ISLAS CORONADOS HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS

Abalone hunting, Coronado Islands, Mexico

Earliest known photo of Islas Coronados, Baja California, Mexico.

This real photo post card on Islas Coronados was taken sometime in the early 20th century by Canadian-born photographer Lee Passmore (1874-1958). Passmore specialized in marine scenes from 1908 to 1912. He produced a photographic record of the transport of the huge seagoing log rafts of raw timber, known as Benson rafts, held together with giant logging chains and towed in the open Pacific from the Columbia River to San Diego, some 1100 miles.

Passmore was also a field naturalist who worked with scientists and staff at the San Diego Natural History Museum documenting the flora and fauna of southern California. He also worked as a barker and guide for the Star & Crescent Boat Company's harbor excursions, and produced photographs of San Diego locations for the Union-Title Insurance & Trust Company.

From the 1920s—1940s, Passmore published photo essays on natural history subjects in popular magazines , and contributed photographs to several natural history monographs. Passmore donated his extensive collection of photographic negatives, glass slides, and Kodachrome transparencies to the San Diego Natural History Museum in 1958. These include significant collections of images on the natural history of the trapdoor spider, the carpenter bee, and the tomato sphinx moth.

Passmore also photographed life in early 20th-century San Diego. Subjects include the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, Old Town San Diego, the Old Mission Dam, Sunset Cliffs, the tuna industry, and the San Diego harbor and boats. The San Diego Historical Society holds a large number of Passmore's photographs of San Diego subjects (c. 1905-1935).

• Islas Coronados
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  Passmore's camp on Islas Coronados
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  Islas Coronados, 1931

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