L. W. Currey, Inc.

MOSER, MAME. [Yosemite Valley] Album of photographs recording a vacation in Yosemite and later trips and activities in California. 1899. Includes approximately seventy medium-size (approximately 8.5 x 11.5 cm) gelatin silver prints, as well as a number of thumbnail-size portraits, etc., all mounted on card stock leaves, nearly all of the medium-size photos with captions inked on the mount. Cloth album, string bound, measures 18.5 x 29 cm (7 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches). A collection of photographs recording a family's summer vacation in Yosemite, with views of their camp, waterfalls, scenic vistas, rivers, lakes, big trees, and more. Accompanied by a typewritten account (fair copy from an earlier journal?) "Our Trip to Yosemite Valley," by Mame Moser, dated 8 July 1899, which seems to correspond to the photographs of Yosemite, and is of great interest for, among other features, the accounts of taking photographs, and then having them developed them and printed in a darkroom in the valley (perhaps doing the darkroom work themselves; this is unclear). The family lived in Burson and/or Mokelumne Hill, three hours by wagon from San Andreas, the county seat of Calaveras county. Note: Burson, elevation 413 feet, was platted in 1884 when the San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad was extended to that point. The community was named for Daniel Smith Burson, the original owner of the town site. A post office has been in operation at Burson since 1884. Some photographs have minor fading or silvering in the emulsion; very good. In custom green cloth clamshell box. (#155569).