GUIDE TO THE SCHNEIDER-WESTHAVER COLLECTION

COLLECTION NUMBER:
C108.

COLLECTION TITLE:
Schneider-Westhaver Family Collection.

CREATOR(S):
Schneider-Westhaver family.

DATES OF MATERIAL:
1855-1966, bulk 1876-1936.

EXTENT:
264 photographs: various media, b&w, some sepia toned; 36 x 38 cm. or smaller.
35 slides: lantern, 15 hand-colored; 3¼ x 4 in.

LOCAL CONTROL NUMBERS:
Photographic prints: OP15861/0-17, OP15868/0-4, OP15869/0-89, and OP15870/0-80.
Negatives: 92:18749/0-23 and 98:19755.
Lantern slides: SW1-35.

REPOSITORY:
San Diego History Center
Booth Historical Photograph Archives
P.O. Box 81825
San Diego, CA 92138
1-619-232-6203

ACQUISITION INFORMATION:
Gift of Christopher Pro (95 photographs), 1992 (807-D).
Gift of Marlene Laughan (169 photographs and 35 lantern slides), 1992 (791-D).

RESTRICTIONS:
Photographs open for research; access to lantern slides restricted, except by permission of curator.

COPYRIGHT:
For permission to reproduce or publish, contact the curator of the Booth Historical Photograph Archives of 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: Schneider-Westhaver Family Collection, San Diego History Center, Booth Historical Photograph Archives.

GENERAL NOTES:
Arrangement: (1) photographs, arranged in general by subject; (2) oversize photographic prints and photographs on button mounts, arranged in general by subject; (3) negatives; and (4) lantern slides. Photographers include J.A. Sherriff, J.C. Parker, Fred Hartsook, Walter E. Averrett, Melvin H. Sykes, Jimmy Erickson, Roland Schneider, and John L. Westhaver. The collection contains cartes de visite, cabinet cards, tintypes, photographic prints and postcards, glass and film negatives, lantern slides, and portrait photographs on large button mounts. Related materials: Schneider-Kemmler Collection (C106) and Roland Schneider Autochrome Collection (C107) in the Photograph Archives, and an unprocessed collection of Schneider family papers in the Research Archives. Forms part of: San Diego History Center Original Print and Negative collections.

BIOGRAPHICAL OR HISTORICAL NOTE:
Arnold Schneider came from Switzerland to San Diego in 1869. He married Elizabeth (Lizette) Stahel in 1874 and they had two children, Fred Arnold Schneider and Ernest Roland Schneider. He owned and operated the A. Schneider Book Store on Fifth and F streets until he retired and moved his family back to Switzerland where he died in 1904. His son F. Arnold Schneider (1875-1940) returned to San Diego in 1896 and became active in real estate and insurance. He married Evelyn M. Westhaver in 1936. A native of Nova Scotia, she and her brothers Harold J. and John L. Westhaver came from Denver, Colorado, to San Diego in 1908. She died in 1965.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE:
The Schneider-Westhaver Family Collection consists chiefly of studio portraits and snapshots of Schneider and Westhaver family members, including photographs by early San Diego photographers J.A. Sherriff and J.C. Parker. Schneider family photographs portray brothers F. Arnold and Roland Schneider, their parents Arnold and Lizette, the Schneider residence and bookstore, Hotel Schneider, and Zurich, Switzerland. Westhaver family photographs depict Evelyn M. Westhaver, her brothers Harold J. and John L. Westhaver, their parents, grandparents, and other family members. Other images include members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union, including Roland Schneider, posing with a display for the 1914 Labor Day parade in San Diego; filming of the silent motion picture The Dictator in Balboa Park in 1922; Harold J. Westhaver and other men in horse drawn wagons and automobiles outside The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company building in San Diego; a bird’s-eye view of the San Diego Daily Bee building; and the San Diego Courthouse. Also included are aerial photographs by John L. Westhaver from the 1930s showing the Serra Museum, Scripp’s residence in Pacific Beach, Hotel del Coronado, the Ford Building at the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition, and a formation view of sailors spelling out a “bon voyage” message at the U.S. Navy training center in San Diego.

SUBJECTS INDEXED:
Schneider family.
Westhaver family.
Families — California — San Diego.

