COLLECTION NUMBER:
C119
COLLECTION TITLE:
Elaine Sweet Family Collection.
CREATOR(S):
Elaine Sweet Family.
DATES OF MATERIAL:
ca. 1860-1983.
EXTENT:
173 photographic prints: 80 x 50 cm. or smaller.
4 albums (829 prints): various media, 40 x 34 cm. or smaller.
139 negatives: safety film and nitrate, 23 x 15 cm. or smaller.
LOCAL CONTROL NUMBERS:
Photographic Prints: OP 12505/0-172.
Copy Negatives: 84:14876/25/0-24.
Nitrate Negatives: 84:14876/25-139.
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 Elaine Sweet.
RESTRICTIONS:
Access to nitrate negatives restricted, except by permission of curator.
COPYRIGHT:
For permission to reproduce or publish, contact the curator of the Booth Historical Photograph Archives at the San Diego History Center. 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: Elaine Sweet Family Collection, San Diego Historical Society, Booth Historical Photograph Archives.
GENERAL NOTES:
Arrangement: by subject and local control number. Related materials: typed transcript of oral history interview with Elaine Sweet in the Research Archives. Forms part of San Diego Historical Society Original Print and Negative collections.
BIOGRAPHICAL OR HISTORICAL NOTE:
Elaine Sweet (1895-1985) was born in San Diego and attended Sherman Grammar School, San Diego High School, Bishop’s School, Mount Vernon Seminary in Washington, D.C. and Stanford University. She traveled extensively and was a longtime member of the social club Wednesday Club and the ZLAC Rowing Club. Her father, Adelbert H. (A.H.) Sweet (1857-1924) was a San Diego District Attorney for one term (1895-1899) and had a private law practice dealing with corporate law, and water and real estate issues. He was born in North Fairfield, Ohio and moved to San Diego in 1885. A.H. was a member of several bar associations and social clubs including the Tuesday Club. A.H. Sweet married Amy Whatmore Sweet in 1894. Amy was from Dunedin, New Zealand and moved with her mother, Marion Whatmore, to San Francisco while in her teens. She later moved to San Diego where she taught the second grade for several years and then was principal at Little Sherman School. The Sweet family had a home on Golden Hill’s C Street but later moved to a 435 West Spruce Street home that was designed by the architects Frank Meade and Richard Requa.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE:
This collection consists photographs in a variety of processes and formats related to the life of Elaine Sweet and her family. It includes portrait photographs of Elaine Sweet from infancy to her later years, her parents A.H. and Amy, her grandmother Marion, and other family members and friends. Other images relate to Elaine’s school life at Mount Vernon Seminary and Stanford University, Elaine Sweet dressed in costumes at Bishop School, the Sweet family houses on C Street and West Spruce Street, travel to Cuyamaca, Palomar, Alpine, San Diego Mission, San Luis Rey Mission, Guajome Ranch, and other places, swimming at La Jolla and Coronado’s Tent City, Sherman School grade 6B, and Elaine Sweet traveling with tour groups around the world.
SUBJECTS INDEXED:
Sweet, Elaine, 1895-1985
Sweet Family.
Mount Vernon Seminary
Bishop’s School (La Jolla, San Diego, Calif.)
Back country (San Diego County, Calif.) — Photographs.
Families – San Diego — California.
Socialites – San Diego – California.
Dwellings – San Diego – California.
CONTENTS LIST:
| Box 1 | |
| 1/01 | OP 12505/0-24 |
| Studio portraits of Sweet family members, Adelbert H. (A.H.), Amy, and Elaine, exterior and interior views of the family residence on West Spruce Street, A.H. Sweet at the wheel of a car. | |
| 1/02 | OP 12505/25-41 |
| Exterior views of the Sweet family residence on West Spruce Street, including the patio and fountain. Also includes views of the Sweet family residence on C Street showing Amy and Elaine Sweet in front of the house. | |
| 1/03 | OP 12505/42-48 |
| Interior views of the Sweet family residence on West Spruce Street including the study, dining room, and living room. | |
| 1/04 | OP 12505/49 |
| Sherman School Grade 6B students and teachers sitting in a classroom, May 24, 1906. | |
| 1/05 | OP 12505/50-57 |
| Family snapshots and general views of Alpine. Includes a panoramic print of “Glen Alpine Springs,” revealing a cabin and campgrounds, 1907. | |
| 1/06 | OP 12505/58-72 |
| Carte de visites, cabinet cards, and mounted photographs of Elaine Sweet as an infant, toddler and young girl ca. 1895-1903. | |
| 1/07 | OP 12505/73-89 |
| Studio portraits and snapshots of Elaine Sweet as a young woman, ca. 1910-1925; Mount Vernon Seminary class photograph; Elaine Sweet riding a camel with a group in Biskra, Algeria; Elaine Sweet sitting at a long table in a room filled with children; sitting with a friend at a beach house. | |
