More finding aids have been made available for Clements Library’s Graphics Division collections. Here are some of the highlights!
Cover and page of The T. E. Hecht California views photograph album highlighting street views of San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake.
T. E. Hecht California Views Photograph Album (ca. 1856-1900)
The T. E. Hecht California views photograph album contains approximately 234 copies of photographs of Californian scenery originally produced by various photographers between 1856 and 1875 that were reproduced and compiled by photographer Treu Ergeben Hecht between 1890 and 1900. True Ergeben Hecht was a photographer and photographic copyist active in San Francisco between the 1890s and 1920s. Hecht’s copy photographs and prints that he made from original glass plate negatives produced by earlier photographers serve as important pieces of visual documentation of life in San Francisco prior to the 1906 earthquake as in some instances Hecht’s copies are the only surviving iterations.
John A. McBride Photograph Album
The John A. McBride photograph album contains 46 photographs showing patients, rehabilitation activities, architecture, grounds, and interiors of the New Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains. The New Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains (also called the State Asylum at Morris Plains and, later, Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital) opened in 1876 following lobbying efforts led by Dorothea Dix and was the second asylum in New Jersey to be constructed according to plans devised by Dr. Thomas Kirkbride. The Kirkbride Plan standardized the architectural blueprint for a growing number of American asylums adopting moral treatment, an approach to curing mental illness that preached consistent sleep, healthy food, exercise, and outdoor exposure. Morris Plains also operated a Training School for Nurses which first opened in 1894. The hospital was eventually shut down in 2008 following extensive issues resulting from decades of overcrowding.
North side of the New Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains. From the John A. McBride Photograph Album.
Title page and photographs from Souvenir Photographs of “A Trip to Cuba.”
Souvenir Photographs of “A Trip to Cuba”
Souvenir Photographs of “A Trip to Cuba” is a privately published photograph album that contains approximately 213 photographs taken during a 26-member excursion to Cuba in 1907 conducted by the South West Land Company of Cuba. In 1907, the South West Land Company of Cuba owned 66,000 acres of land in the Pinar Del Rio Province of Cuba. Priced at $8 per acre, the company’s advertisements promised that one acre of Cuban produce would yield up to $1,200 in profit for only 12 weeks of work. The company marketed its land to working men, who they claimed made only $600 in factories despite working 300 days each year. The presence of the album’s former owner Fred Whittlesey Adams and his 13 year old son Norman has been noted by pencil mark in several photographs.
Caribbean Vacation Photograph Album
The Caribbean vacation photograph album contains 110 photographs compiled by an unidentified traveler during visits to several Caribbean countries and territories. Caribbean locations represented include Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and Curacao. Also present are views of Caracas, Venezuela, as well as St. Augustine and Rock Ledge in Florida. In addition to street scenes, landscapes, occupational portraits, and architectural views, there are also numerous images depicting local civilians engaged in various activities, including many portraits of Afro-Caribbean men, women, and children.
Treasury building and masqueraders in St. Kitts, 1897. From the Caribbean Vacation Photograph Album.
![[Campus Martius, Detroit, Mich., ca. 1880, David V. Tinder Collection Oversized File, Drawer 3 Folder 16 (#266)]](https://clements.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Tinder-oversized.png "Tinder oversized")
[Campus Martius, Detroit, Mich., ca. 1880, David V. Tinder Collection Oversized File, Drawer 3 Folder 16 (#266)]
David V. Tinder Collection of Photography: Oversized Series
The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography oversized file series contains approximately 444 photographs classified as “Oversized” (mostly larger than 28 x 35.5 cm). Includes both mounted and unmounted photographs as well as a few pieces of ephemera and realia (including shipping tubes for mailing photographs) documenting people, places, events, and scenery in Michigan from the 1860s through the 1980s. Also present are Cirkut Camera panoramic photographs and examples of fine art photography produced by contemporary 20th century Michigan photographers that collector David V. Tinder knew personally in his lifetime.
[Unidentified mechanics, Robert M. Vogel Collection, Box 63.04]
Robert M. Vogel Collection of Historic Images of Engineering & Industry
The Robert M. Vogel collection of historic images of engineering & industry contains approximately 22,890 photographs (including 18,500 stereographs), 1220 prints, 13 photograph albums, 11 books, 117 pieces of ephemera, and 15 pieces of realia documenting a wide range of subjects primarily related to 19th-century civil engineering, industrial processes, and mechanization.
You can find out more about the Vogel Collection by reading this article featured in the University Record.