27 loose original gelatin silver photos (including 5 duplicates), all ca. 8,5x11,5 cm (3 ¼ x 4 ½ in). Seven images with ink stamps “Photo by Judd Emery Boynton” on verso. With a loose printed leaflet ca. 27,5x21,5 cm (11 x 8 ½ in). Photos slightly waved, but overall a very good collection of interesting photos.

Interesting collection of 27 original gelatin silver photos of Bolivia and Peru, taken by a Berkeley architect, photographer and adventurer, Judd Emery Boynton, during his travels in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes in the 1930s.

The collection contains eighteen snapshot photos of Bolivia, showing the scene of erecting a monolith from “Tiahuanoco” (Tiwanaku Pre-Columbian archaeological site) in La Paz, a rock spire in the “lost canyon of Bolivia” (Palca Canyon), Andean Pueblos (towns) (“Palka,” “Sorata,” &c.), Mt. Huayna Potosi in the Bolivian Andes, the Andean Plateau south of Lake Titicaca, equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar in La Paz, local farmers on their field, a suspension bridge, travellers on a road in the Andes, &c. Eight photos of Peru show Cuzco (Plaza de Armas with the Cathedral Basilica, a rooftop view), ruins of the Inca Sacsayhuaman citadel, Rio Pampas (general view taken from above, a suspension bridge), a pack of llamas at the railway station in Mejorada, and passengers and local sellers at a train of the Central of Peru Railway.

The collection also includes a photo portrait of Judd Boyton, posing next to the equestrian monument of Simon Bolivar, and a printed leaflet titled “Jungle Trek” and advertising Boynton’s documentary about his travels “through the ‘Green Hell’ of a trackless jungle, and across the remote fastness of the mighty Andes to the Headwaters of the Amazon” (illustrated with a reproduction of his portrait in front of Simon Bolivar’s monument). Overall an interesting collection of original snapshot photographs of Bolivia and Peru, taken by a noted Californian mountaineer and adventurer in the 1930s.

A son of a noted Berkeley attorney Charles C. Boynton and his wife Florence (a friend and student of famous American choreographer and pioneer of modern contemporary dance, Isadora Duncan), Judd “was born at the temple-like family home known as “The Temple of the Wings,” but nicknamed “The Doughnut House” by local residents [2800 Buena Vista Way, a Berkely Landmark since 1992]. The family, which included seven children, dressed in togas and lived a life of simplicity, eating nuts, berries and fruit. After graduating from the University of California, Boynton explored the Andes and the Amazon River and later prospected for gold in the Mother Lode country. He wrote on architecture, astronomy and also authored a book of memoirs” (Obituaries. Judd Emery Boynton// The Berkeley Gazette. 19 August 1983, p. 5). In the 1920s, Judd Boynton went on several mountaineering trips in the Yosemite National Park, having climbed “most all of the peaks of note” (Anderson, R. In Yosemite// Merced (California) Sun-Star, 11 August 1933, p. 8), including Mt. Starr King and Half Dome without the used of cables, “iron eye bolts or similar contrivances” (Anderson, R. In Yosemite// Merced (California) Sun-Star, 24 July 1934, p. 2).

In the 1930s, Boynton took two trips to South America, visiting Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, travelling to the headwaters of the Amazon, “mule packing through the Andes” (Explorer to Speak at Club// The Oakland Post-Enquirer. 4 November 1936, p. 10), going across Lake Titicaca, visiting La Paz, and mountaineering in the Bolivian Andes (Anderson, R. In Yosemite// Merced (California) Sun-Star, 11 August 1933, p. 8), &c.