53 photographs, mostly cabinet cards, approximately 5½x8½", a few a bit smaller, several with hand-coloring. Many captioned in the negative, others in pencil on the reverse.
A wonderful collection of views, mostly southern California; Pasadena, La Jolla, several missions, etc. "William H. Fletcher was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, in 1838, shortly before his family moved to Lyndon, Vermont, that same year. He learned photography while working in the pharmaceutical and jewelry industries. Fletcher moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1885, planning to establish himself as a druggist; however, an overabundance of pharmacies obliged him to turn to photography. Fletcher went into commercial photography but did not establish a formal studio or gallery of his own. The subjects of his photographs focused on Los Angeles just when it began to expand with immigrants and new businesses. He also traveled through the areas surrounding Los Angeles, photographing scenes from San Pedro, Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Pasadena, and Ventura, aiming to tempt New Englanders to vacation out west. Many of Fletcher’s photographs were sold as card photographs to curio dealers to sell to tourists. Sometime after 1900, Fletcher retired from professional photography and went into the oil business; he died in 1922." (Online Archive of California)