COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES STUDENT PHOTO ALBUM WITH MINING, SMELTING, ATHLETICS, FRATERNITY AND GOLDEN, COLORADO VIEWS, 1902–1903

Item #1716

A substantial photograph album documenting student life at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden during the 1902–1903 academic year, together with unusually rich views of Colorado and Montana mining, smelting, and refining operations.

The 10” x 13” album contains approximately 150 photographs of various sizes, most mounted by their upper edges so that the extensive handwritten captions on their versos may be read. Subjects include the School of Mines faculty, senior class of 1903, library, fraternity members and fraternity house, theatrical performances, and the school’s 1902 football and baseball teams. One portrait identifies Capt. Emrich of the School of Mines baseball team, while another photograph records Professor Finners at Bear Creek on November 9, 1902.

Numerous candid photographs show students hiking, climbing, drinking, posing on rocks, exploring Clear Creek Canyon, and negotiating deep snow with ropes. Local views include Golden, Washington Avenue, the Jefferson County Courthouse, Coors Brewery, Golden High School’s football team, Turkey Creek, Royal Gorge, Bear Creek, Red Rocks near Morrison, and a captioned view of “Little Mexico” in Pueblo.

Especially notable is the album’s extensive record of the Western mining and metallurgical industries. Identified photographs include the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company in Pueblo; the Washoe electrolytic refinery and upper and lower works of the Anaconda Copper Smelter in Anaconda, Montana; the electrolytic copper refinery in Anaconda; the Old Germania lead smelter at Murray, Utah; and the Mercury Cyanide Plant. Also present are industrial interiors, railroad lines through mountainous terrain, and the Fremont, Nebraska stockyards. A single cyanotype is captioned “Showing Wind Erosion.”

Bound in green cloth over boards. Two photographs are loose, but no photographs appear to be missing; occasional pages were left unused. Several photographs are faded, and individual images show creasing, edge wear, or other faults. The album covers have general rubbing and wear. A remarkably well-captioned primary-source record of the Colorado School of Mines and the social, athletic, geographic, and industrial world encountered by one of its students at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Price: $950.00