Myron Holly Kimball (1827-1912) was an American photographer, real estate speculator, and collector.
Career
Photography
In 1856, Kimball was associated with George Iles in a photography studio at 347
Broadway,
New York City.
File:"Rebecca, a slave girl from New Orleans" (LOC) - Flickr - The Library of Congress.jpg, "Rebecca, a slave girl from New Orleans"
File:Rebecca - photographed by M. H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y. LCCN2010647848.jpg, Rebecca - photographed by M. H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y.
File:Rebecca, an emancipated slave from New Orleans - photographed by Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y. LCCN2010647898.jpg, Rebecca, an emancipated slave from New Orleans
File:Rosa, a slave girl from New Orleans - photographed by M. H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y. LCCN2010647851.jpg, Rosa, a slave girl from New Orleans
File:Rebecca, an emancipated slave, from New Orleans - photographed by Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y. LCCN2010647847.jpg, Rebecca, an emancipated slave from New Orleans
File:Rebecca, a slave girl from New Orleans - photographed by M.H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y. LCCN2016646128.jpg, Rebecca, a slave girl from New Orleans - photographed by M.H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y.
File:Michael Dunn, Raymond, Potter Co., Penna. - Photographed by Hope, successor to M.H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, New York. LCCN2015649856.jpg, Photographed by Hope, successor to M.H. Kimball
One of his photos, "Emancipated Slaves Brought From Louisiana by Col. George H. Hanks," is in a collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. It depicts a freed man, Wilson Chinn, whose forehead had been
branded with the initials of his previous
"owner".
As part of a
fund-raising project in
New Orleans for the
Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...
, he made other photographs of freed slaves as well.
Real estate
Kimball also engaged in the
real estate business while in New York City and continued in that occupation, with an office on
Spring Street Spring Street may refer to:
* Spring Street (Los Angeles), USA
* Spring Street (Manhattan), New York City, USA
* Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia
* Spring Street, Singapore
* Spring St (website), a US based lifestyle website
Subway and trolle ...
, after he and his wife moved to
Los Angeles, California, near the beginning of
1874
Events
January–March
* January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx.
* January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time.
* January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...
. He became
partnered with James Chapin, a "gentleman of extensive means" who had recently arrived from
Vinton, Iowa. Kimball had "an active identification" at that time with the city's trade and development, according to the ''
Los Angeles Herald
The ''Los Angeles Herald'' or the ''Evening Herald'' was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1873 by Charles A. Storke, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It ...
.''
He was listed as a
hotel keeper in the 1879 list of Los Angeles city electors, and the succeeding listing had him as a
capitalist.
In the 1880s Kimball was a partner with attorney
B.L. Peel as a
mining operator,
insurance agent
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
and real estate
broker in
Tombstone, Arizona. He was said to possess "rich mines" in
Cochise County.
[''Los Angeles Commercial,'' quoted in ''Sundry Items,'' ''Tombstone Weekly Epitaph,'' February 20, 1882, image 3]
/ref>
Kimball returned to Los Angeles in late 1881 and soon placed his home at 131 New High Street,[ the Kimball Mansion, on sale as:
]The most elegant private boarding mansion in Southern California; contains 18 rooms, fine parlors, large dining room, complete kitchen and laundry; black walnut furniture, Brussels carpets, marble mantels , grates and gas throughout; during the past seven years has enjoyed an extensive first-class patronage.
It was not sold, however, and three years later, this ad appeared:
KIMBALL MANSION REOPENED: Mrs. M. H. Kimball, having retaken charge of the Kimball Mansion, 131 New High street, announces that the Mansion will again be run on first-class principles. Rooms en suite or single, with our without board, at reasonable rates.[''The Los Angeles Times,'' June 30, 1885, image 4]
/ref>
In October 1866 one of the guests committed suicide by strychnine
Strychnine (, , US chiefly ) is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the eye ...
.
Personal life
Kimball was born in Oneida County, New York, in 1827, the son of David M. and Sarah Kimball. He was married on June 25, 1857, to Eliza Robb, who, born in Ireland, was one year younger than he.[New York State Census, 1865]
/ref>["Silver Wedding," ''Los Angeles Daily Times,'' June 27, 1882, image 3]
/ref>
He registered for the draft on July 1, 1863, in New York City, where he and Eliza were living in 1865.[
The couple celebrated their silver anniversary with a party at their home, the Kimball Mansion on New High Street on June 26, 1882.][
By 1888, the couple had moved to Santa Monica.
]
Volunteer work
Kimball was in charge of the art gallery of the Los Angeles County Fair
The Los Angeles County Fair is an annual county fair. It was first held on October 17, 1922, and ran for five days through October 21, 1922, in a former beet field in Pomona, California. Highlights of the fair's first year were harness racing, ...
in 1877, and in 1880 he presented a display of minerals he had collected in Arizona from more than three hundred mines, enough to fill "a four-horse wagon.""Local Brevities," ''Los Angeles Times,'' September 4, 1880, image 3
/ref>
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimball, Myron Holly
1827 births
1912 deaths
19th-century American photographers
Photographers from New York City
American real estate businesspeople