Feb 07, 2008 - Sale 2135

Sale 2135 - Lot 39

Price Realized: $ 15,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
(UTAH)
Photographer J. H. Crockwell's Sample Book entitled "Souvenir of Park City, Her Mines, Mining, and Pleasure Resorts." With 50 photographs, comprising underground mining "flashlight" scenes (which were shot using magnesium powder), industrial views of workmen and heavy machinery, mill men, and picturesque views of the village. Albumen prints, 6x8 3/4 inches (15.2x22.2 cm.), each with a handwritten caption and inventory number on the mount. Oblong 4to, cloth; worn; ties. 1891
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The burg now world-famous for hosting the Sundance Film Festival was, by the late 19th-century, an active mining site--much to the regret of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. After arriving in Utah, Brigham Young instructed church members to pursue agriculture, warning that the lure of precious metals would cause outside infiltration into the Utah Territory. As a result, few members of the LDS Church looked for gold, silver, and lead in the hills of Utah, even though there was a great market for these metals, and other western folk were becoming rich by mining the hills in their states.


This album chronicles the hey-day of mining activity. Although the town was tremendously successful, its history is marked with difficult times. Park City suffered terrible fires in 1882 and then again in 1885. However, the worst disaster came on June 19, 1898 when a conflagration, which was designated the greatest fire in the history of Utah, devastated its commercial district (which these pictures predate).


JPGs are available upon request.