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1 mounted cabinet card photograph from the 1800s of a water and hydraulic ditch in Santa Maria, California

A fine, dramatic portrait of a Cantonese opera actor standing in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. He is surrounded by ornate Chinese-style chairs. In the background, a Buddha shrine is visible, as are stringed instruments hanging on the wall. Scrolls and paintings hang on the wall. The actor, clearly a leading man (xiaosheng) wears an elaborate, ornate costume and the winged cap of a loyal official, the flaps of which could typically be moved with hidden wires for comic or dramatic effect. Carleton Watkins, a prolific and acclaimed 19th century photographer of California, made a number of views of San Francisco's Chinatown, which was located a couple of blocks from his studio-showroom on Montgomery Street. Watkins is known to have employed a Chinese-American darkroom assistant, Ah Fue, who may have helped give him access to people and locations not normally visited by white photographers. Based on Peter Palmquist's checklist of Watkins' stereoviews—one of which was a cropped version of this photograph—this image likely dates from the late 1870s. According to the Sacramento Bee (7 March 1879), Long Yow was the leading male Chinese actor of the day in San Francisco, earning $6700 per year performing in Chinatown's two theaters. This image could be him or one of the half-dozen other leading players on the stage at the time. The photo was taken by Watkins in a Chinese restaurant. A sheet or curtain was hung on the right side of the image, opposite the windows, either to simplify the scene or to reflect light back toward the center of the image. Two other Watkins photographs taken in this room are known: one of two women seated in the same room with the sheet on the right side of the image, titled "Interior, Chinese Restaurant, S. F." (New Boudoir Series, B3764) and a group of four men having tea at a table in front of the musical instruments without the sheet, which reveals a wall of glass (New Boudoir Series B3762). The albumen silver print measures 8-3/16 by 4-3/4, with the image slightly smaller and the mount somewhat larger. It is captioned in letterpress, "B 3765. Chinese Actor. S. F. / Watkins' New Boudoir Series Yo Semite and Pacific Coast, 427 Montgomery Street, San Francisco." [From dealer description]

An attractive scene inside a San Francisco Chinese restaurant in the 1870s. The image centers on a recessed seating area along the back wall of a room in an empty restaurant, with tables in the foreground, a collection of decorative objects is displayed on the left side of the image. On the right are a doorway and tall, neat stack of extra chairs. The room is neat, luxurious, and virtually devoid of Western objects. Watkins photographed the exterior of two large Chinese restaurants, one on Jackson Street and the other on Dupont, in San Francisco. It's not clear which restaurant this is. The previous image in this series of photographs (B3759) is the restaurant on Dupont; the subsequent one (B3761) is the restaurant on Jackson. Carleton Watkins, a prolific and acclaimed 19th century photographer of California, made a number of views of San Francisco's Chinatown, which was located a couple of blocks from his studio-showroom on Montgomery Street. Watkins is known to have employed a Chinese-American darkroom assistant, Ah Fue, who may have helped give him access to people and locations not normally visited by white photographers. Based on Peter Palmquist's checklist of Watkins' stereoviews—one of which was a cropped version of this photograph—this image likely dates from the late 1870s. The albumen silver print measures 8-1/16 by 4-3/4. In Watkins' New Boudoir Series of Pacific Coast Views, B3760. The albumen print is very near fine, with minor spotting to the edges, not affecting the image. The mount appears to have been cut down and is currently 10-1/8 by 8-1/2, with some tanning along the top edge and a modern caption in pencil along the bottom edge. [From dealer description]

A studio carte-de-visite portrait of a seated Chinese woman holding a fan in one hand and a small, hard-to-make-out object in the other. She is wearing embroidered silk robes, large earrings, and typical Chinese thick-soled shoes. According to Palmquist and Kailbourn's Pioneer Photographers of the Far West, John Q. Reed operated out of the Odd Fellows' Lodge (the imprint on the verso of this CDV) in 1870 and 1871, enabling this image to be dated with some accuracy. According to the 1870 census, there were just 40 Chinese immigrant women living in Stockton, all working as prostitutes or in houses of prostitution. The woman in this picture is young and seems dressed in expensive clothes, suggesting that she was perhaps a successful owner of a house of prostitution or that she was part of a wealthy Chinese merchant family from outside the city. In any case, images of Chinese American women from this time period are very scarce. The photographer's imprint is on the back, giving his location as "Entrance Odd Fellows' Hall." [From dealer description]

Portrait of a Chinese man.

A striking image of "Scar-Faced Charley," one of the leaders of the Modoc Indians of northern California who were engaged in a war with the United States Army in 1872 and 1873. This is the original portrait of Scar-Faced Charley, taken by photographer Louis Heller who, along with Eadweard Muybridge, took the most famous pictures of the Modoc War. The image is copyrighted on the recto of the mount by Heller in 1873, and a printed attestation below the caption title reads: "I certify that L. Heller has this day taken the Photographs of the above Modoc Indian, prisoner under my charge. Capt. C.B. Throckmorton, 4th U.S. Artillery, Officer of the Day." This is followed by the printed affirmation of commanding General Jeff. C. Davis. Named for the distinctive scar on one of his cheeks, Scar-Faced Charley is shown in this famous image from the chest up, gazing intently at the viewer, wearing a fur hat with ribbons hanging down either side of his face and a high-buttoned tunic. Scar-Faced Charley (died December 3, 1896) was one of the leading warriors of the Modoc tribe during the conflict. He took part in the April 26, 1873 attack on U.S. Army soldiers at the lava beds, during which twenty-three American soldiers were killed and another nineteen injured, with only one Modoc fighter lost in the process. In fact, it was Charley himself who halted the attack, calling out to the soldiers "All you fellows that ain't dead had better go home. We don't want to kill you all in one day" (quoted in Madley). Over the next month, however, the Army won the decisive advantage, and the Modoc eventually surrendered. Scar-Faced Charley was part of a group of 153 Modoc men, women, and children who were sent as prisoners of war to the Quapaw Agency in Oklahoma in 1873. [From dealer description]

An intriguing, unattributed stereoview of a group of male Chinese laborers, presumably in the American West. The image shows a group of five Chinese men dressed in traditional garb. Four of them look directly at the photographer, while the man seated on the far right looks to his left. He is holding a child on his knee. A tent is seen on the righthand side of the image and shovels rest on the ground on either side of the group. There is no caption or printed information on either side of the mount, but it is likely that the men were railroad workers, or perhaps mine workers. [Descriptive information provided by dealer // JAD2015/7/23]

Unidentified Sioux Indians gathered in front of a teepee. Standing together are two men, a woman, and a young boy and girl. The men wear dentalia breastplates, long shirts with fringe, and feathers in their hair. One holds a rifle and the other holds a tall forked stick. The woman and girl wear dresses and long dentalia earrings. The boy wears fringed pants and a brimmed hat, and carries a blanket over one arm. Another woman sits on the ground by a branch tripod holding a cook pot over a fire pit. Behind the group are other teepees.

The image shows 26 Chinese women sitting in front of the Mission. "The Presbyterian Mission House at 920 Sacramento Street was chartered with rescuing Chinese girls and women from abusive circumstances. In 1882, Congress passed the first of three Chinese exclusion acts. These acts prevented all but a few privileged classes of Chinese men from sending for their families in China. Single men could not send for Chinese wives, nor did the law permit them to marry non-Chinese wives. The small ratio of Chinese women to men bred a rampant prostitution market. To feed this market, Chinese girls and young women, mostly from Canton, were bought, kidnapped, or coerced into coming to the U.S. Most of them arrived at Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay. To gain entry, they presented false papers showing them to be the wives or daughters of the few privileged classes who were allowed to send for family. Once in the country, these girls were sold for one of two purposes. Girls in their teens were pressed into prostitution. The life of the average Chinese prostitute was brutal and short. Most died of the harsh treatment within five years. The little girls were sold for household servants called Mui Tsai's. The Mui Tsai's and prostitutes were the main target of the Presbyterian Mission Home's efforts, though girls of good family were also sent to the Home to receive an education." (Encyclopedia of San Francisco). The first mission home was at 933 Sacramento. It later moved to a more commodious building at 920 Sacramento Street.We are able to find one Houseworth photograph of the rescued Chinese women of the Mission Home but it is the one where they are all sitting on the steps of an interior staircase. [From dealer description]

