COLLECTION NUMBER:
C057.
NAME OF COLLECTION:
Griffith-Manatt Family Collection.
LOCAL CONTROL NUMBER(S):
Albums: 1998/021/1-2.
Photographic prints: 1998/021/3-28.
DATES OF MATERIAL:
ca. 1895-1951?, bulk 1907-1916.
EXTENT:
2 albums (305 photographic prints); 18 x 29 cm. and 19 x 16 cm.
26 photographic prints: chiefly gelatin silver, 1 sepia toned; 22 x 13 cm. or smaller.
SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHER(S):
Photographs in albums mostly by Mary Lucia Griffith.
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 Margaret Mannatt (daughter of Marian Manatt Griffith Salling), 1997 (1998/021).
RESTRICTIONS:
Open for research.
COPYRIGHT:
For permission to reproduce or publish, contact the curator of the Booth Historical Photograph Archives at 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: Griffith-Manatt Family Collection, San Diego History Center, Booth Historical Photograph Archives.
GENERAL NOTES:
Forms part of San Diego History Center Original Print Collection. Album 1998/021/2 disbound and some photographs evidently removed from both albums before acquisition. Some loose photographs remounted in both albums. Includes photocopied pages from an accompanying appraisal that contains biographical notes and an inventory of the collection. Arranged in numerical sequence used by appraiser.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:
Charles Owen Griffith married Margaret Lucia Manatt, daughter of Samuel and Mary Jane Manatt, in 1892. They moved to San Diego from Kalona, Iowa, in 1906. Charles Griffith became the manager of Samuel Manatt’s farm and other business interests and so divided his time between Kalona and his home at 25th and G streets in San Diego. Charles and Margaret had two daughters Mary Lucia and Margaret Jean. They also adopted Marian Manatt, the daughter of Margaret’s younger sister Orfa Manatt. Orf moved with the Griffiths to San Diego and lived with them, working at the Lion Clothing Company from around 1908 until 1932. She left San Diego to attend the funeral of another sister Everel Manatt Worrell and then married her widowed brother-in-law Louis Worrell. After his death, Orf returned to the Griffith home in San Diego where she lived until her death in 1956.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTES:
Documents the Griffith-Manatt family chiefly during the first 10 years after Charles and Margaret Griffith moved to San Diego. This collection consists of snapshots mounted in two albums and some other prints, mostly photographed by Charles Griffith’s oldest daughter Mary Lucia Griffith (1898-1983), who developed an interest in photography as a child and began taking photographs around 1909. Images depict family members Charles Griffith, his wife Margaret, their daughters Lucia and Jean, Margaret’s sister Orf and her daughter Marian, other family members, and acquaintances, including the manager of the Lion Clothing Company Samuel I. Fox and his family. Also, pets, automobiles, houses, ranches, buildings, rural landscapes, leisure activities, trips to Iowa and Colorado, and family outings to La Jolla, Coronado, Warner Hot Springs, and Lakeside.
SUBJECTS INDEXED:
Griffith family.
Manatt family.
Families – California – San Diego.
CONTENTS LIST:
| Box 1 | |
| Folder 1 | |
| 1998/021/1 | Album with 252 snapshots from 1907-1916. Photographed chiefly by Charles Griffith’s oldest daughter Mary Lucia Griffith, who developed an interest in photography as a child and began taking photographs around 1909. Many photographs are captioned and some are cut in irregular shapes. Images depict family members and acquaintances, pets, leisure activities such as swimming and eating, early automobiles, houses, ranches, buildings, and rural landscapes. Locations include the Griffith family home in San Diego and their adobe house near Warner Hot Springs, Balboa Park, Coronado, Point Loma, La Jolla Cove, the back country, San Juan Capistrano, the Manatt farm in Iowa, and Clifton, Colorado. People include Charles Griffith and his wife Margaret; their daughters Lucia and Jean; Margaret’s sister Orf and her daughter Marian [adopted by Charles and Margaret Griffith]; Margaret and Orf’s aunt Sarah, sister Sarah, and brother Ross; the Griffith’s chauffeur, cook, and nurse; and Samuel Fox, owner of Lion Clothing Company, and other Fox family members. |
| Folder 2 | |
| 1998/021/2 | Album [disbound before acquisition] with 53 photographs Mary Lucia Griffith showing Griffith and Manatt family members, acquaintances, and activities [1910-1914?] at various locations, including San Diego, Warner Hot Springs, Lakeside, Alpine, La Jolla, Ocean Beach, Colorado, Kansas, and Washington. Includes the Griffith family in an early automobile and posing in front of their home on 25th Street, the Griffith children and friends at Elher’s Ranch and La Jolla Cove, and Orf with the Hotel del Coronado in the background. |
| Folder 3 | |
| 1998/021/3-28 | Includes boudoir-card portrait, photographic postcard, and snapshots of Orf Manatt [ca. 1905-1951?]. Images show her on the tennis court, eating watermelon with her sister, picking apples, posing in front of what appears to be a monument on a Civil War battlefield with her sister Everel and brother-in-law Louis Worrell [1932?], and reading to her granddaughter Margaret Mannatt. Also includes a cabinet card portrait of Clem Manatt, a studio portrait of Louis Worrell, and snapshots of various Griffith family members, the family cat, and the arrival of the Liberty Bell at the Panama-California Exposition. |
| Folder 4 | |
| Inventory | Photocopy of pages with biographical notes and inventory of collection from an appraisal by Chandler Art Consulting Services in San Diego. |
