The only indication towards the provenance of this album comes from the final two items, which are an exchange of mailed postcards between Mrs. Louise J. “Julie” Ludlow Pedler, (born ca. 1881-1883, d. 1936) of San Francisco, CA and her niece. Julie was the spouse of Everett Kingsley Pedler, who was a cashier for the Alaska Commercial Co. The niece was Miss Margaret Ludlow (b. ca. 1889) of Weehawken, NJ. Julie writes on August 29, 1915 of having just returned from their vacation and how grand the scenery was, and of Ev catching all the trout.
This is a single 5 1/4" x 7" x 1" photograph and postcard album titled “Post Cards” on the front, containing 37 black and white photographic or postcard prints and two mailed commercial postcards. Photographs are of a northwestern Washington state vacation; the majority appear to be from a horseback camping and fishing trip up the Cascade River across the North Cascades to the upper end of Lake Chelan and then back, followed by a boat ride out of Mount Vernon.
The first 32 images in the book are numbered. Pictures include rugged mountain scenes (1-7, 10-11, 23-24), people with horses and packs (2, 19-22), fishing and rivers (8-9, 12-13, 16, 33, 38), a dugout canoe on the river (8), Cascade River (9, 18), a four horse stagecoach carrying four men (14), the Field Hotel at Lake Chelan (15), a waterfall, possibly Rainbow Falls (17), a wooden bridge (25), a commercial greenhouse or mill labeled “Royal” (26), a parade (27), a railroad bridge or jetty (28), a coastal scene with driftwood (29), the New Steel Bridge at Mount Vernon (30), steamboat Gleaner (31), Deception Pass (32), Ben Ure Island (34, 36), the motorboat Jack Rabbit (34), a campsite next to the water (35), nine people sitting at a picnic table meal (37); a greetings postcard (38); and a color postcard of the Bacon Library at the University of California (39). Of the cards, only the final two were actually mailed, but 34 and 36 do also include text on the back.
All items are retained in their original mounting, and in the order in which they were received. That order appears to document the trip chronologically.
This collection is open and available for research use.
The published postcards are in the public domain due to copyright expiration. Any unpublished photographs remain under copyright until 70 years after the death of the creator, or until 120 years after the 1915 date of creation (2035) if authorship cannot be determined.
[Item description]
Horseback tour of North Cascades, Washington State Photo Album, 1915 (PC 191)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) purchased this album from Pennsylvania’s Buckingham Books on September 5, 2020.
This collection was processed by University archivist Mark O’English and photographs librarian Greg Matthews in September 2020.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.