GUIDE TO THE ROBERT MOSHER COLLECTION
COLLECTION NUMBER:
C077.
NAME OF COLLECTION:
Robert Mosher Collection.
LOCAL CONTROL NUMBER(S):
Photographic prints: OP 17123/1-182.
Negatives: 99:19997/1-227.
DATES OF MATERIAL:
1905-ca. 1970.
EXTENT:
342 photographic prints (180 contact prints): b&w; 41 x 36 cm. or smaller.
234 negatives: film; 10 x 8 in. or smaller.
176 postcards: chiefly col.
SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHER(S):
Homer Dana (San Diego).
Robert C. Cleveland (Pacific Palisades).
Maynard L. Parker (Los Angeles).
Of special note, one photographic print (OP 17123-53) by Julius Shulman (Los Angeles).
REPOSITORY:
San Diego Historical Society
Booth Historical Photograph Archives
P.O. Box 81825
San Diego, CA 92138
1-619-232-6203
ACQUISITION INFORMATION:
Gift of Robert Mosher, 1993 (Accession No. 837-D).
RESTRICTIONS:
Open for research.
COPYRIGHT:
For permission to reproduce or publish, contact the curator of the Booth Historical Photograph Archives at the San Diego Historical Society. Reproduction or publication of any part of this collection must include the following information next to the image(s) or in a special section of credits: Robert Mosher Collection, San Diego Historical Society, Booth Historical Photograph Archives.
GENERAL NOTES:
Forms part of San Diego Historical Society Original Print and Negative collections. Related materials: numerous architectural drawings donated by Robert Mosher to the Research Archives.
ORGANIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT:
Organization: photographic prints, contact prints, and negatives arranged numerically (box 1); postcards (box 2).
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:
Born in 1920 in Colorado, architect Robert Mosher moved to La Jolla in 1944. He and Roy Drew established the architecture firm of Mosher and Drew in 1948 in La Jolla's Green Dragon Colony, formerly an artist colony established by Anna Held between 1894-1902. Robert Mosher's father Jack Mosher bought the Green Dragon property in 1944 and remodeled it over a period of 10 years. Mosher and Drew remodeled the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and designed additions to the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTES:
Photographic prints, contact prints, and negatives related to architecture and the career of San Diego architect Robert Mosher. Subjects include Green Dragon Colony buildings, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, Bishop's School in La Jolla, and San Diego's Santa Fe Station; images evidently used for an American Institute of Architects guidebook to San Diego architecture [ca. 1965]; photographs by Homer Dana of Donal Hord sculptures in rosewood, bronze, granite, and other media, most signed by Hord; and prints related to architect William Templeton Johnson's original design of the Fine Arts Gallery [i.e. San Diego Museum of Art] in Balboa Park. Also, travel photographs of the Mediterranean region [ca. 1905], and postcards [1905-1908] addressed to Jack Mosher in Greeley, Colorado.
SUBJECTS INDEXED:
Hord, Donal.
American Institute of Architects.
Architects.
Architecture – California – San Diego.
Architectural elements.
Buildings – California – San Diego.
Dwellings – California – San Diego.
Galleries & museums – California.
Railroad stations – California – San Diego.
Sculpture.
Travel.
La Jolla (Calif.)
Green Dragon Colony (La Jolla, Calif.)
CONTENTS LIST:
Box 1
Folder 1
OP 17123/1-34
Photographs chiefly by Maynard L. Parker and Robert C. Cleveland of Anna Held's Green Dragon Colony in La Jolla [ca. 1950] after Jack Mosher [Robert Mosher's father] bought the property in 1944 and the buildings – except for four cottages left standing – were remodeled and converted into a collection of shops over a 10-year period. Includes interior and exterior views of Green Dragon buildings, including the office of architects Robert Mosher and Roy Drew.
Folder 2
OP 17123/35-38
99:19997/1-38
Proofs with corresponding negatives of Green Dragon building [ca. 1970] overlooking ocean [possibly “East Cliff”].
Folder 3
OP 17123/39-48
Exterior and interior views showing architectural elements of Santa Fe Station in San Diego [ca. 1965].
Folder 4
99:19997/39-80
Negatives showing sites of various Mosher projects, including First Interstate Bank of California on Ivanhoe Avenue and Bishop's School in La Jolla, and the Fine Arts Gallery [i.e. San Diego Museum of Art] in Balboa Park. Also includes a portrait of Robert Mosher and his partner Roy Drew.
Folder 5
OP 17123/49-58
99:19997/81-84
Photographs and negatives related to Mosher's work on the Art Center of La Jolla [i.e. La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art]. Includes a reproduction of the landscape plan for the Art Center [ca. 1960], and a view of Sherwood Hall by renowned architecture photographer Julius Shulman.
Folder 6
OP 17123/59-82
99:19997/85-227
Proofs and negatives evidently used for an American Institute ofArchitects guidebook to San Diego architecture. Images show houses and buildings designed by various San Diego architects, including many by Irving Gill, William Hebbard, and Richard Requa,
Folder 7
OP 17123/83-97
Fifteen photographs by Homer Dana of Donal Hord sculptures in rosewood, bronze, granite, and other media. Includes West Wind , El Cargador , Harvest Spirit , and Young Bather among others. All but one of the 10 x 8-in. prints are signed in ink in the lower right corner by Hord.
Folder 8
OP 17123/98-129
Photographs related to architect William Templeton Johnson's design of the Fine Arts Gallery in Balboa Park. Includes reproductions of drawings and images of the gallery shortly after its completion in 1926. Also, architectural elements of the University of Salamanca and other buildings in Spain that served to inspire Johnson.
Folder 9
OP 17123/130-177
Travel photographs of the Mediterranean region [ca. 1905]. Photographer unknown.
Folder 10
OP 17123/178-182
Miscellaneous and oversize photographic prints. Includes Granger Music Hall in National City, the Botanical Building in Balboa Park, and some views of La Jolla.
Box 2
Postcards
Postcards [1905-1908] of various subjects, events, and locations from around the world, including eight from the San Diego area. Also, humorous and novelty postcards, including some made of leather. Chiefly addressed to Jack Mosher in Greeley, Colorado.