An original Japanese cabinet photo portrait of Frances, wife of the missionary to Korea, Horace Allen and their son Maurice. Sepia image measures approx. 5.5 x 4 inches on a slightly larger mount with gilt edges. Photographer’s imprint at the foot of the image, fine attractive back-stamp for Ogawa, No. 1 Idamachi Shichome, Tokio on the verso. With a neat small contemporary ink inscription on the verso, “Fannie & Maurice Allen, Developed in Japan from amateur photo.” An attractive portrait of the seated young mother holding up her chubby little son as they sit in front of an attractive screen decorated in east Asian motifs. Dr. Horace Allen has gone to Korea with his wife in 1884 as a physician to the U. S. Legation (and a covert Presbyterian missionary); his efforts at medical reform opened the way to the easing of restrictions on missionary work in the Hermit Kingdom. By 1890, Horace Allen was the U.S. minister and consul general to Korea and (among other efforts) was later vocal in his calls for U.S. intervention in the Russo-Japanese War. Later census records suggest Maurice was born in Korea in 1887, which would date this from early in the family’s time overseas and suggest that the means of processing and printing photographs were not easily found in Korea at the time. [Descriptive information provided by dealer // JAD2016/2/11]

A photograph of an 1885 Henry Alexander painting of musicians in a Chinese restaurant. Albumen silver print on thin photographic paper on a slightly larger modern mount. Captioned in a strip along the bottom of the negative. [From dealer description]

Perhaps the most compelling of Taber's Chinatown photographs, a portrait of a traveling vegetable seller, carrying two large baskets of produce suspended from a pole balanced on his shoulder. Another man, also Chinese, poses, perhaps as a customer. The two men are standing in a landscaped park or public garden, with a row of poultry enclosures behind them. This rare glimpse of Chinese-American domestic life has few comparable commercial images—the majority of Chinatown photographs sold by professional photographers in the late 19th century are street scenes or views inside of restaurants. Only Arnold Genthe's Old Chinatown series offers similar insight. In fact, Genthe also took a photograph of an itinerant peddler, "Vegetable Peddler, Old Chinatown" which has more street life but the peddler's face is turned away from the camera, and his baskets are much smaller. [From dealer description]

A photograph of Chinese women at Sutro Heights, attributed to William Charles Billington. This image was used on souvenir postcards in the early 1900s.

Two Taber images taken in San Francisco's Chinatown, on a contemporary cardstock mount, probably removed from an album. The photograph of Clay Street offers a sunlit view of the street, looking down hill. A Chinese man in a work apron is walking in the foreground, facing the camera. Other men walk away from Taber's lens or cross the street as a cable car reaches the intersection. Signs for two businesses are clearly visible on the right hand side. The tall vertical sign in the immediate foreground advertises Yuantang's (元堂) shop with medicinal herbs from various provinces of China. A sign farther back, at the corner of the next street, advertises Tai Ning Tong (太寧堂), another Chinese medicine shop. On the back (verso) of the card, mounted in the opposite orientation, is a photograph of a Chinese restaurant, showing the entry hall opening out into the dining room, which has tables and chairs but no people. [From dealer description]

A photograph of an exceptional oil painting by Theodore Wores of a Chinese actor in the lobby of a theater in San Francisco. The actor is in the character of a general. Seated behind him, four musicians perform. This image was reproduced in 1891, probably in Harper's Weekly. This photograph may be the source of that engraving. The area below the actor's outstretched arm shows evidence of tampering in the negative (original to the print). Faint Chinese characters appear to float in the air, as if they had been unsuccessfully removed. This is a striking image, all the more so because of the mysterious details that become apparent on close examination. Wores (1859–1939) was born in San Francisco and painted a number of canvases in the Chinese quarter of that city. Albumen silver print on thin photographic paper, 4-3/4 by 7-1/2 inches, on a slightly larger modern mount. Captioned in a strip along the bottom of the negative. The caption is partially cut-off at the ends. [From dealer description]

A mounted cabinet card photograph of an irrigation ditch in Riverside, California taken in 1890

A studio portrait of a seated Chinese man holding afan. The photograph is captioned (rather than signed) in ink in Chinese characters with the name MaHanchen. [From dealer description]

