The Collection

Welcome to the second installment of the 20th Century Photography Collections Project! Thanks to the 2015 NHPRC Access to Historical Records grant that History Colorado received last May, the Project Archivist (me!) has the opportunity to process four hidden photography collections at History Colorado. I finished the David DeHarport collection last month. Now, I’m excited to introduce the Winter Prather collection!

Over the last year, there’s been a lot of activity between our Pueblo and Denver storage locations. History Colorado is nearing completion of a Museums for America Collections Stewardship grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to hire temporary staff and moving services to move collections from Pueblo to Denver.

Imagine that your grandfather was a San Francisco ferryboat captain who transported the notorious gangster Al Capone to Alcatraz Island, and that, as a memento of the occasion, he quietly pocketed the key to Capone’s handcuffs. Now imagine that this small key—this tiny piece of history—stayed in your family for a few generations, until one day you got the idea that perhaps it should be rescued from your sock drawer and sent to a museum somewhere. But where should it go? Is there a museum for keys?

The first automobile appeared in Louisville, Colorado in 1904. The year the first Denver resident bought a car is not known. But, the first trip by automobile from Morrison to the top of Mount Falcon, an elevation change of over 2,000 feet, took place in 1910.

This month, the Photography Department wraps up a two-year project to make four of its most significant photography collections available to the public. By the end of June, researchers will be able to browse through online collection guides to and digital images from the Aultman Studio, Fred Payne Clatworthy, David DeHarport, and Winter Prather collections. The project has been generously supported by an Access to Historical Records grant from the National Historic Records and Publications Committee (NHPRC).

Travel was integral to Estes Park photographer Fred Payne Clatworthy’s life and work. During the early 20th century, transit companies sponsored Clatworthy’s travel to locations near and far. Railroads like the Great Northern and Southern Pacific sent Clatworthy to shoot promotional images in Glacier National Park and the western coast of Mexico in the 1920s, while later in the decade Clatworthy ventured further afield when the Matson Navigation and Union Steamship Companies sent him to Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti. Many of these trips yielded his most well-known images: full color autochromes that appeared in National Geographic magazine between 1923 and 1934.

Travel was integral to Estes Park photographer Fred Payne Clatworthy’s life and work. During the early 20th century, transit companies sponsored Clatworthy’s travel to locations near and far. Railroads like the Great Northern and Southern Pacific sent Clatworthy to shoot promotional images in Glacier National Park and the western coast of Mexico in the 1920s, while later in the decade Clatworthy ventured further afield when the Matson Navigation and Union Steamship Companies sent him to Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti. Many of these trips yielded his most well-known images: full color autochromes that appeared in National Geographic magazine between 1923 and 1934.