52

Eadweard Muybridge

1830-1904

Mills' Seminary, Seminary Park, Alameda Co., Cal. 1872.

Albumen print
With Muybridge's printed credit, the title, and the publisher's credit Bradley & Rulofson, on mount recto.
The image 15 3/8 x 21 in. (39.1 x 53.3 cm.), the mount 23 x 28 in. (58.4 x 71.1 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    A Country Called California: The Collection of Stephen White

    Other Notes;
    In 1865 Susan Tolman Mills, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), and her husband, Cyrus Mills, bought the Young Ladies Seminary and renamed it Mills Seminary. In 1871, the school was moved to its current location in Oakland, California (just a year before this picture was taken). The school was incorporated in 1877 and was officially renamed Mills College in 1885.

    Mills Hall was built in 1871, and the young ladies who resided there ate vegetables from the school's garden and drank milk from the school's cow. Muybridge's photograph shows the women of Mills Seminary on the lawn in front of Mills Hall, which remains a landmark building on the campus today. Mills Hall, an Italianate/Second Empire building by Samuel Bugbee and Sons, is now at the center of the campus. Much of the lush landscaping was the result of Dr. Cyrus Mills' interest in horticulture, and provides the backdrop for an eclectic collection of buildings representing works by many of the region's notable architects and more than a century of Bay Area architecture.

    In this sublime image, it is possible to see what appears to be Muybridge's photo wagon to the right of the house.
  • Literature:
    Stephen White, foreword by Lynell George, A Country Called California, Photographs 1850s to 1960s (Angel City Press, 2022), p. 145
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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February 12, 2026 12:00 PM EST
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