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PMH Collections Quarterly

                                                            Spring 2014


In This Issue
New Accession
Archives Feature
Collections Feature
Fenyes Feature
New Accession

Kristopher Doe Print

 
Image: Kristopher Doe.
Golden Moment. Giclee print, 11 by 16.5 in.  (L2014-02-21)

 

 

Pasadena's iconic Colorado Street Bridge has provided inspiration to generations of artists. The Museum's collections contain artwork of the bridge from many different decades. The most recent donation is a view of the bridge by contemporary artist, Kristopher Doe, a native of Pasadena and alumnus of Art Center College of Design.

 

Many other images and photographs of the Colorado Street Bridge can be viewed in The Colorado Street Bridge Centennial Exhibition, which closes this Saturday, April 19. 
  
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About the Collections

 

PMH maintains the area's largest and most comprehensive collection of documents and artifacts relating to the history of Pasadena and neighboring communities.  

 

The ever-expanding collection spans the years 1834 to the present and contains well over one million historic photographs, rare books, manuscripts, maps,  architectural records, art, costumes and textiles, and objects.  

 

The Mission of the Museum is to promote an appreciation of history, culture, arts, and sciences relevant to Pasadena and adjoining communities.    

The Collections Quarterly, sent out four times a year, features new acquisitions and loans as well as select items from the Archives, art and artifacts collection, and the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collections. 
Archives Feature
 
The Photography of Lucius Jarvis

     

Housed in the Archives is a 125-year-old album of photographs featuring beautiful scenes of Pasadena. These pictures were taken by young Lucius Jarvis in 1887, shortly after he purchased the photo studio of E.S. Frost, for whom Jarvis had worked for six months.

 

The album contains a variety of subjects and beautiful shots such as pampas grass in full plume, men posing next to the Silver Spray Falls in the Arroyo Seco, workers packing oranges in an orchard, and the sumptuous dining room of the Raymond Hotel with its well-dressed staff.   

 

If you would like to view the photo album, please visit the Research Library & Archives. We are open from Thursday to Sunday,1:00 to 4:00 p.m. No appointment is necessary. 

 

 

Image: Photo of Silver Spray Falls - Arroyo Seco, 1887. Photograph by Lucius Jarvis (Photo album collection, Box 4, Volume 13, 34A)

 

Collections Feature

USS Pasadena Silver Service            

 

In 1944, the school children of Pasadena gave their pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to purchase a sterling silver service to present to the USS Pasadena Cruiser CL-65. The gift was appropriate because of the ship's status as a Flagship of the squadron with a Rear Admiral on board.

 

The silver service was made by Wallace Silversmiths. The silver pattern, Sir Christopher, was an English Renaissance-style pattern that was designed by William Warren, easily Wallace's most famous designer. The Sir Christopher pattern features a seashell design element that symbolizes the eternal ocean. Additionally, grape clusters, fruit, and roses represent Earth's bounty. Scenes of Pasadena, including City Hall, are engraved on the punch bowl. 

 

There is a display of the USS Pasadena silver service, along with objects and ephemera related to both the CL-65 and the SSN-752 submarine, in the Giddings Conference Room.  

 

Image: Sterling silver teapot. Wallace Silversmiths, Wallingford, Connecticut, 1944 (loan.1949.01.027). On loan from the Naval Reserve

 

Fenyes Feature
 
Ahead of Her Time?

 

An experienced traveler of many years, Eva Fenyes donned her monogrammed leather waist bag for her trip to Mexico in 1899. Originally it was thought to be a shoulder bag, but a photograph shows Eva wearing the bag at her waist. We don't know exactly what she carried in it, but one might imagine her passport, a little money, and maybe a sketchpad, a pencil, and her small paint box.

 

Was she ahead of her time? Not at all. Waist pouches are seen in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Eva spent a good deal of time in Egypt sketching Egyptian antiquities. Perhaps she adapted the ancient style for her own use.

 

Images: Top: Left to right: Leonora Muse, Agnes Quetu, Miss Bennett, Adalbert Fenyes (in background), and Eva Fenyes at the train station in Pasadena, 23 April 1899 (FCP.35.1); Right: Leather purse, circa 1899 (2000.019.0051)