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Alvin H. Waite photographs and other material, 1892-1926

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Waite, Alvin H. (Alvin Henry), 1862-1929
Title
Alvin H. Waite photographs and other material
Dates
1892-1926 (inclusive)
1892-1901 (bulk)
Quantity
.6 cubic feet, including 278 photographs and 10 lantern slides, (2 boxes)
Collection Number
1983.60 (accession)
Summary
Photographs of Mount Rainier expeditions, Tacoma, and other Washington and Midwest locales by amateur photographer from Tacoma and Seattle.
Repository
Museum of History & Industry, Sophie Frye Bass Library

P.O. Box 80816
Seattle, WA
98108
Telephone: 2063241126 x102
library@mohai.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public by appointment.

Additional Reference Guides

Photocopies of Waite's inventories (copied from originals at the University of Washington) are available in the repository

Languages
English.
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Alvin Henry (A.H.) Waite was born in Iowa in 1862. He was the oldest son of Henry C. Waite, a well known and respected piano salesman. The family moved around in the early years of Waite's life, living in Illinois and Ohio before settling in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1869. Waite had four younger half-siblings from his father's second marriage, brothers Roy, Clair and Ralph and a sister, Mabel. Like his father, Alvin also worked in the music business in Cedar Rapids, and is listed in directories in the late 1880s and 1890 as a "dealer in sheet music and musical merchandise" and as a piano tuner. Waite's brothers Roy and Ralph also became involved in the piano trade in Chicago and Milwaukee, respectively.

Waite moved to Tacoma in 1892, where he continued to work in piano tuning and repair for various companies, including the D.S. Johnston Company. Waite moved to Seattle around 1902, working as a piano tuner and salesman at the D.S. Johnston Company's Seattle store and at its successor company, Eiler's Music House. In 1915, Waite established his own piano company, a successor to the piano business of A.W. Meyer. He had one daughter, Helen, from his first marriage, and had married his second wife, Donna Gates, sometime before 1900. Waite's continued in his piano business until his death in 1929.

Despite a lifelong passion for photography, Waite never worked professionally as a photographer. An avid outdoorsman and traveller, Waite began to photograph scenes in the Midwest, mostly in Iowa and Illinois, around 1890; he also took pictures on trips he made to Colorado, Utah and California. Upon his move to Washington in 1892, he began to photograph extensively in Tacoma, documenting the town and waterfront in detail. Waite documented the landscape on his numerous bicycling and hiking trips in Washington and elsewhere. Shortly after arriving in Tacoma, Waite made the first of several ascents of Mount Rainier, photographing its peaks and glaciers, various camps and his hiking companions. Waite created some of the earliest photographs of the summit, along with friend and fellow photographer Henry M. Sarvant, with whom Waite climbed Mount Rainier in 1897.

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Content Description

The collection consists of images made in the Midwest, Northwest and on the West Coast, including street and waterfront scenes, and views taken on bicycling and mountain climbing trips. The earlier photographs include images made during Waite's travels between the Midwest and the West Coast, such as images of railroad tracks, landscapes and rock formations in Colorado as well as scenes in Iowa, Utah, California and British Columbia. Images of Tacoma depict street scenes and waterfront views, including several of ships at dock, and of the Northern Pacific Railroad headquarters. Other Washington State images depict wagon roads and coal mines in Carbonado, a lumber camp near Wilkeson, Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades and scenes in North Yakima.

A large proportion of the collection consists of views in Mount Rainier National Park, documenting Waite's annual ascents of Mount Rainier in July and August from 1893 through 1897. One of the three small photo logbooks included in the collection contains journal entries recorded during these mountaineering trips and detailed logs of his photographs for all but the 1893 trip. Views depict glaciers including Nisqually, Puyallup and South Mowich Glaciers, panoramas of the Tatoosh Range, views of climbers at various camps during the ascent and at the summit.

The collection also includes ten lantern slides, correspondence with the Library of Congress regarding copyright of certain of Waite's images, and several publications containing Waite's photographs.

Photocopies of Waite's detailed logbooks (originals at the University of Washington) are available for viewing. The logbooks include detailed descriptions of each image, the location of the person or object depicted, and information on the date, time of day, and weather conditions for each photograph. In his logbooks, Waite used the name "Mount Tacoma" (derived from the Indian word for the mountain) to refer to Mount Rainier.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Museum of History & Industry is the owner of the materials in the Sophie Frye Bass Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from MOHAI before any reproduction use. The museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation

Alvin H. Waite Photographs and Other Material, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in series:

  • Photographs
  • Lantern slides
  • Notebooks
  • Copyrights
  • Publications

The photographs are arranged according to the order in Alvin H. Waite's logbooks. Waite created two logbooks in which he listed and numbered his photographs in chronological order. The earlier logbook lists photographs numbered 1-654, dated August 6, 1890 through December 28, 1902. The later logbook includes a selection of these photographs, which were renumbered by Waite, and continues through November 4, 1920, with photographs numbered in chronological order, from 1-492. Many of Waite's photographs have both numbers written on the back. All Waite numbers in the following inventory are from the second version of the logbook unless otherwise indicated.

Location of Collection

2b.1.9

Custodial History

The collection was acquired by the donor from an antique dealer in Sonoma, California in approximately 1971.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Jim Sickles in 1983.

Processing Note

One deteriorated transparency was discarded.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Bicycles--Washington (State)
  • Glaciers--Washington (State)
  • Mountaineers--Washington (State)--Rainier, Mount
  • Rainier, Mount (Wash.)

Personal Names

  • Waite, Alvin H.--Photographs

Geographical Names

  • Rainier, Mount (Wash.)--Photographs
  • Tacoma (Wash.)--Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

  • Landscape photographs
  • Lantern slides
  • Photographic prints

Finding aid prepared by Jody Hendrickson
2007

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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