Album contains 134 uncaptioned black-and-white photographs of Mexico, many of which appear to be on a ranch. Images feature Caucasian men in front of various homes and buildings, on horseback, women in Victorian clothing, a dentist, surveyors (possibly at a mine); Mexican families, cillages with thatch-roofed homes, women washing clothing in creeks, a girl making tortillas by hand, men harvesting agave, families in river canoes, men getting water at a large well, street vendors; cities scenes and landmarks such as parks, bird's eye view and street scenes of Mexico City, monuments, churches, theaters, courtyards, hotes, stagecoaches and horse-drawn carts, street cars, trainyards, markets, catacombs; several images of Mesoamerican stone carvings; scenic view of jungle, waterfalls, mountains; adn several commercial shots relating to a coffee plantation. Locations include Mexico City, Metlaltoyuca and Pantepec (Puebla). [From dealer description]

One albumen photo mounted on board. Imperial cabinet card, oblong format. A wide angle view of the U.S. Cruiser "Charleston", numbered 5009. The recto of the board has a sticker "Hirsch, Kahn & Co., Manufacturing Opticians, Photo Supplies, 333 Kearny Street, San Francisco." [From dealer description]

Albumen studio portrait of a young Chinese American man dressed in ethnic attire, wearing traditional jacket, trousers and platform shoes, and holding a book in his left hand. According to the 1880 census, 98 Chinese are counted living in Santa Cruz; they came to California due to the gold rush, and later worked in railroad construction, logging, and in the sugar beet fields. They lived in a small Chinatown, mostly along Front Street in old wood buildings, which were destroyed in the 1894 great fire. The anti Chinese laws of the 1870s put an end to immigration, and prevented resident Chinese immigrants from owning property or becoming citizens. Period note on the verso, written in pencil "Suez June." Photographer's stamp on verso reads, "Taken At Hunter's Photograph Gallery, 551 North 3D Ave. Cor. 149th St." [From dealer information]

A small cabinet card photograph of the United Brethren church's Chinese Christian mission, a large two-story wooden building that was once located at 353 Second Ave NW, in Portland, Oregon, just outside the traditional borders of the city's Chinatown. Some thirty-seven people are posed in front of the building, 31 Chinese men, six Anglo women, and an Anglo man. The tall Anglo man, with a large white beard, has a small asterisk inked next to his head. He is identified on the back (verso) of the photograph as the Rev. George Sickafoose. The Rev. Sickafoose was the pastor of the Chinese Christian congregation, which numbered about 150 according to Brethren publications of the era. Standing next to him is a woman who may be Ellen Sickafoose, his wife, who was the superintendent of the mission and its school. In fact, she assumed this position in 1883, with her husband joining her a year later. Standing in front of both Sickafoose is a Chinese man with his arm akimbo. This is Moy Ling, who started a lay Christian group for Chinese immigrants in Portland in the 1870s. The United Brethren agreed to take it over in 1882, sending Mrs. Sickafoose to Portland the next year. Moy Ling continued to work with the mission for many years. According to the Oregonian newspaper (June 17, 1908), Moy was the secretary to the Chinese consul in Portland, the superintendent of the Chinese mission (having assumed Ellen Sickafoose's position), and "a wealthy Chinese merchant now retired from active business." [From dealer description]

Photo shows Henry Clay Ide (1844 - 1921) seated on the railing, and his daughter Annie standing near him, on the verandah of his residence in Samoa. Ide was appointed as the American Land Commissioner (1891), judging land claims by foreigners in the islands, and as Chief Justice (1893 - 1897). Ide was later appointed a commissioner by the Taft Commission in the Philippines, and became Vice Governor (1906) and US Governor General. Robert Louis Stevenson lived in Samoa in the village of Vailima in the early 1890s, where he took the native name Tusitala (Samoan for "Teller of Tales") and became a good friend of Henry Ide's. [Descriptive information provided by dealer // JAD2015/11/17]

Most prints are captioned. People photographed include Robert Louis Stevenson (captioned as "Tusitala," with Salinoa), a group photograph, "Tusitala's feast," also showing Stevenson with his wife Fanny Osbourne, Malietoa Laupepa, then the current King of Samoa, Mataafa, the former King, Talola, Manga, and other Samoans and colonists. Places photographed are Villa Vailima, Apia, the Vaca mountains, a German plantation on the way to Vailele, Vaimoso, the Lake of Lanuto, Pago Pago harbor, Olosenga and Ofoo (2 islands), etc.