HUNTING EXCURSIONS IN CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, IDAHO AND TEXAS
(Hunting) Osborn, Mary “Maude” Sprinkle; Osborn, Jr., John, Osborn, Charles Richard. An exceptional photo album documenting the automobile and hunting excursions in California, Arizona, Idaho & Texas from before World War I through the Great Depression, with many of the images taken by photographer Maude Osborn. Many of these images show not only the ruggedness of the San Jacinto Mountains, High Sierra, Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, but also the plentiful game.
The photos visually record the automobile travels & hunting excursions of the noted orange grower family the Osborn’s and Nowell’s of Redlands, San Benardino, California through the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County, the High Sierra, the Kaibab National Forest in Northern Arizona, Lake Hodges near San Diego, and in McCall, Idaho. The opening images include a photo of a 1920 “Stripped Paige”, most likely a Paige-Linwood auto which at the time were fitted with a Duesenberg engine, and a Paige 6-66 broke the American Stock Car speed record in 1921. The images show hunter John Osborn, and others with rifles, such as the Henry Jacobson Model 52 Winchester featured prominently on the front paste down photo, together with their many different trophies. Additional photos show packing in by horseback, loaded horses, with a hunting dog, on mule-back, hunting ocelots in Texas, and even the hunting cabin in the High Sierras. Photos show the camping tents set up, the hitching rail, with gun belts draped over, trophy deer and elk bucks taken in McCall, Idaho, Nampa, Idaho, a 15 point buck in Kaibab Nat. Forest, along with fishing photos of long strings of fish taken at Lake Hodges. Also featured are images of an Osborn/Nowell family visit to Katy, Texas in 1934, with photos of the old family home and land, oil wells, and the surrounding area.
A few staged RPPC shots include John’s sister Rhoda holding up a beat cop holding his night stick, another showing Maude wearing a kimono, a couple of John Osborn, Jr. at Camp Kearny, California during World War I, while another shows a young Osborn wearing woolly chaps astride a pony, and another a young girl on stilts. Several photos show Maude & John Osborn’s California bungalow home at 188 E. 10th St. (still standing), along with photos of the US Navy Ships, and 1935 San Diego Exposition. Curiously a set of 20 Schonwasser Bathing Girls cards, issued by S.E. Schonwasser in San Francisco have been mounted in the album, largely drawing from the munificent stock of erotic bathing beauty photos issued by the Alta Studios in the 1920’s, most shot by “Xan Stark” or Alexander Johnston Stark. Maude Sprinkle Osborn (1904-1990) was an active amateur photographer, member of the Photographic Society of America, and a lecturer on stereo photography and 3-dimensional photography. Their son Charles Osborn (1922-1991) was a professional photographer, recipient of two Kinsley Awards, and lectured on photography and philosophy before retiring to Vancouver, WA. Maude’s sister-in-law Rhoda Osborn Nowell (1892-1977) married Redlands orange grower, and hunting enthusiast Jesse Nowell, and the family farm was retained until 2018 before being turned over to the Redlands School District for more needed parking.
Redlands, San Bernardino, CA: Maude Osborn & Charles Osborn, ca. 1910-1936]. 84 pp (unpaginated), with 263 original photographs tipped-in, including several RPPC’s, sized from 2 x 2.75 in. up to 5 x 7 in., with most sized 3 x 4.5 in. Many annotated in the blank margin at lower fore-edge of photos, and most dated, along the margins, a couple of the RPPC were mailed to John Osborn (1840-1919) of Katy, Texas, 20 printed photo souvenir cards tipped-in as well, all with printing on versos identifying Schonwasser Co. of San Francisco. Contemporary black cloth post-binder, brass & nickel screw posts at gutter margin. Minor edge wear, rubbing, a few photos removed, a couple laid-in loose, overall in vg cond.
