Putnam Arion (2 results)

Ephemera. Condition: Very good. A gelatin silver print photograph showing a Pima (probably) woman kneeling on the ground with a basket on her lap. Behind her sits a young child, with the door of a wickiup dwelling in the background. She is surrounded by basket-making supplies, laying on cloth blankets, in finished baskets, and in metal tins. The woman and her child are wearing print dresses. This is an attractive image, printed in the center of a paper sheet, with a decorative photographic vignette of cactus-filled landscape at the lower right corner. Image: 8 by 4-1/2 inches; sheet: 13-1/4 by 8-1/4 inches. Marked "Copyright 1900 (?) By A. Putnam." Putnam (1870?1949). Arion worked for his father John R. Putnam and Carlton Valentine, the owners of Putnam and Valentine, a prominent Los Angeles photography studio from the 1890s into the twentieth century. For a time, Arion was a photographer for the Southern Pacific and he may have made this image while touring the Southwest for the railroad. The image is stamped on the verso (back), "Arizona Indians | Putnam & Valentine Photo. Los Angeles, Cal." The words "basket weaver" are added in pencil. There is what is perhaps an image number, "683" stamped above and a later (?) number, "133" in the upper right corner. An excellent image, with very nice contrast and tonal range, decoratively printed with the vignette. There is a bit of finger soiling to the right margin, but the image is otherwise fine. The photograph is enclosed in a 17-by-14-inch mat, held in place with photo corners.

Oblong folio. 13.75 x 10.25 in. [28 pp (unpaginated).], nearly all thick black card stock, w/ 53 silver gelatin photographs mounted, sized 7.5 x 9.5 in., all with excellent strong contrast. Contemporary Heinn Co. limp textured leather post-binder, black screw posts at gutter margin (minor chipping head & foot of spine, scuffing & wear to covers, a couple leaves corners w/ minor chipping), still a VG exemplar. This outstanding souvenir album offers an invaluable visual record of the famed Rancho Los Alisos created as a lush landscaped park by Judge Charles Silent (1843-1918) from 1905 when he purchased the property from Jonathan Slauson to his death. Serving as his country estate amidst the orange groves many of which can be seen in the birds-eye photos which open the album, Silent contracted with noted Arts & Crafts architects Charles & Henry Greene to create a lush and opulent landscape. These photos depict how the judge sculpted and experimented with palms, and other exotic trees through winding paths and roads, along with glimpses of the one-story ranch house designed by the Greene's, the waterfall fountain & pool (1 of several reservoirs on the property), rustic Arts & Crafts timbered gates, pathways, and fences. For over twelve years he continued to add land to the properties as he expanded the plantings, and placed fairy like settings with rustic stone walls, earthen bowls, and lavish fern plantings, which were open to the public on Sundays with a sign on the front gate reading "Visitors Welcome." Silent imported the first Copa de Ora vines into California from Hawaii, shared many of his prized specimens with Henry Huntington, served many years as Los Angeles Park Commissioner, laid out Elysian Park, made over Pershing Square, and started Griffith Park. It proved to be a popular Southern California tourist spot for a time, and occasionally Real Photo Postcard images of the Rancho and surrounding area appear on the market, but we were unable to find any similar large images to these at auction, or in catalogues. The photographers for this album were Arion Putnam (1871-1949) and Carlton Valentine (1871-1970), storied Los Angeles commercial photographers who specialized in landscape photography. Putnam's father John R. Putnam (1834-1913) had founded the firm originally with Carlton Valentine by the 1880s, and Arion who was one of the Southern Pacific's official photographers, as well as a noted California Impressionist plein air painter, operated the studio with Valentine and was the active photographer for the firm even before his father's death. The 295 acre Rancho Los Alisos was purchased in July, 1953 by the California Girl Scouts council and established the very popular Camp Aventura which continued to operate until the end of the 1960s. Dating of this album was established as the patent number for the Heinn Co. label indicates ca. 1908, and Putnam & Valentine operated under that name from 1901-1920. See: Paul Spitzzeri, La La Landscapes: The Rancho Los Alisos of Judge Charles Silent, Glendora, The Homestead Blog, Creating Advocates for History Through the Stories of Greater Los Angeles (May, 2019); Camp Aventura, Glendora, CA 1953, 295 Acres, Land Purchased from Judge Charles Silent, Vintage Girl Scout Museum (2018); Putnam-Valentine Collection, ca. 1880s-1930, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (2013).