Harry Crosby Collection
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2005
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Business Number: 858-534-2533
Fax Number: 858-534-5950
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Note
DVDs were imaged, content ingested in the DAMS, and discarded in 2024.
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Harry Crosby Collection
Creator:
Crosby, Harry W., 1926-
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0333
Physical Description:
11 Linear feet
(3 archives boxes, 1 flat box, 136 mounted photographs, and over 5,000 negatives)
Physical Description:
33.3 GB
of digital files
Date (inclusive): 1966-1992
Abstract: The Harry Crosby Collection contains photographs of UC San Diego; an exhibit of photographs entitled "Baja California, 1967-1992:
Photographs by Harry Crosby"; and a book proposal which led to the publication of
The Cave Paintings of Baja California (1975). Also included are black-and-white negatives documenting Sonora, Mexico, between 1960-1970; Tijuana in 1964; and a
study of ranches and ranch life in Baja California from 1967-1997.
Languages:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Harry Crosby Collection contains images of UC San Diego taken during the mid-1960s; a photograph exhibition, entitled
"Baja California, 1967-1992: Photographs by Harry Crosby"; and a book proposal on the mountains, people and cave paintings
of Baja California. Also included are black-and-white negatives documenting Sonora, Mexico, between 1960-1970; Tijuana in
1964; and a study of ranches and ranch life in Baja California from 1967-1997. The bulk of the UCSD photographs were taken
to illustrate a promotional brochure entitled
We Propose to Challenge and document buildings and campus life during the mid-1960s. The Baja California photograph exhibit includes images of peninsular
mission architecture, historic places, everyday life on remote ranches, and landmarks along the unpaved transpeninsular highway.
ACCESSIONS PROCESSED IN 2008
Arranged in five series: 1) PHOTOGRAPHS OF UCSD, 2) BAJA CALIFORNIA, 1967-1992, 3) RURAL LIFE IN SONORA, 1960-1973, 4) MANUSCRIPTS,
and 5) NEGATIVES.
ACCESSION PROCESSED IN 2015
Arranged in four series: 6) NEGATIVES AND SLIDES, 7) CONTACT SHEETS, 8) PRINTS, and 9) DIGITAL VIDEO.
Harry W. Crosby was born in Seattle, Washington, on June 10, 1926. He received his B.A from Occidental College in 1948 and
his masters degree from San Diego State University in 1951. In 1963, he retired from teaching in the San Diego Unified School
District to become a professional photographer. Between 1963 and 1974, Crosby worked in commercial photography, specializing
in brochure, magazine and book illustration.
In 1967, Crosby was hired by the Commission of the Californias to illustrate a book to commemorate the California bicentennial
entitled
The Call to California (1969). During his research for the book, he rode 600 miles in Baja California, mostly on muleback, and followed the route
of the Portola/Serra expedition of 1769. While photographing historic places in Baja, Crosby also became interested in peninsular
rock art and the history of the isolated ranch families he encountered.
Crosby has since written and illustrated numerous books and articles on Baja California, including
The King's Highway in Baja California (1974),
The Cave Paintings of Baja California (1975), "Baja's Murals of Mystery" (
National Geographic, 1980, Vol.158, No.5, p.692-702),
Last of the California (1981),
Doomed to Fail (1989),
Antigua California, Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697-1768 (1994),
The cave paintings of Baja California : discovering the great murals of an unknown people (1997), and
Gateway to Alta California: the expedition to San Diego, 1769 (2003).
Harry Crosby Collection, MSS 333. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
Acquired 1991, 1994, 2012
Selected images from the collection have been digitized.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographic prints -- 20th century
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Social life and customs
Rock paintings -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Description and travel -- Pictorial works
Spanish mission buildings -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
Architecture -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
Jesuit architecture -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula)
Crosby, Harry W., 1926- -- Archives
University of California, San Diego -- Pictorial works
University of California, San Diego -- Buildings -- Pictorial works
Accessions Processed in 2008
PHOTOGRAPHS OF UCSD
SERIES 1) PHOTOGRAPHS OF UCSD: Black-and-white contact sheets, negatives, and mounted photographs taken between 1965 and 1970.
Many of the photographs were taken to illustrate the brochure entitled
We Propose to Challenge (1966) and document instruction, laboratories, student life, and some faculty, including philosophy professor Herbert Marcuse.
