The Canvas City, Santa Catalina Island

This print is from a rare portfolio of high quality photogravure prints dating from circa 1910. The printing method was the mechanical photogravure-- an extremely high-end printing method of the Victorian/Edwardian era that delivered incredible detail and no dot matrix pattern. Other prints in the collection show the Hotel Metropole, which dates this to pre-1915 because a fire destroyed it in 1915.

This 100+ year-old print depicts tourist resort tent community on Santa Catalina Island in California. During the latter part of the 1890s the popularity of Santa Catalina Island as a summer destination grew with every season. Renting a tent residence from A.W. Swanfeldt for $7.50 per week was the most economical accommodation on the Island. This was "camping" with all the amenities of a growing summer resort. Each tent included beds, bedding, basic furnishings and limited cooking facilities. A.W. Swanfeldt was in operation on the Island from 1895 until 1902, when the Santa Catalina Island Company assumed operation of the tent housing. This may be the Island Villa Annex, which was set up between Sumner Avenue and Catalina Street in the late 1890s. According to a survey conducted in 1898 by the Sanborn-Perris Fire Insurance Company, the Island Villa Annex included 80 tents. By the time that William Wrigley Jr. purchased the Island in 1919 the Island Villa Annex had grown to more than 400 tents.

Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is located about 22 miles (35 km) south-southwest of Los Angeles. In 1913, Avalon became an incorporated city. In November of 1915, a devastating fire burned out of control for three days, destroying about a third of the town, including the Hotel Metropole. This print pre-dates the fire.

This incredibly beautiful photogravure is single-sided. It was glued on to gray/brown paper by the corners. It would probably be fairly easy to steam off the photogravure, but I have not tried. The outer gray paper has wear at the corners that could easily be trimmed.

Tons of detail in this print, and beautiful tones. This would look wonderful framed.

The brown page measures 8.6 x 7.1 inches (22 x  18 cm), and the actual image area is about  5.4 x 4 inches (13.5 x 10 cm).