Californie

1922 · 56784 — Long Beach CA: A.L. Smith 1219 Loma Vista Dr. ca. 1922-1930. Oblong 4to. 9.25 x 7.5 in. 102 pp unpaginated. on thick black paper stock. With 360 silver gelatin photos tipped-in sized from 1.5 x 1.5 in up to 7 x 9 in. with the majority sized 3 x 5.25 in. a few w/ text within the negative some w/ minor creasing a couple loose. Embossed red post-binder brass screw posts at gutter margin hand-lettered on front cover in neat draftsman’s hand draftsman hand annotations in pencil in blank margins of leaves when revealed on gutter spine blanks minor scuffing edgewear some occasional tears to internal leaves many leaves reinforced with archival black cloth tape still a VG exemplar. This intriguing photo album depicts the lives of Smith’s family primarily engineers inventors river pilots and miners originally on the Yukon River out of Whitehorse and Dawson City and then in southern California following World War I. The album opens with an image of of Archie his brother George and others seated in what appears to be an open 5-bench seat ca. 1915-1916 International Model F bus in front of ivy-covered building. This is followed by a section including approximately 30 photographs devoted to the store factory sales outlets advertising on the company car and sales promotions for the “Hydro Syphon†Iceless Refrigerator invented by Archie Smith. This short-lived Hydro-Syphon Iceless Refrigerator was touted throughout the West as a substitute for buying ice and featured a bowl of an inverted glass bowl of water supplying cooling to coils above the chamber holding items to kept “refrigerated.†These are followed by many photos depicting the Smith family’s “smart†Southern California Bungalows 1 Norman Revival Style apartment houses and homes in and around Long Beach and Los Angeles during the Roaring 20s. The rest of the album focuses on the adventures and outdoor living experienced by his children Evelyn Dorothy and later young Robert. With their home located next to the automobile garage at which he worked he created an extraordinary backyard for his children fitted with pergola slide swings wading pool toys and even a chalkboard and items for the daughter’s tea parties. Archie had previously worked as an engineer and draftsman for the White Pass & Yukon Route in the Yukon while developing Aerosleds with his brother George Smith which were small prop-driven single man sleds used on ice and also ran on the W. P. & Y. Route Ry tracks. Archie Smith 1887-1964 had married Pansie Grace Lawrence in 1916 in Tacoma and when registering for the World War I draft noted a physical disability. After his refrigerator business folds he worked as real estate agent and then draftsman in an automobile machine shop in Los Angeles. His brother George Camden Smith 1889-1972 also shown in the photos was a ship’s engineer and longtime river pilot on the Yukon River before immigrating back to the U.S. in 1941 to live near his brother. Their stepfather William Puckett b. 1869 Klondike gold miner living in Seattle WA in 1900 married Anna Smith a widow sometime before 1903 and then returns to Whitehorse with the stepchildren to establish his roadhouse hardware store and confectionary and retired to Long Beach in 1938. See: Nancy DeWitt Early Snow Vehicles in Alaska: Part 1 Fountainhead Antique Auto museum Fairbanks Alaska March 3 2014. A.L. Smith, 1219 Loma Vista Dr., hardcover