Palms in the Japan Garden

From San Francisco Public Library

What kind of palms were in the Japan Pavilion garden? Or are these cycads?

The California Fan Palm 1887

THE TWIN PALMS IN LOS ANGELES.

From the Pacific Rural Press, December 17, 1887.

"Our indigenous palm, one of the most striking native plants of the State, gave the botanists some trouble in classification. First it was Prichardia, then a Brahea, and finally it has found botanical rest as Washingtonea filifera. Its native area along the Colorado river was thrown open to the public by the building of the Southern overland route, and is now a comparatively familiar country. Long ago, however, seeds were brought from this region and plants were established which have now grown to grand size, while the facts of their introduction have become a matter of tradition. The twin palms shown in the engraving which are growing within the limits of Los Angeles city, are perhaps the oldest and largest cultivated fan palms in the State. They are probably upward of 50 years old. The tourist who enters Los Angeles from the east by the Southern Pacific sees them upon the left side of the railway just before the station is reached; in fact, the buildings shown in the lower lefthand corner of the picture are those of the railway. These palms are a landmark for the tourist, and their photographs are in great request. They are now being encroached upon by the buildings, and may fall before the progress of the day, but we trust they will be spared as long as possible.

Nurserymen Bookshelf

California Association of Nurserymen

• First meeting      1911 Photo of participants, Los Angeles, November, in PRP
• Second Meeting 1912 1912, Oakland
• Third Meeting    1913, Fresno
• Fourth Meeting  1914, San Diego
• Fifth Meeting     1915, San Francisco, August 12-14, at the California Nursery Co.

Pacific Nurserymen

• 1911, San Jose, June 21-23
• 1912, Tenth, Salt Lake City, June 4-6, GR is abroad

Magic Lantern slide shows for the PPIE

From Branson DeCou collection, U.C. Santa Cruz.
This is advertising the "Bowls of Joy".

Branson DeCou was a photographer and travelogue lecturer who travelled the world from 1911 to 1941.

I ran across one of his PPIE slides on a somewhat sketchy Russian website. Luckily it had the "Courtesy Special Collections, U.C. Santa Cruz" so I eventually tracked it down to UCSC. 

The DeCou collection of 8000 slides has about 70 of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. They are incredible.

My Favorite PPIE images

From UC Berkeley page with map and this from International Harvester.

I have spent hours and hours (and hours) looking through PPIE pictures for photos related to the Avenue of Palms, Horticulture Palace, the California Nursery, and George Roeding. There are several places that just are so fun that I will go back and look at them periodically.

Avenue of Palms

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

I've been stereogramminating all of the palm stereographs that I can find with the New York Library's Stereograminator.

So when I saw this little guy standing in the "Avenue of Palms" in Los Angeles in Jared Farmer's book Trees in Paradise, I knew I had seen him before in a stereograph.

The title was "Avenue of Palms, Los Angeles, California. 1870-1909 1870?-1909?"

So what was the date and where was this?

Biking to SF after 1906 earthquake

This is quite an extraordinary journal - Our Bicycle travels to San Francisco on the Main Highway At That Time, volume II.

Volume I is The Earthquake Story of Stanford University.

Both good places to see where palm trees are growing in 1906.

Bancroft has put a nice wrapper around their earthquake collection.