Gisbert Bossard/Max Florence photograph collection, 1908-1912

The Gisbert Bossard/Max Florence Collection consists of about 60 glass lantern slides and 56 black and white images used by Max Florence for a series of lectures he delivered in New York City in 1911. Included in the slides are rare interiors of the Salt Lake Mormon Temple by Gisbert Ludolf Gerhart Bossard. Bossard was a Swiss convert to Mormonism who fell out with the church and took these pictures as a form of revenge in 1911. He gave the images to Max Florence who tried to sell them in New York City. Florence was not able to find a buyer and after the LDS Church published "The House of the Lord," with better quality interiors of the temple in 1912, the issue became moot. The other views consist of American Presidents, a woman behind bars with the caption "The White Slave" across it, Salt Lake politicians and boosters such as Florence and Samuel Newhouse, views of a streetcar in front of several buildings including the Elite Theatre and the Tribune building, portraits of LDS Church leaders, the Florence Film Exchange, the Elite Theatre, and the Luna Theatre. Some of these images were taken by Charles Ellis Johnson. Box 2 also includes a typed letter from Bossard to Florence, dated September 1913, in which the author details elements of his plan to recover some money despite the introduction of the book "The House of the Lord," which Bossard readily admits ruined the value of his photos.