Other photographs show Muir and Revelle Colleges, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University Hospital, an "Electronic
Music Happening," and composer Ernst Krenek during his February 1970 visit to UCSD. Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Box 1, Folder 2
Box 1, Folder 4
Box 1, Folder 5
Box 1, Folder 6
We Propose to Challenge 1966
Box 1, Folder 7
Brochure
Box 1, Folder 8
Contact sheets for brochure; 4 x 5 negatives
Oversize FB-206, Folder 1-2
Exhibition prints
Oversize MC-051, Folder 01
Exhibition print
Oversize FB-206, Folder 3
Production prints
BAJA CALIFORNIA, 1967-1992
SERIES 2) BAJA CALIFORNIA, 1967-1992: Ninety-two black-and-white and color images of people and places in Baja California,
including peninsular mission architecture, historic places, everyday life on remote ranchos, and landmarks along the unpaved
transpeninsular highway. The photographs are arranged in the order in which they were exhibited. Arranged in three subseries:
A) Pre-history and History of Antigua California, 2) Life at Remote Ranches In Baja California, and 3) Landmarks Along the
Trans-Peninsular Highway.
This exhibit is available online:
Images of Baja California
The following subseries descriptions were written by Crosby and describe three groups of exhibited photographs.
A) Pre-History and History of Antigua California
"The Native Americans of the central and lower peninsula disappeared after less than two centuries of exposure to alien diseases
and European ideological and economic domination. Their material remains are few and, for the most part, inconspicuous. Thirty
years ago, during my first major adventure in Baja California, I was guided to magnificent displays of rock art, paintings
and engravings. That experience-- and the scant printed information available on the subject-- inspired me to spend fifteen
months in the mountains of the mid-peninsula during the next seven years. My investigations resulted in the text and illustrations
for
The Cave Paintings of Baja California [1975]. The pre-historic art of Baja California now attracts admiring visitors from around the world. The peninsula displays
a variety of other remains as well, items worked from or built of stone: hunting blinds, sleeping circles, metates, manos,
and other miscellaneous implements."
"The permanent Spanish presence in California began with a toehold established in 1697. During the eighteenth century, the
mission-based colony grew to encompass the entire peninsula and expanded onto the mainland to the northwest. I was introduced
to peninsular history when I was hired to illustrate a book commemorating the two hundredth anniversary [1969] of Spanish
entry into Alta California. My experience did not begin with books or documents, it came in the field in encounters with remains
of mission churches, el camino real-- the inter-mission road-- and other masonry constructions resulting from early economic
activity: mining, pearling, cattle ranching, and mission agriculture."
"Historic preservation was barely a concept during the peninsula's three Hispanic centuries. Known losses were great, but
most went unrecorded and can only be imagined. Since the opening of the paved highway in 1973, I have watched the patrimony
of the peninsula suffer accelerating losses from neglect, looting, and development. I hope that my work will stimulate interest
in finding, recording, and preserving the historical legacy. That is my appeal to Baja California's leaders and residents-
and to sincere aficionados wherever they reside."
B) Life at Remote Ranches in Baja California
"Peninsular California experienced profound changes during the first third of the nineteenth century. Mexican independence
[1821] ended Spanish interest and support; the new government lacked finances and was primarily involved in its own organization
and solving problems closer to the heart of the republic. By 1830, Baja California languished for lack of money, supplies,
and trade. As the numbers of mission Indians declined, missions were abandoned or secularized. The Presidio of Loreto, the
peninsula's largest employer, was scaled down, then abandoned. Local men turned to subsistence ranching or farming on small
land claims or, more frequently, to squatting on ex-mission properties or at remote water sources in the sierras or their
foothills. The population, so dispersed, developed the basis for much of the small economic activity in the area. The few
towns and villages became trading centers where merchants dealt with farmers and ranchers."
"This economy, with many of its practices and traditions almost unchanged, persisted to a remarkable degree in 1967 when I
first entered the remote areas. However, in half a dozen years, the paved road brought in the outside world and old ways quickly
began to fade. Goods and produce from the mainland and tourism from the United States changed the local economy by lowering
demand for more expensive local produce and by creating other needs for local labor. I was extremely fortunate to arrive before
those events, to travel to many dozens of inaccessible ranches, to know their people, and to experience the last days of a
culture hauntingly like that of our own American West in the nineteenth century. My 1981 book,
Last of the Californios, set forth my photographs, my experiences, and my research vis-à-vis this remarkable-- and remarkably nearby-- survival."
