Gledhill Santa Barbara Glass Plate Negative Collection

Collection

Identifier: AR-2025-002

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Gledhill Santa Barbara Glass Plate Negative Collection consists of approximately ten thousand (10,000) glass plate negative and positive photographs, created primarily by photographers N. H. Reed and I. N. Cook, two of the most prolific commercial photographers in Santa Barbara during the period 1880-1920.

Dates

1880 - 1920

Creator

Gledhill, Edwin, 1888-1976 (Compiler, Person)

Extent

1,448 Negatives (Photographs)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Gledhill Santa Barbara Glass Plate Negative Collection consists of approximately 10,000 glass plate negative and positive photographs, created primarily by photographers N. H. Reed and I. N. Cook during the period of 1880-1920. Through the extraordinary quality of professional glass plate photography, local life, customs, and tourist attractions were documented as Santa Barbara transitioned from the Victorian era into the 20th century.

Custodial History

Acquired by Santa Barbara studio photographer W. Edwin Gledhill, these glass plate images were initially stored in the Santa Barbara County Courthouse tower. In 1953, Gledhill, now Director of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, relocated the glass plates to his Mission Canyon home, Glendessary, for safer keeping.

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum acquired this collection from Gledhill and his wife Andriette in the mid-1960s when the couple were forced to relocate the photographic plates due to the threat of wildfire.

Processing Information

In 1977, Santa Barbara Historical Museum Director, and son of the donor, Keith Gledhill selected some of the glass plates to be printed and made available to researchers. Filed by subject in the Gledhill Library Photo Files, large format copy negatives were made by staff photographer, Bill Dewey, whose work was made possible by a grant from the Doris Fay Palmer Trust Fund, administered by Security Pacific Bank.

In June 1978, Keith Gledhill reported he was halfway through his organization of the glass photographic plates.

From 2018-2019, a glass plate negative scanning project, managed by Lauren Trujillo, resulted in the posting of four hundred and forty-eight (448) digital images to the Museum's Past Perfect Online website (See External Documents).

A continuation of the glass plate digitization project, managed by Chris Ervin in 2020, resulted in the scanning of approximately 1,000 additional images which were posted to the Museum's Glass Plate Google Photos website (See External Documents).

For the purpose of increasing access and developing a roadmap for future processing and digitization efforts, Chris Ervin generated the first online finding aid to the collection in March 2025.