Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections specol@usc.edu
Description
Photograph of the patio of an adobe house on Camulos Ranch (birthplace of Ramona), ca.1890. Neatly arranged bushes and trees decorate the garden. A young tree enclosed in wooden support is planted in the plot of land in the foreground (at right). Just behind this plot of land is a tall tree situated behind bushes that are arranged in a circle. "Although Rancho Camulos became well known among Californians for the accomplishments of three generations of Del Valles in both the political and agricultural history of the state, it is best recognized as the 'Home of Ramona.' When Helen Hunt Jackson published her best-selling novel Ramona in 1884, it was her intention to supply the general reader with an appreciation of the California Indians' plight as illustrated by the trials and tribulations of the fictional Indian girl, Ramona. Disappointed that A Century of Dishonor, her earlier book reciting the past injustices of the Indians, received so little notice, she wrote Ramona hoping to elicit popular support for the Indians, much as her acquaintance Harriet Beecher Stowe had done with Uncle Tom's Cabin. Ramona inspired four motion pictures and a pageant performed annually in Hemet, California, since 1923. The setting and characters in Jackson's book Ramona appear to be composites drawn from places Jackson visited and people she met in her travels throughout Southern California during the early 1880s." -- Rancho Camulos Museum archives (part 1 of 2). "Various portions of the novel were drawn from her visits to California Indian reservations, missions and ranchos. It appears likely that Jackson chose Camulos as the setting for a portion of her novel upon the advice of her close friends, Antonio and Mariana Coronel. In the opinion of the Coronels, Camulos was one of the few remaining ranches still reflecting its colonial origins. Antonio Coronel assisted Jackson in the preparation of an itinerary of ranches and missions Jackson heeded their advice, briefly visiting Camulos on January 23, 1882. In her novel, published two years later, Ramona's fictional home on the 'Moreno Ranch' was located 'midway in the valley [between lands] to the east and west, which had once belonged to the Missions of San Fernando and San Bonaventura [sic].' This geographical location, and the description of the setting recounted in the novel accurately matched Camulos." -- Rancho Camulos Museum archives (part 2 of 2).
Type
image
Format
3 photographs : photonegative, photoprints, b&w 21 x 26 cm. negatives (photographic) photographic prints photographs
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