Harry W. Crosby

Harry W. Crosby (born 1926 in Seattle, Washington) is an American historian and photographer. His parents moved to La Jolla in 1935. He graduated from La Jolla High in 1944, and studied math and science at Occidental College in Los Angeles, completing a double major, pre-med, and psychology. After twelve years as a teacher of secondary-level science, mostly chemistry, he took up photography, and in 1967, was hired as a photographer to illustrate "The Call to California", a book desired by the Commission of the Californias to commemorate California's bicentennial. Following the route of the Portolá expedition of 1769 to make photos to illustrate a text derived from diaries of the trekkers, Crosby rode 600 miles on muleback on remote trails. Since then, he has continued to do primary research and to write extensively on the history of Baja California and the early history of Alta California.

His books include: "The Cave Paintings of Baja California: Discovering the Great Murals of an Unknown People" (Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, 1997); "Gateway to Alta California: The Expedition to San Diego, 1769" (Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, 2004); and the Bancroft award-winning "Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsula Frontier, 1697-1768" (UNM Press 1996). Some of Crosby's early photography is collected in the book "Tijuana 1964: A Photographic and Historic View" (SDSU Press, 2000); and his only novel is "Portrait of Paloma" (Sunbelt, 2001).

Sources

* [http://www.harrywcrosby.com/ Crosby's own website]
* [http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/baja/crosby/crosbyintro.html online collection of photographs ]