This hand-colored landscape view shows a snow-capped Pico de Orizaba (an active volcano) in the distance. The view is framed in the foreground by a row of palm trees in the city of Córdoba, Mexico. A vintage print, it was removed from an album of the photographer’s known work and laid down on acid-free mount board and embellished with a graphite frame. Along the top margin can be seen a hand-drawn stock # and title, indicating this photograph may have been intended as a working maquette or prototype for a commercial postcard.

Pico de Orizaba is an active volcano, the highest mountain in Mexico and third highest in North America, after Denali/Mount McKinley of the United States and Mount Logan of Canada. Pico de Orizaba is also the highest volcano in North America. It rises 5,636 metres (18,491 ft) above sea level in the eastern end of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, on the border between the states of Veracruz and Puebla. The volcano is currently dormant but not extinct, with the last eruption taking place during the 19th century. It is the second most prominent volcanic peak in the world after Mount Kilimanjaro. – Wikipedia, accessed July, 2025

Mervyn David Silberstein: 1885-1957

A deep dive: Mervyn David Silberstein…Through One Man’s Lens, was published in the Winter, 2018 issue of the Russian River Recorder, an official publication of the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. The pdf also includes the 2007 Recorder article: Cherished Moments: Young Mervyn Silberstein in Healdsburg. An excerpt, by authors Holly Hoods and Pamela Vana-Paxhi:

Healdsburg’s celebrated early 20th century photographer Mervyn David Silberstein was born in 1885 in San Francisco and grew up in Healdsburg with his parents, Jacob and Hannah, and younger sister, Ethel (“Daisy”). They were respected Jewish leaders in the business community. His father owned a successful dry goods and men’s clothing store. The Grangers Store, at the southeast corner of (what is now) Healdsburg Avenue and North Street. The family lived upstairs. While attending Healdsburg High School, Silberstein discovered what would become a lifelong passion in photography. He purchased his first camera at his father’s store. He playfully embellished many of his photos with cartoons and captions. By the time Silberstein graduated from high school in 1903, the self-described “Camera Fiend” was already a cartoonist and writer for the Sotoyome Sun and later, the Healdsburg Enterprise

Another biography of the artist was included as part of an 1993 exhibit held at the Chinese Cultural Center in San Francisco:

“Born in San Francisco in 1885, Mervyn D. Silberstein spent his early years in Healdsburg, California. He returned to San Francisco in 1910 and worked as a graphic designer and a free lance photographer. As a member of the California Camera Club, Silberstein’s photographs were exhibited in cities across the country and many of them appeared on the covers of national magazines.

He had a profound interest in Chinese culture as evidenced by the large number of photographs he took of San Francisco’s Chinatown. These photographs provide insight into a community that had just begun the process of westernization and integration, while maintaining many Chinese customs. Scenes of merchants, the elderly, and  children captivated Silberstein. He was especially fond of children, and he managed to capture, as the photographs in this exhibit show, the spirit and the innocence of the children on Chinatown’s streets.”