| 1/08 | OP 12505/90-96 |
| Mostly color snapshots of an elderly Elaine Sweet posing with friends and family members, ca. 1969-1980. | |
| 10/9 | 12505/97-109 |
| Studio portraits and snapshots of A.H. Sweet; cartoon of A.H. by Willard Cundiff; carte de visites and card mounted photograph of a young A.H. Sweet taken in Berea, Ohio, ca. 1883; includes a tintype of A.H. and a brother [?]. | |
| 1/10 | OP 12505/110-122 |
| Studio portraits on carte de visites, cabinet cards, and snapshots of Amy Whatmore Sweet. | |
| 1/11 | OP 12505/123-128 |
| Mostly studio portraits on cabinet cards of Marion Whatmore, mother of Amy Whatmore Sweet. | |
| 1/12 | OP 12505/129-139 |
| Family and friends of the Sweet family, including a carte de visite of Marion Whatmore’s mother; portrait of the opera singer, Ernestine Schumann Heink, inscribed to the Sweet family, 1923; postcard photograph of a group of men and boys in Palomar, 1905. | |
| 1/13 | OP 12505/140-149 |
| Loose photographs from Photograph Album 3; includes snapshots of Sweet family members; Elaine Sweet and several girls dressed in costume for a pageant [?] at the Bishop’s School. | |
| 1/14 | OP 12505/150-169 |
| Loose photographs from Photograph Album 4; includes photographs of Elaine Sweet at a party for the San Diego Trust and Savings Bank, 1964; Elaine Sweet at her Mount Vernon Seminary class reunion, 1966; Elaine with travel tour groups posed in front of airplanes and historic sites. | |
| 1/15 | OP 12505/171-172 |
| Two ambrotype cased photographs of Marion Whatmore’s brothers. | |
| Box 2 | |
| 2/Photograph Album 1 | Thirty-four carte de visites and one tintype of Whatmore family members, including Marion Whatmore and Amy Whatmore Sweet. Mostly uncaptioned and undated, the photographs were taken in photographer studios in London, England, Dunedin, New Zealand, and San Francisco. |
| 2/Photograph Album 2 | Twenty-one cabinet cards, forty-eight carte de visites, including three tintypes of Sweet family members. Includes portraits of A.H. and Amy Sweet, Leona Davis Sweet, Ellen Sweet Vail, H.S. Vail, Emma Sweet Templar, and Charles Templar. Photographers include A.C. Falor of Berea, Ohio. |
| Box 3 | |
| 3/1 | OP 12505/170 Mount Vernon Seminary class photograph, 1917. |
| 3/Photograph Album 3 | Snapshots of Elaine Sweet as a little girl; family outing to Cuyamaca, 1898; swimming at La Jolla and Coronado’s Tent City; a group of men and boys in front of a waterfall in Palomar, July 1905; cabins in Alpine, July 1907; general views of the lakes and hiking in Eldorado National Forest and also Fallen Leaf Lake; Elaine Sweet dressed in different costumes with other children at Bishop’s School; view of Balboa Park’s Japanese Garden; Elaine Sweet with school girls at Torrey Pines ca. 1908-1913; Curtis Coronado Polo Field race track; unidentified family and friends; Sweet family gravestones; Sweet family visit to Norwalk, Ohio. |
| 3/Photograph Album 4 | Snapshots of Elaine Sweet with classmates at Mount Vernon Seminary in Washington, D.C. Includes images of the basketball, tennis, and golf teams, theatrical productions, and other school events; with friends in Keokuk, Iowa during the winter; Washington, D.C. landmarks; class photographs; graduation day; views of Guajome Ranch, San Diego Mission, San Luis Rey Mission; Hopi Indians in Albuquerque; with friends at Stanford University; views of Yosemite Valley; Marion Whatmore, Amy Whatmore Sweet and A.H. Sweet in the garden of their West Spruce Street home; exterior views of the West Spruce Street house, including construction of the house; Elaine Sweet with family and friends. |
| SDHC Negative Files | |
| Copy Negatives: 84:14876/0-24 | Portraits of (A.H.), Amy, and Elaine Sweet; exterior and interior views of the family residence on West Spruce Street; A.H. Sweet at the wheel of a car. Negatives match OP 12505/0-24. |
| Cold Room | |
| Nitrate Negatives 84:14876/25-50 | Elaine and her parents with other family members in Norwalk, Ohio; Elaine and Amy Sweet in Pine Hills [?]; Elaine Sweet with friends at the beach in La Jolla [?]; Elaine Sweet; dressed in costume with other children at Bishop’s School. Negatives match some prints in Photograph Album 3. |
| 84:14876/51-123 | An elderly Marion Whatmore; Sweet family in Yosemite; Elaine Sweet in graduation gown at Mount Vernon Seminary; San Luis Rey Mission; San Diego Mission; Guajome Ranch; Sweet family house on West Spruce Street. Negatives match some prints in Photograph Album 4. |
| 84:14876/124-138 | Bishop’s School; Elaine and other children dressed in costume at Bishop’s School; Sweet family house on West Spruce Street. |
| 84:14876/139 | A.H. Sweet standing in a garden. Negative to OP 12505/97. |
