In 1867 the Library of Congress acquired a set of more than 900 albumen silver half stereographs published by Lawrence and Houseworth of San Francisco. The acquisition also included the third edition of Gems of California Scenery, a catalog listing titles for all the views published by the firm. This was one of the Library's earliest photographic acquisitions. The images date from 1862 to 1867.

The photographs depict major settlements, boom towns, placer and hydraulic mining operations, shipping and transportation routes, and such points of scenic interest throughout northern California and western Nevada as the Yosemite Valley and the Calaveras Redwoods. The collection also includes an extensive pictorial survey of mid-nineteenth-century San Francisco.

Background and Scope

Summary

In 1859 photographic publishers Lawrence & Houseworth began selling stereographs from their San Francisco optical shop. They worked with local photographers to acquire a diverse collection of images documenting California's major settlements, boom towns, placer and hydraulic mining operations, shipping and transportation routes, and such points of scenic interest throughout northern California and western Nevada as the Yosemite Valley and Calaveras Redwoods. Their views also included an extensive pictorial survey of mid-nineteenth-century San Francisco.

Mass produced and offered for sale at a relatively low cost, Lawrence & Houseworth's published stereographs became popular collectibles among the middle class. Today the images stand as important visual documents for the study of the West during the gold rush era, both in terms of quantity of photographs and variety of geographic areas included in their inventory.

In 1867 the Library acquired a set of more than 900 albumen silver half stereographs published by Lawrence & Houseworth and the third edition of Gems of California Scenery (1866), a catalog listing titles of all of the views published by the firm. This was one of the Library's earliest photographic acquisitions. The source of this acquisition is unknown. (Before 1870, when the Copyright Office became part of the Library, the Library's collections contained very few photographs.) The photographs date from 1862 to 1867.

The Lawrence & Houseworth Publishing Firm and California Photography

George S. Lawrence (dates unknown) and Thomas Houseworth (1828-1915) sailed from New York City to San Francisco on April 4, 1849. They were headed for the California gold mines. For the next two years they worked as miners in Calaveras and Trinity Counties.

In 1851 Lawrence and Houseworth left the mines and settled in San Francisco where Lawrence sold jewelry. A short time later, he opened an optical shop opposite Portsmouth Plaza. In 1855 Houseworth joined the business. Many years later, Houseworth recalled that it was the first optical shop on the West Coast. Their advertisements promoted imported optical, mathematical and philosophical instruments, Joseph Rodgers & Son's cutlery, magic lanterns, billiard balls, and chalk.

In 1859 Lawrence & Houseworth added stereographs to their inventory. Their stock included images from around the world published by the London Stereoscopic Company, as well as a small group of views documenting Nevada and California. As a way to entice the public, the store displayed the stereographs in their windows.

Lawrence & Houseworth were not the first to promote California through photographs. A decade earlier, San Francisco and the California gold fields were extensively documented by the daguerreotype process. Of the many daguerreotypists working in the West, Robert H. Vance is best remembered for producing three-hundred unique daguerreotype views of San Francisco and the gold fields. In the 1850s these images were displayed in galleries in New York City and St. Louis, making realistic view of the West available to the American public. (Unfortunately Vance's daguerreotypes are no longer extant.)

Capitalizing on the growing market for stereographs, in 1863 Lawrence & Houseworth decided to publish views under their name and made a concerted effort to acquire more photographs. They advertised their desire to purchase stereoscopic negatives of the Pacific Coast. Photographer Charles Leander Weed provided the company with three series of negatives: Sacramento during the Great Flood of 1862; Silver Region, Nevada Territory; and A Trip to Washoe. At this time, Lawrence & Houseworth also hired Weed to make photographs of Yosemite Valley, the trade routes east of Sacramento, and Native Americans in the Sierra foothills. Alfred A. Hart, the official photographer of the Central Pacific Railroad, may have supplied the firm with negatives of hydraulic mining operations in the Sierras.

Lawrence & Houseworth's inventory grew and the firm soon offered the largest collection of stereographs on the Pacific Coast. Their inventory for California alone numbered more than one thousand different views. As might be expected, the company offered numerous views of California's largest cities, San Francisco and Sacramento. These photographs documented hotels, businesses, private residences, and street scenes, including views of San Francisco's Chinatown. In addition, the firm offered extensive documentation of the mining regions of California and Nevada. These boom towns had catchy names like Gold Hill, Dutch Flat, Timbuctoo, Drytown, Hope Valley, and Volcano.

The demands of publishing stereographs required the prospering firm to move to larger quarters in order to accommodate darkroom and printing facilities. The firm's new offices were located on Montgomery Street in San Francisco's business district. In addition to stereographs, the company sold carte de visite portraits of famous personalities. Tourists and new residents of California purchased views of the West to show their friends and relatives back East.

