Collection
P 057: |
©2005 by Fort Lewis College Foundation, Center of Southwest Studies account, updated 2008
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Introduction/ Scope and contents
P 057
Edward Ellison Southwest photographs
Gary Ellison, compiler
Circa 1935-1957; bulk
years 1945-1950
This collection consists of hundreds of black and white film transparency negatives, circa 1935-1957, produced by two Ellisons of the Southwestern United States and donated by their family. Most are by Edward Holcomb "Rocky" Ellison; the remainder are by his father, Eddie Boyden Ellison, who owned and operated the DesArt Shop in the oldest house in New Mexico, in Santa Fe. The size of most is 2.25 x 3.25" (all of the "Rocky" Ellison photos are in this format); a few are as large as 4 x 5" (these were all produced by Boyden Ellison). Subjects include Native Americans (especially, potters) Mesa Verde (Colo.), and numerous other scenes in the Southwest, especially in New Mexico. Other photos in the collection may have been produced by Pic’n Pan Photos (Livermore, Calif.), which was also owned by the Edward Ellison family.
This collection is useful for anyone researching the history of various Southwestern topics and may be helpful for professors and students who are seeking visual materials for classroom instruction and persons who are looking for views of New Mexico landscapes and other scenes in the mid-twentieth century.
Photographers Eddie Boyden Ellison and Edward Holcomb (Rocky) Ellison
Eddie Boyden Ellison, an entrepreneur and photographer, passed his interests in photography to his son Edward Holcomb (Rocky) Ellison. They joined together in 1945 to create the DesArt Studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which they jointly owned and operated. This early Santa Fe photographic studio was located in the “Oldest House,” on DeVargas Street. As part of this endeavor they also lead commercial tours to neighboring attractions in the Santa Fe area.
Edward (Rocky) Ellison took a job at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now Los Alamos National Laboratory) and moved his family to Santa Clara Pueblo. Here he became interested in photographing the local Pueblos and their customs. During this time, he and his family became friends with people such as the famed San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Martinez and renowned anthropologist Alice Marriott and Marriott's illustrator Margaret Schoonover. Later, both he and his father Eddie moved to Los Alamos. There Eddie became a photographer for the Los Alamos Times (now the Monitor) newspaper. He is pictured in the negative donated on 7/25/2005 that is shown at ../images/P057/P05712336Page.htm
After a time, Edward transferred to the Nevada Test Site (an affiliate of the Atomic Energy Commission, the forerunner of the Dept. of Energy) and moved his family to Las Vegas. While there, the Ellisons spent much of their time taking trips to the Four Corners area to photograph places such as Bandelier National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, and Pioneer State Park, as well as ghost towns in the Southwest. Eventually he took a job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, from which he retired in 1971.
The photographs by Eddie Boyden Ellison and Edward Holcomb (Rocky) Ellison came to the Center of Southwest Studies through Gary Ellison, the son of Edward Holcomb (Rocky) Ellison. Curious about his family’s collections, Gary Ellison took a number of the negatives to various museums in the Southwest. Several of the negatives matched photographs of Maria Martinez in Richard L. Spivey’s book, Maria. From this starting point, Gary Ellison was able to trace his father and grandfather’s work to the DesArt Studio, and began researching their body of work.
By Patrick Cruz, Center of Southwest Studies student assistant, 12/6/2005, from statements by Gary Ellison, revised 1/30/2008
Administrative information
About the organization of this collection: The photos are in the order in which the Center received them. Staff took particular pains to retain the same order these had in their original oak chest, and to note where each negative was filed in the drawers of that chest. The arrangement is basically by subject .
Acquisition of this collection: This collection was a gift to the Center of Southwest Studies (accessions 2005:04011.2, 2005:07020.1, and 2005:09022.1). Gary Ellison is managing the donation of these photos on behalf of his mother, Betty Ellison.
Processing information: The Center of Southwest Studies archival staff and consultant Nik Kendziorski produced item level descriptions and archivally re-housed this collection in the fall of 2005. Todd Ellison, Certified Archivist, Center of Southwest Studies, produced this guide (last revised December 2005).
Digital access: Consultant Nik Kendzioski scanned 89 of these images for the Center of Southwest Studies in 2005-06. Digitization proves especially effective as a means of access to a collection such as this one (because we have no prints of these photonegatives).
List of Edward Ellison Southwest photographs titles with URL links
The following is an alphabetized listing of the titles of 89 photographs of the Edward Ellison Collection that are available for researchers' use in the Delaney Southwest Research Library at the Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado and that have been scanned for online digital access for research purposes. The collection contains many additional images, which are available for viewing at the Delaney Library at the Center (a light box is available for viewing the negatives).
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY BY TITLE
Search suggestion: you can search this web page by name using the Edit-> Find in Page (Ctrl+F) feature on your Web browser. Then click on the web page address in the right-hand column to view the digital image.
Doing your own research: This description of a portion of the collections at the Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies is provided to inform interested parties about the nature and depth of the repository's collections. It cannot serve as a substitute for a visit to the repository for those with substantial research interests in the collections.
Page last modified: January 30, 2008