William Letts Oliver

Glass plate negatives and photographic prints taken mainly by amateur photographer William Letts Oliver and his son Roland L. Oliver. Subjects include views of California and San Francisco Bay area, University of California at Berkeley, the Monterey area (including the Chinese fishing village), trips to Hawaii and Alaska, mining (in Calif., Mexico and the West), the mining explosives industry (California Cap Co. and [American] Lucol Co.), logging (chiefly in Mendocino Co.), the Bohemian Grove, and the Oliver family
William Letts Oliver was born in Valparaiso, Chile in 1844. Educated in Edinburgh, Scotland, he returned to Chile and Peru in the early 1860s. In 1868 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he established the California Cap Company, producing mining explosives. He also owned a company manufacturing Doak stationary engines for fire engine pumps. William Letts Oliver died in 1918, a resident of Oakland, Calif
Photographs by William Letts Oliver, Roland Letts Oliver and other members of the Oliver family
In addtion to original images listed there are many later copy transparencies and prints
RESTRICTED NEGATIVES: Use of negatives only by permission of the appropriate curator. Inquiries concerning these materials should be directed, in writing, to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library