Celia Crocker Thompson, 503 W Pine Street, private home – stay on sidewalk

Celia Crocker Thompson was born in 1874 at the remote Crocker Station near Yosemite.Influenced by hotel guests such as John Muir and photographer George Fiske, at age 13 Celia began photographing Yosemite Valley. Throughout her life, she developed, printed, and conserved her photos herself, carefully recording the date, location, and subject matter of her work. As a teenager, she washed her glass plates in Rush Creek and developed prints in the family kitchen but in time gained a darkroom with running water.She moved to Lodi and married in 1894, continuing to photograph Lodi’s daily life and special events. Thanks to Celia we have photos of Lodi’s packing sheds, train cars, agricultural practices, plus many entertaining photos of daily life. In Ralph A. Clark’s 2009 book Images of America: Lodi, he writes that “Crocker was an avid photographer and highly talented. A significant portion of the photographs that appear in this book were taken and conserved by her.”  In 1952 Celia donated many of her diaries, scrapbooks, and photo albums to the Lodi Public Library. These records, including an excellent photo she made of the Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite, await our rediscovery in the library archives. Celia Crocker Thompson’s home still stands at 503 W Pine Street.