C) Landmarks Along the Wheeltracks Grandly Known as the 'Trans-Peninsular Highway'
"Since the second decade of the twentieth century, men have used automobiles to travel over the more level terrain in various
parts of the peninsula. Gradually, after truly heroic efforts with hand tools and a little dynamite and blasting powder--
the efforts of various communities, companies, and ranchers made it possible to traverse the entire length of Baja California,
usually with aid from local manpower and mulepower to pass through the most difficult terrain. By the 1940s, it was possible,
with favorable weather, to drive a high-clearance vehicle from San Diego to San José del Cabo, but few made the trip without
long delays due to mechanical problems or shortages of fuel or other wondrous difficulties. Such trips were adventures, often
the greatest adventures of the travelers' lives. A cult sprang up around Baja California travel. The individuals or families
that offered gas and meals along the way became in-group personalities. Howard Gulick and Peter Gerhard put their experiences
to use in creating a truly inspired handbook,
Lower California Guidebook-- a historically accurate and geographically sound work that assisted the traveler and educated him as he went."
"The same set of wheeltracks served the slow-growing peninsular economy as an avenue for imports from the U. S. and mainland
Mexico and for exports of local produce from fisheries, fields, or herds. Mexican truckers became part of the growing legend;
regulars often provided assistance to visitors in distress, sometimes pulling them from mud or sand, sometimes transporting
vital vehicle parts, sometimes carrying them to places from which they could get conventional transportation back to their
homes. I know at one time or another, I needed and got all of these services and much more. Travel was slow in those days,
stops were frequent and there was a lot of camaraderie; friendships were made between fellow travelers and with those who
lived or worked along the road. It was an idyll not truly appreciated until the paved road was built and opened in 1973. Changes
were sudden and mostly painful to old-timers, whether gringo or peninsular. Much of the romance disappeared. Few of those
who had provided services along the old road had the money or political clout to be involved in profits from the new tourism.
An era had ended;
Lower California Guidebook is a collectors' item. Sic transit gloria mundi...."
Pre-History and History of Antigua California
Oversize MC-143, Folder 03
Oversize MC-143, Folder 01
Oversize MC-143, Folder 01
Oversize MC-143, Folder 01
Oversize MC-144, Folder 01
Oversize MC-143, Folder 03
Oversize MC-144, Folder 01
Oversize MC-144, Folder 01
Oversize MC-144, Folder 01
Oversize MC-144, Folder 01
Oversize MC-144, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 02
Oversize MC-143, Folder 03
Oversize MC-144, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 03
Life at Remote Ranches in Baja California
Oversize MC-144, Folder 03
Oversize MC-144, Folder 03
Oversize MC-143, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 04
Oversize MC-144, Folder 04
Oversize MC-144, Folder 04
Oversize MC-143, Folder 02
Oversize MC-144, Folder 05
Oversize MC-144, Folder 05
Oversize MC-144, Folder 06
Oversize MC-144, Folder 06
Oversize MC-144, Folder 06
Landmarks Along the Trans-Peninsular Highway
Oversize MC-145, Folder 02
Oversize MC-145, Folder 03
Oversize MC-145, Folder 03
Oversize MC-145, Folder 03
Oversize MC-145, Folder 03
Oversize MC-145, Folder 03
Oversize MC-145, Folder 03
Oversize MC-145, Folder 04
Oversize MC-145, Folder 01
Oversize MC-145, Folder 04
Oversize MC-145, Folder 04
RURAL LIFE IN SONORA, 1960-1973
Series 3) RURAL LIFE IN SONORA, 1960-1973: Black and white mounted photographs of the Sonora region, including ranch owners
and their family, local traditions and crafts, historic or significant buildings, landmarks, and other images of daily life.
Arranged alphabetically by photograph title.
Oversize AB-18-F01
A-E 1960-1969
Includes following titles:
A Matachín During Holy Week at Santa María de Tepupa
Adobe Manufacture
Church Bells at Cedros
Cibuta on the Río Magdalena
Cobbled street in El Fuerte
Cobbler, Alamos
Construction of Fishing Boats, Puerto Peñasco (3)
El Campo Santo - Holy Ground, Movas
El Gran Desierto
Oversize AB-18-F02
F-L 1959-1969, 1986
Includes following titles:
Fire in the Night, Alamos (2)
In the Cool of the Evening, Suaqui de Batuc
La Dura
La Purísima Concepción de Nuestra Señora de Caborca (2)
La Purísima Concepción del Real de los Alamos
Las Trincheras
Lleñeros on an Alamos Street
Looking East over the Plaza Principal, Alamos
Oversize AB-18-F03
Oversize AB-18-F04
Oversize AB-18-F05
MANUSCRIPTS
SERIES 4) MANUSCRIPTS: Includes Crosby's treatment proposal for a book on Baja California mountain people, cave paintings,
and sierra life. The proposal led to his book entitled
The Cave Paintings of Baja California (1975). The volume includes Crosby's written proposal, a statement of professional background, his vita, maps of Baja California,
and 39 photographs. Also includes a chapter entitled "The Cape Sierra," regarding Crosby's exploration of the Baja California
region, and annotated to reflect desired photograph placements.