CONTENTS LIST:

Box 1
Folder 1 Various OP15870 numbers   Studio portraits of Westhaver family members, including a young Evelyn M. Westhaver [ca. 1890], her father John Watson Westhaver as a boy [ca. 1860], and her grandfather [George Benjamin] Westhaver. Includes tintypes and cartes de visite.
Folder 2 Various OP15870 numbers   Sepia toned portrait of Evelyn Westhaver at age 32; Evelyn Westhaver in the passenger seat of a biplane [1930s]; Harold J. Westhaver; Harold and Evelyn Westhaver [ca. 1940]; and John L. Westhaver at El Cortez Hotel in San Diego, 1966.
Folder 3 Various OP15861,OP15869, and OP15870 numbers   Schneider family members from about 1875-1908, including Arnold Schneider, his wife Lizette, and sons F. Arnold and Roland. Includes studio portraits on carte-de-visite and cabinet card mounts by early San Diego photographers J.A. Sherriff and J.C. Parker, photographic postcards, and photographs from Zurich, Switzerland.
Folder 4 Various OP15861 and OP15869 numbers   Studio portraits, photographic postcards, and snapshots from 1902-1936 of F. Arnold Schneider, with some photographs also showing his mother Lizette Schneider. Includes photographs from when he lived in Switzerland, his recovery from a broken leg, and the portrait photograph used for his obituary.
Folder 5 Various OP15861 and OP15869 numbers   Studio portraits, photographic postcards, and snapshots of Ernest Roland Schneider from the 1900s and 1910s. Also, 1939 and 1952 portraits of his son Roland Ernest Schneider.
Folder 6 Various OP15861,OP15869, and OP15870 numbers   Portraits of Evelyn Westhaver’s singing teacher and opera singers Lotta Sherman and Marco Rothacker; card photograph by Zurich photographer of Aimee Haupth, inscribed; members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union, including Roland Schneider, posing with display for 1914 Labor Day parade in San Diego; snapshots showing filming of silent motion picture The Dictator in Balboa Park in 1922; and a Walter E. Averrett photograph of a radio receiver [ca. 1915].
Folder 7 Various OP15861,OP15869, and OP15870 numbers   View of Arnold Schneider’s residence and bookstore on Fifth Street in San Diego [1885?] showing Arnold Schneider and his family, and a similar view after the business became Loring’s Book Store; interior views of Lizette Schneider’s home in Zurich, Switzerland; views of Hotel Schneider; bird’s-eye view of San Diego Daily Bee building and surrounding area by I.B. Rhea; snapshots of downtown San Diego [1945?], including views of Spreckels and Broadway theaters; San Diego Courthouse and Hotel del Coronado.
Folder 8 Various OP15870 numbers   Chiefly photographs by John L. Westhaver from the 1930s, including aerial views of the Serra Museum, Scripp’s residence in Pacific Beach, Casa Manana in La Jolla, Hotel del Coronado, and the Ford Building at the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition; also, airplanes in flight and on the ground, and a formation view of sailors spelling out “We all wish you a bon voyage Comdr [?]ew” at the U.S. Navy training center in San Diego.
Box 2
Folders 9-11 OP15868/0-4   Five sepia toned portrait photographs on button mounts [diam. 15 cm.] of F. Arnold Schneider, George Westhaver, brothers Harold J. and John L. Westhaver, and their mother Maud Westhaver.
Folder 12 Various OP15861,OP15869, and OP15870 numbers   Group portrait of George Westhaver, Harold Westhaver, Evelyn Westhaver, and others photographed in Denver, Colorado, 1903. Portrait of Roland Schneider by Fred Hartsook. Ralph P. Stineman photograph of Harold J. Westhaver and other men in horse drawn wagons and automobiles outside The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company building in San Diego [ca. 1910]; Evelyn Westhaver and other switchboard operators at the Mountain States Telephone Company in Denver; and a portrait of F. Arnold Schneider. Oval-shaped studio portraits [possibly copy prints of daguerreotypes] on card mounts hinged in textured-paper folders of a man and woman identified as “Grandpa and Grandma Westhaver [on] their wedding day [in] 1855” [i.e. George Benjamin and Rebecca E. Westhaver]. Portraits [Austin Studios; San Diego, Calif., 1936] on card mounts in textured-paper folders of F. Arnold Schneider and Harold L. Westhaver.
Folder 13 Various OP15870 numbers   Photographs by Roland Schneider of locations in Switzerland; and aerial photographs by John L. Westhaver, including some duplicates of images in Box 1/Folder 8, but also the Serra Museum, Hotel del Coronado, the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, and other views.
Box 3
Negatives 92:18749/0-2398:19755   Postcard views of La Jolla and some copy negatives of original photographs; also, glass negatives (4 x 5 in.) showing the Botanical Building in Balboa Park, an unidentified woman [possibly Florence Kemmler?], and aerial views of Hotel del Coronado and San Diego High School.
Box 4
Lantern slides SW1-35   Subjects include the lily pond and Botanical Building in Balboa Park, Hotel del Coronado, San Diego Courthouse, Serra Museum, the racetrack in Tijuana, Point Loma, a fun house at Belmont Park, Roosevelt Junior High School, a ceremony related to the USS Bennington disaster at Spreckels Organ Pavilion [1922?], bears at the San Diego Zoo, elephants in a circus parade downtown, Cabrillo Bridge, Mission Cliff Gardens, the Coronado boat house, and La Jolla shoreline.