California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960

Title Insurance and Trust and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection 1860-1960

Distant view of The Cliff Palace taken at the top of the cliff, at Mesa Verde (now a national park), Colorado, ca.1900

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Distant view of The Cliff Palace taken at the top of the cliff, at Mesa Verde (now a national park), Colorado, ca.1900

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Photograph of a distant view of The Cliff Palace taken at the top of the cliff, at Mesa Verde (now a national park), Colorado, ca.1900. A complex of primitive square houses, made of stones (or adobe), is situated in a large overhanging cave-like recess in the canyon wall. Many of the houses have square windows and several of the houses have holes punctured through their walls. Within the recess and on the canyon walls are carved openings or windows (possibly dwellings?). Shrubs and trees cover the area at the base of the cliff (foreground). Trees cover a majority of the land at the top of the cliff.; "What is in the present day called Mesa Verde ('Green Table') National Park is an area containing many ruins of rock dwellings built into cliffs as well as on the flat surfaces of the upper mesa area. Within the park area itself, which occupies the northeast corner of the mesa (the majority of the mesa is on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation), almost 4,000 sites have been identified, including over 600 cliff dwellings. People had lived in this area for a long time previously, but the remarkable cliff dwellings themselves were constructed and inhabited at the end of this age between 1200 and 1300, after which the people left the area. Mesa Verde had a strange feel to it. From what was gathered during the visit, the people built the cliff dwellings--the most 'famous' and frequently photographed locations in the area--apparently as a 'retreat' from possibly an increasingly hostile setting and vulnerability that, living down in the valleys or up on the upper mesa, they became evermore subjected to. How else can one explain the move into cliffs where the majority of the living space was in shadow and where winter time would be much darker and damper, and hence, colder and less comfortable. It seems the more preferable spots would not be in such dark places. Something happened to make it necessary to move to higher, more defensible, ground. This seems to be substantiated by the fact that after 1300 the area was not lived in at all by these people." -- unknown author.

Asset Metadata

Title Distant view of The Cliff Palace taken at the top of the cliff, at Mesa Verde (now a national park), Colorado, ca.1900

Creator Cole, Fay C. (photographer), Pierce, C.C. (Charles C.), 1861-1946 (photographer)

Publisher University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Date Created 1900

Subject Cliff Dwellers (file heading), Cliff-dwellers (subject), Cliff-dwellers (lcsh), cliffs (lcsh), Dwellings (lcsh), Indians of North America (lcsh), tribal areas (adlf)

Tags OAI-PMH Harvest

Place Colorado (states), USA (countries)

Temporal Subject 1900

Type images

Format 2 photographs : glass photonegative, photoprint, b&w ; 13 x 21 cm. (aacr2), glass plate negatives (format), photographic prints (aat), photographs (aat)

Source California Historical Society (contributing entity), California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960 (collection), Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960 (subcollection)

Repository Email specol@lib.usc.edu

Repository Name USC Libraries Special Collections

Repository Location Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189

Rights Public Domain. Please credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library.

Copyright Public Domain. Please credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library.

Access Conditions Send requests to address or e-mail given

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/chs-m17446

Identifier 5686 (accession number), CHS-5686 (call number), CHS-5686 (filename), chs-m265 (legacy collection record id), chs-c65-17441 (legacy record id), chs-m17446 (legacy record id), USC-1-1-1-13506 (legacy record id), 1-165- (microfiche number), USC (project)

IIIF ID [Document.IIIFV3ID]

DM Record ID 17441

Unique identifier UC142551

Legacy Identifier CHS-5686.tiff

Type Image

Internet Media Type image/tiff

Resolution 19.0 in × 12.1 in at 300dpi
48.2 cm × 30.7 cm at 300dpi

Inherited Values

Title Title Insurance and Trust and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection 1860-1960

Description The nearly 15,000 unique photographs of this collection contain the work of C.C. Pierce which cover the Los Angeles region city, street and architectural views, California Missions, Southwestern Native Americans, and turn-of-century Nevada, Arizona, and California. Pierce, active from 1886 to 1940, was one of the leading photographers of his day and amassed a collection of 15,000 images, including his own and those bought and copied from his contemporaries, George Wharton James and Charles Puck. The James collection contains over 2,000 images of portraits, customs, ceremonies, arts, and games of various groups of Southwestern Native Americans.

Date Created 1860/1960

Linked assets

Title Insurance and Trust and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection 1860-1960

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View of the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde (now a national park), Colorado, ca.1900, detail 1

View of the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde (now a national park), Colorado, ca.1900, detail 2

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