The popularity of Lawrence & Houseworth's extensive photographic inventory was confirmed during the San Francisco Mechanics' Industrial Fair of 1865. A review in the Mining and Scientific Press stated: "Their stereoscopic views have occupied a prominent position in the Art Gallery, and have never, from the time they were first introduced, remained five minutes of time without being occupied by visitors."

George S. Lawrence retired from the business in 1868 and the firm was renamed Thomas Houseworth & Company. The company was always in need of new photographs to document the growth and change of the region. Charles Weed, who had previously made numerous photographs for the firm, had moved his studio to Hong Kong, so Houseworth commissioned the photographer Eadweard Muybridge to make a set of mammoth plate photographs of Yosemite. Meanwhile, another local firm, Bradley & Rulofson, also approached Muybridge about his Yosemite views. In the end, the views were published by Houseworth's competition. To make matters worse, the San Francisco press covered the squabble between Houseworth and Bradley & Rulofson. This publishing fiasco left Houseworth in debt and damaged his reputation.

The 1870s saw a increase in the number of firms publishing stereographs. Even East Coast publishers offered views of Yosemite and other western locations and prices for stereographs plummeted. Houseworth cut back on the number of stereographs that he offered for sale. He took up photography, primarily working as a portrait photographer, as a way to gain a new audience. He photographed celebrities and promoted their portraits through an illustrated catalog.

In the late 1870s Houseworth's financial troubles escalated. For the next decade he continued to eke out a living as a photographer, but later worked as an accountant, a physical culture instructor, and an optometrist. Houseworth died on April 13, 1915, at the age of 86.

Arrangement

The original Lawrence & Houseworth photographs were mounted onto bond paper by the Library of Congress. Many of them are faded. The original photographs are filed in LOT 3544, arranged by the number associated with them in the Gems of California Scenery catalog. A copy of the third edition of the catalog is also filed in the LOT. Earlier editions of this catalog are not available in the Library of Congress.

The Library made copy negatives and prints for all of the original photographs. The copy photographs are also housed in LOT 3544, organized into subdivisions by location and/or subject. The subdivisions are listed below.

Subdivisions for Lawrence & Houseworth Collection

Selecting the linked subdivision numbers will retrieve records for items belonging to that subdivision, with their associated digital images. The digital images were scanned from the copy negatives.

Subdivision	Location/Subject
1	Calavaras Big Trees
2	Yosemite Valley
3	Placerville--Tahoe Route
4	Donner Pass Route
5	Donner Pass Lakes
6	Crystal Lake
7	Donner Lake
8	Fallen Leaf Lake
9	Silver Lake
10	Lake Tahoe
11	Alameda County
12	Alpine County
13	Amador County
14	Calaveras County
15	Contra Costa County
16	El Dorado County
17	Mendocino County
18	Monterey County
19	Napa County
20	Nevada County
21	Placer County
22	San Mateo County
23	Santa Clara County
24	Stanislaus County
25	Solono County
26	Yuba County
27	Columbia
28	Grass Valley
29	Napa
30	Nevada City
31	Sacramento
32	San Francisco-General Views
33	San Francisco-Waterfront
34	San Francisco-Cliff House, Seal Rocks, Ocean Beach
35	San Francisco-Commercial Buildings (Businesses, Hotels, etc.)
36	San Francisco-Lawrence and Houseworth's Store
37	San Francisco-Public Buildings (Schools, Hospitals, etc.)
38	San Francisco-Churches and Synogogues
39	San Francisco-Mission Dolores
40	San Francisco-Private Residences
41	San Francisco-Cemeteries
42	San Francisco-Chinatown
43	San Jose
44	Santa Cruz
45	Sonora
46	Stockton
47	Nevada-Cities and Towns
48	Virginia City, Nevada
49	Mining-Nevda
50	Hydraulic Mining
51	Placer Mining
52	Copper Mines
53	Miners' Cabins
54	Quartz Mill
55	Mills (Lumber Mills, etc.)
56	Central Pacific RR-Equipment and Tracks on Donner Pass Route
57	Wagon Trains and Stage Coaches
58	Ships and River Steamers
59	USS Monitor Comanche-Ironside ship built in San Francisco
60	USS Lancaster
61	Bridges in Northern California
62	Missions in Northern California
63	Chinese Miners
64	Indians
65	Mormon Emigrants enroute to Hawaiian Islands
66	Cactus
67	Trees
68	Photography in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
69	Skiing
70	Starr King's Tomb
71	Miscellaneous