Early photograph of "Bohemian Club" members watching a sort of performance staged by Native Americans (perhaps actors) at their annual Bohemian Grove retreat. Rare photo of the ultra-secretive club that today counts five past Presidents as former members. "The Bohemian Club, an elite invitation-only social club founded in San Francisco in 1872 by a group of male artists, writers, actors, lawyers, and journalists, all of means and interested in arts and culture. Since its founding, the club has expanded to include politicians and affluent businessmen. The club is known especially for its annual summer retreat at what is known as Bohemian Grove in the redwood forest of California’s Sonoma county, an event that continued into the 21st century. Notable members over the years have included Clint Eastwood, Henry Kissinger, Walter Cronkite, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Charles Schwab, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and Jack London. "The annual trip to Sonoma began in the summer of 1878. In the 20th century the members’ retreat garnered a reputation for involving highly secretive and cultish rituals, the most well-known of which was the “Cremation of Care,” instituted in 1881—an opening ceremony whose purpose was to make the club members “carefree” from the outset of the retreat. That performance took place in front of the large concrete owl (built 1929) in the centre of the camp at Bohemian Grove." - Encyclopedia Brittanica [Antique photography, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Tintype, Carte-de-Visite, CDV, Cabinet Card, Albumen]