Picturesque postcards from the American Southwest were shot and sold by Burton Frasher Sr. from a studio in Pomona. Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, Path 66 and other places were the setting for an incredible 60,000 negatives over Frasher's 4 years as an industrial professional photographer.
In 1966, Frasher's son contributed the studio archives of Frashers Fotos to the Pomona Public Library.
And nearly 6 decades later on, Frasher's grand son made an appointment to check out.
For the library staff, Chris Frasher's upcoming arrival resembled a check out by royalty, minus the tea service.
Tipped off, I made plans to be there. Images of Pomona scenes by Frasher Sr. and Jr. have actually been an aid in piecing together local history. In 2017 I blogged about a widower who learned his 1957 wedding event images remained in the archives.
Frasher appeared on schedule from his house in Joshua Tree with his partner, Barbara. The curly-haired Frasher, 67, was bemused by the press attention but pleased to talk about his grandfather and dad. He initially wanted to inquire about the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
" So it's not the Progress-Bulletin anymore?" he asked, chuckling. "It's been since '68 since I've hung around Pomona."
That's when his dad, Burton Frasher Jr., moved the family to Yucca Valley, where Chris completed high school. Daddy and boy later operated different photography studios but teamed up on tasks, just as Frasher Sr. and Jr. had actually done. Chris Frasher admires a poster marketing Frashers Fotos and illustrating his grandparents, Burton and Josephine.
And today Chris, the third generation - - "still continuing the family tradition," as he put it - - was back. He 'd had lunch in Ontario at Vince's Spaghetti, founded in 1945, a dining establishment where he 'd grown up eating.
When had he last been inside the library? The day it opened in 1965, a year prior to the donation by his father.
" This is really the first time I've seen the collection," Frasher admitted.
What triggered this belated visit?
Frasher was because of offer a career-day talk at Yucca Valley High. He believed it might be enjoyable to reveal trainees some old images of the area shot by his grandfather and to show a blocky 1920s camera his grandpa utilized, likewise in the library's archives.
He drove to Pomona.
" You know how you get a concept and it snowballs on you," Frasher stated, laughing again. Besides, he stated, "I enjoy to drive. I get that from Grandpa.".
Frasher Sr., born in 1888, was living in
Washington and traveling the West Coast making shipping boxes in the field for fruit packers when he took up photography. The passionate angler combined pastimes by taking scenic images while on fishing expedition.
Riding to a town on his Indian motorcycle, video camera equipment in his sidecar, Frasher would get a hotel room and turn the restroom into a darkroom. An image by Burton Frasher Sr. is labeled "Palm Drive, So. The photo is in a binder at the Pomona Public Library, where the Frasher household transferred its archives in the 1960s.
Settling in La Verne in 1914, he opened a photography studio with his other half, Josephine. Company took off. Frasher Foto transferred to 151 E. Second St. in Pomona in 1920, adding stationery and books to the mix.
While Josephine minded the shop, Burton Sr. and Burton Jr. would check out the Sierra on horseback and Death Valley by car, canteens and gas cans slung to the roofing as they utilized topographic maps to find their way before paved roads.
" He befriended Death Valley Scotty. He would stay out at the castle and Scotty would stay with him in Pomona," Chris stated.
Frasher photographed small-town storefronts and lunch churches, stands and court houses, bridges and dams, ghost towns, county fairs, national parks and Native people, "whatever topics he believed would show commercially feasible on his postcards," according to the library's website.
A glass picture unfavorable, probably from the 1910s, is pulled from its sleeve and held to the light. "That looks like a ranger station," says Chris Frasher, grand son of photographer Burton Frasher Sr. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).
His area ultimately ranged from Alaska to Mexico and east as far as Texas. He hired professional photographers who doubled as salespersons. In 1948, the peak, Frasher Foto offered 3.5 million postcards.
But the marketplace altered, and Frasher Sr. passed away in 1955 at 66 of a cardiac arrest while preparing for a fishing trip. Frasher Jr. continued on before closing down the decreasing postcard business.
Before closing this chapter of his life and moving to the desert, he contributed everything to the Public Library.
" It was so frustrating, the size of it," Chris Frasher said of the quantity of material. If not for the library's interest, he stated, the family might just have tossed whatever.
Yet the photos now make up a valuable record of the very first half of the 20th century, "although (my grandfather) was doing it as a business photographer" rather than as a documentarian, Frasher said.
" If my papa hadn't had the insight to donate all this to the library, this would probably all be lost, honestly," Frasher stated.
Chris Frasher stands at one end of a row of shelving in the basement of the Pomona Public Library that houses diligently labeled and filed photo prints and negatives by his grandpa and daddy, drawn from the 1910s to the 1960s. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).
A state grant in 2002 supervised by then-library systems manager Bruce Guter permitted the library to hire experts, consisting of a manager at the Huntington, to determine the breadth and scope of the collection and pick a representative choice of images.
Some 7,606 were scanned and uploaded before funds went out, recalled Allan Lagumbay, a senior library assistant. They can be discovered online at http://content.ci.pomona.ca.us/index_frasher.php.
While Frasher's postcards exist in multitudes and distribute amongst collectors, Lagumbay, who oversees Special Collections, stated his wish would be for money to scan at least the remaining photos from Pomona due to their worth to local history.
Led by Lagumbay, the Frashers and I took a look at pictures in binders, in file cabinets and in a long row of shelving holding prints and negatives in envelopes, all nicely identified and saved by year. There are even glass negatives that may date to the 1910s.
Chris found images for his school visit, held glass negatives up to the light to recognize the settings and reminisced with Barbara about pictures involving his mom and granny.
" This is more than I anticipated," Chris said after his trip. "I'm truly delighted it's protected.".
He assured to return regularly.
David Allen won't disappear Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter..
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