Ericson Photograph Collection

Scope and Content

The Ericson Photograph Collection (Accession # 1999.02.) is comprised of the 497 glass plate negatives attributed to the A.W. Ericson Co. and predecessor and successor names. It depicts a wide variety of northwest California scenes and activities from circa 1880 - circa 1925. Street and town scenes, lumber industry, Native American life and ceremonies, shipbuilding, schools, celebrations, landscapes, and portraits are the featured subjects of this collection. The collection is especially rich in its portrayal of northern Humboldt County. The primary photographer is Augustus William Ericson.

Ella Ericson Bryan (A.W. Ericson's daughter) donated this collection of glass plate negatives to Humboldt State University Library in two parts. The first one, of approximately 130 negatives, was donated around 1964 and the second one about 1970.

Humboldt State University Library's efforts to make these images available to the public date back to 1965. By that time the effort to make new prints and 35mm negatives for the images in the first donation was underway. The next effort extended from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s when most of the images in the second donation were copy printed and new 4"x 5" negatives made. However the finishing steps of organizing these for researcher use were never completed.

In 1999 grant funds from the Library Services and Technology Act made it possible to assess the entire collection and to prepare the negatives for archival storage. As it became evident that copy prints and copy negatives for the vast majority of the collection already existed a decision was made to go forward with the long-term goal of digitizing the collection and making the images available on the world wide web through the Online Archive of California. Finishing the organizing of the unprocessed copy prints and copy negatives was woven into this expanded project. The various numbers that were assigned to many of the images in previous organizing efforts have been noted in the database records.

In addition to the collection described in this finding aid the Humboldt State University Library holds several dozen additional Ericson images in copy print format. These are arranged by broad subject headings and are available in the Library's Humboldt Room.

During the early 1970s a renewed interest in Ericson's work began and many of his images have been published since that time. This is due largely to the fortunate coincidence of Peter Palmquist's (then Humboldt State University's campus photographer) growing interest in historical photographs and the Ericson family's gift of the glass plate negatives to the University. Ericson's contribution to the region's historical record has been repeatedly acknowledged. His images of lumbering, Native Americans and town life are widely studied and admired. It should be noted, however, that some of the images of Native American persons and events deal with cultural and ceremonial matters and are thus considered to be sensitive.

Since Ericson's images of Native Americans are in continuous demand for documentation and illustrative purposes a few comments about Ericson's work with Native Americans may be useful. At least two sources indicate that Ericson paid Indians to allow themselves to be photographed. A footnote in Pearsall's History and Genealogy of The Pearsall Family in England and America (p.1625) states:

"All of the Indian pictures relating to the Klamath River were taken by A.W. Ericson of Arcata, Humboldt County, California, from ten to fifteen years later than my stay on that river. During my visit it would not have been possible to have taken the pictures on account of their being superstitious and it was with great difficulty and the gifts of large sums of money that Mr. Ericson was able to get a few pictures. Some of them even after they had severally received from him as much as sixty dollars ran away and kept the money."
A notice in the September 16, 1893 issue of the Arcata Union reads:
"A.W. Ericson returned from a weeks trip to Hoopa Thursday. He procured a number of excellent views of the Red-Headed Woodpecker and White-Deer-Skin dances. Mr. Ericson had to pay them $5 before he could get a picture and then had to catch them on the jump..."
At times Ericson was inconsistent in his captions, and he was particularly so when it came to attributing geographic location and tribal affiliation for photographs of Indians. Lastly, in recent years researchers have puzzled over the photos of the "Jump Dance" being titled "Red Woodpecker Dance." Perhaps the explanation for this misnaming can be traced to news accounts from the 1890s (Arcata Union September 9 and 16, 1893) and to articles such as the one by Winifred S. Fry which was published in a 1904 issue of Out West where these images' captions give the ceremony that name.

Unfortunately the time constraints of the project did not allow for additional research. Sources listed in the Bibliography will be helpful in researching Ericson and his era in northwest California. Any corrections or additional information regarding the collection are invited and should be made to the Special Collections Librarian at the Humboldt State University Library.

Condition

After cleaning, the glass plate negatives were housed in double-scored glass plate negative folders of acid free and lignin free paper. The condition of the image itself ranges from nearly perfect to seriously deteriorated. Every negative was digitized regardless of condition. All of the glass plate negatives were retained and are now in permanent archival storage.

Thirty-eight glass plate negatives (primarily 1999.02.0466-0497) were either broken or so severely cracked that repair was necessary before digitizing could occur. After cleaning they were reassembled and placed between two new and clean pieces of picture glass. These materials were held together by archival quality pressure sensitive linen tape. When viewed online the tape is visible at the edges of the images. In one image (1999.02.0472) pieces of emulsion were completely or partially separated from the glass and by reassembling the pieces we have been able to recover the image.

Digitizing

The digitizing was performed by Octavo in Oakland, California, as follows:
Imaging specifications:

Derivative specifications:

Edith Butler, MA, C.A.
May 2001
Send comments and suggestions about this page to: Joan Berman
Last Updated: September 25, 2001
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