Box 1, Folder 9
Box 1, Folder 10
"The Cape Sierra" chapter 2013
Oversize MC-136, Folder 18
Reprinted historical maps of Baja California
Oversize MC-136, Folder 19
Hydrographic maps of Baja California (US Navy, published)
NEGATIVES
SERIES 5) NEGATIVES: Black-and-white negatives arranged in three subseries: A) Baja California Sierra, B) Tijuana, and C)
Sonora. The first subseries contains negatives in 35mm, 2 1/4 in, 4x6 cm, 6x7 cm, 6x9 cm, and 6x12 cm formats and largely
document the ranches and ranch life in the Sierra de San Francisco, Sierra de Guadalupe, Sierra de San Borja, and Sierra de
la Laguna. This series does not contain images of cave paintings and mural art. The Tijuana subseries contains images from
a study of Tijuana, Mexico, taken in June 1964 and later published in
Tijuana 1964: una visión fotográfica e histórica. The Sonora subseries contains images of towns, missions, churches, and people in the state of Sonora, Mexico.
All content in this series has been digitized and is available for viewing on the UC San Diego Library Digital Collections
website.
Accession Processed in 2015
NEGATIVES AND SLIDES
Series 6) NEGATIVES AND SLIDES: Black and white and color negatives and slides, mostly 35mm and 2x2 inches. Baja California
is captured in scenes of desert ranchos and daily ranch life, rock art, Sierra de Laguna, Sierra de Guadalupe, Sinaloa, Sonora,
and other landscapes. The images are often labeled with Crosby's own numbering system. Many of the negatives can be cross-referenced
with Series 7) CONTACT SHEETS. Series is arranged alphabetically by subject.
Box 2, Folder 1
Box 2, Folder 2
Box 2, Folder 3
Box 2, Folder 4
Box 2, Folder 6
Box 2, Folder 7
Box 2, Folder 8
Box 2, Folder 11
Sierra de Guadalupe undated
Box 2, Folder 12
Box 2, Folder 13
Box 2, Folder 14
Box 2, Folder 16
Box 2, Folder 18
CONTACT SHEETS
Series 7) CONTACT SHEETS: Black and white prints of negatives of Baja California, with a run of contact sheets depicting Sonora.
Images includes landmarks, ranchos and rancho life, families, buildings, and other natural scenes. Arranged numerically by
Crosby's own negative roll numbering systems. Researchers should note that the first half of the contact sheets captures Baja
California in general, while the second half focuses on Sonora, which is reflected by a change in how the rolls are numbered.
Box 2, Folder 19
Box 2, Folder 20
Box 2, Folder 21
Box 2, Folder 22
Box 2, Folder 23
Box 2, Folder 25
Box 2, Folder 26
Box 2, Folder 27
Box 2, Folder 28
Box 2, Folder 29
Box 2, Folder 30
Box 2, Folder 31
Box 2, Folder 32
Box 2, Folder 33
Box 3, Folder 1
Box 3, Folder 2
Box 3, Folder 3
Box 3, Folder 4
Box 3, Folder 6
Box 3, Folder 7
Box 3, Folder 8
Box 3, Folder 9
Box 3, Folder 16
Box 3, Folder 17
Box 3, Folder 18
Box 3, Folder 22
List of prints by roll and frame number undated
PRINTS
Series 8) PRINTS: Mounted and un-mounted black and white prints of Baja California, Sonora, and Tijuana. As with the other
series, the images include ranchos, landmarks, and daily life. Many prints are labeled with Crosby's corresponding negative
number. Arranged chronologically.
Sonora
Oversize FB-537, Folder 1
Oversize FB-537, Folder 2
Oversize FB-537, Folder 4
Oversize FB-537, Folder 5
Oversize FB-537, Folder 6
Rosalyn Turteck conducting at St. James, La Jolla undated
Tijuana
Oversize FB-537, Folder 7
Oversize FB-537, Folder 8
DIGITAL VIDEO
Film footage of Baja California backcountry trip
Film footage of Baja California backcountry trip
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites
Film footage of Baja California rock art sites