small notebook with descriptive entries that correspond to the slides labeled in numeric order (the "Numeric Series" in Series 1).Information can include location of photograph, information about local flora and fauna, and annotations on specific features in landscapes. Not all slides referred to in this notebook are present in the collection. Some of the slides in this notebook are described with more detail in the second notebook in this series ("Notebook: Numbered Slide Narrative").
Physical Description1 folder
Titled: "Notes on Some Lantern Slides" by the creator. A notebook consisting of loose pages bound by ribbon, which complements the other notebook in this series ("Notebook: Numbered Slide Descriptions"). This notebook contains descriptions that match the slides in the Numeric Series as well as those slides in the Single-Letter, Double-Letter, Alpha-numeric, and "C of C" series all contained in Series 1 of this collection. In this notebook the numeric slides are described out of order, and along with descriptions of the other slides in the series, form a narrative account of traveling through California. In some cases both notebooks describe the same slides, but this notebook contains more specific observations and conforms to a narrative order rather than a numeric order in the first notebook. Not all slides referred to in this notebook are present in the collection.
Physical Description1 folder
Slides annotated 2, 3, 4, etc. that match entries of the same designations in the accompanying notebooks.
Physical Description1 folder
Slides annotated A, B, C, etc. that match entries of the same designations in the accompanying notebooks.
Physical Description1 folder
Slides annotated AA, BB, CC, etc. that match entries of the same designations in the accompanying notebooks.
Physical Description1 folder
Slides annotated 20b, 20c, 20d, etc. that match entries of the same designations in the accompanying notebooks.
Physical Description1 folder
Slides annotated "C of C" that match entries of the same designations in the accompanying notebooks. No additional numbering is present.
Physical Description1 folder
This series is arranged by format and then alphabetically by assigned topic.
This series contains unnumbered and unlabeled lantern slides of California, as well as a notebook full of enumerated descriptions. While the enumeration in the notebook is not present on the slides, the locations and subjects appear to be the same. The notebook may refer to a numbering scheme that has been lost or the original order of the slides when they were described. In place of this order the slides have been arranged by topic.
Locations include the High Sierra mountains, the California coastline, the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Riverside, the Tournament of Roses, Spanish Missions churches, scenes at a zoo, and colored slides of semi-precious rocks native to California.
Physical Description3 boxes
This notebook provides numerals and descriptions for the unnumbered slides in the series. This may reflect a work in progress where Higgins did not go on to number the slides he described, or perhaps reflects the orginal order of the slides as they were stored.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes views of Yosemite Valley and the High Sierras
Physical Description1 folder
Includes five labeled slides, one dated to 1915.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
This series includes one letter from W. A. Fiske to L. R. Higgins, and correspondence between Higgins and the Department of Geology at Princeton University.
This series is arranged chronologically.
Physical Description1 box
1 folder
1 folder