Photograph of Mineral King,  1903.

 Handwritten on the back of this photograph:  "Farewell Gap, with Party of Sierrians at Mineral King". 

Mineral King is now part of  Sequoia National Park.   This appears to be one of the pictures taken of Sierra Club members ("Sierrians") on their 1903 trip through the Sequoia National Park/Forest area.

Stamped on the back of this photo are the words:  "SAME SIZE." and "SUN SUPP."   The person who sold me this picture  thought that it may have at one time been in the photo archive of the "The Sun" newspaper of Sheridan, Oregon.

Close-ups from the photo above:

A rather interesting looking group.

The young gentleman at the left side of this photo is holding  the book:  "Good Gravy", by Ezra Kendall (Humorist and Vaudeville comedian), published in 1901.

 

 

(Added 7/21/15)  The man at center is Joseph Nisbet LeConte.    LeConte was a noted explorer of the Sierra Nevadas,   a professor of mechanical engineering at Cal Berkeley for 40+ year;  and he was the Sierra Club's second president (after John Muir's death).

 



Close-up showing the19th century miners' settlement in the background .

Seems like a bugler would kinda scare off the wildlife. 

Two school pictures circa the late 1880's from south Tulare County:

Photographer's stamp on the back of this photo states: D. M. Churchill, Photographer, Pixley, Cal.

The Daily Alta California newspaper (of San Francisco) 3/17/1889 issue,  indicates that D. M. Churchill of Pixley was a blacksmith.  I would guess that for many small town photographers, taking photographs was just a sideline.

 Two close-ups from this picture:

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 Stamped on the back of this photo:  J. W. Talhelm,  Photographer.  Alila, Cal.

Tulare County land ownership maps of 1892,  list a J. W. Talhelm as owning a small plot of farm land near Alila.     John William Talhelm of Alila is listed as a registered voter in 1890 (Listed age: 23 yrs, Occupation: farmer, Birth place: Pennsylvania).  According to other voter registration records, he moved to the Dinuba area by 1896.     The town of Alila later changed its name to Earlimart.

Only the children near the center of this image appear to be in focus.

Close up: 

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 Even with the blurry image from the second photo, the school teacher in the two pictures (above)  looks like it could be the same person.   This could even be the same school, just different school houses & different years (e.g. Both photographs could be of Alila's or Pixley's grammar school.).   This teacher could also possibly be the same person in this photo.

Close-ups of the school teacher from the pictures above: