Illustrated Catalogue of Forbes Studio, Bishop, Inyo County California

Andrew Alexander "Forbes Catalog" 

by Andrew Alexander Forbes
in English and held by 1 library worldwide

A. A. Forbes created a catalog of his works. We know for sure that this catalog is contained in the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. An additional 2 copies (if there ever was more than one) might exist at:

(1) University of California, Riverside 
Riverside, CA 92521 United States

(2) California State Library 
Sacramento, CA 95814 United States

William Marvin Mason: Mr. Mason was the curator of History at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. He was also a contributing editor to The Journal of California Anthropology. He collected this representative assortment of photographs by A. A. Forbes of Owens Valley Paiutes that are found in this article.

LA Natural History Museum's Description of the Forbes Collection (P-4): P-4 Andrew Alexander Forbes (1862-1921) Collection, ca. 1890-1915 Photographs, negatives. 10 linear feet (Boxes: letter, ½ letter, 4 ov). Inyo County and eastern California including landscapes; portraits of the Owens Valley Paiute tribes. First resident photographer in the Owens Valley, Forbes photographed primarily Paiute Indians and the eastern California scenery. He maintained a commercial studio in Bishop from 1902 to 1916. Forbes also made panoramic murals and scenic calendars. Arranged numerically.


LA Natural History Museum's Description of the Forbes Collection (P-248): P-247 Andrew Alexander Forbes (1862-1921) Oklahoma Collection, ca. 1889. .2 linear feet (Boxes: ½ letter) Photographs. Fourteen mounted prints (on 13 mounts) of Oklahoma scenes: Sac and Fox Indians, railroad bridge construction, and others, ca. 1889. Description of Collection: Photographs (1889-1916): Glass and film photonegatives (mostly 5" x 8" and 5" x 7", + rolled film negatives of various sizes), black and white photoprints (mostly 8" x 10" and 5" x 7", + rolled prints), hand-colored photoprints (8" x 10"), picture postcards, and miscellaneous novelty items (calendars, calling cards.) Subjects include Northern Californian mountain and desert scenes; High Sierra Nevada region, Owens Valley, Saline Valley, Yosemite; communities of Bodie and Bishop; Southwest Indians and their settlements, particularly Paiutes and Hopi; scenes of Oklahoma and Arizona

Doc02: Forbes created an illustrated catalog to market his photographs. Orders, "unless otherwise specified," were filled in black and white. Photographs were also available in "cepia [sic], green and firelight tones." His 10-inch-wide panoramas averaged seventy-five cents per foot. His breathtaking 32-foot panorama of the Sierra Nevada in thirteen sections was listed at $15.00. Other panoramic views of the Sierra cost between $1.75 and $4.00. Black-and-white 8 x 10 inch photographs sold for five cents.  His catalog was arranged by subject, among them clouds and lightning, mountains, desert, cattle, horses, sheep, and goats. There was also a section on the different groups of Indians.

There are 2,800 negatives of western subjects in the Forbes Collection at the Seaver Center for Western History Research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. One thousand of them are glass plate negatives, including Forbes' 6 x 8 inch and 8 x 10 inch glass negatives of the Eastern Sierra; 400 are Forbes' panoramic views; and there are hundreds of photographs and postcards. All of Forbes' panoramas, prints, postcards, and negatives may total as many as 5,000 images, but there is a significant amount of duplication. Although the Seaver Center has processed prints of some of the negatives, less than 1 percent of the photographs in the Forbes collection have been published.

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