Visual Materials

Photographs of San Francisco buildings and residences

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Description: A collection of 53 photographs of recently constructed buildings and residences in San Francisco, California, in 1886. Most of the images show exterior views of the buildings, with a few views of the interiors as well. The houses are generally large, multi-story buildings. Some of the non-residential buildings include the San Francisco Hall of Records, the Union Club building, and three churches. Some of the represented architects include Clinton Day, J.C. Mathews & Son, Samuel Newsom and Joseph Cather Newsom, and Wright & Sanders.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1886.
Call number: photCL 28
Provenance: Purchased from Hardy, 1946.
Dimensions: images 21 x 15 cm, sheets 36 x 28 cm
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Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake aftermath

Visual Materials

A collection of 68 photographs of the city of San Francisco, California, following the Earthquake of 1906, including elevated views of the ruins. Among the buildings shown are churches, office buildings, stores, government buildings, and the Bells of Shandon, a notorious "crimp house" saloon. Some of the photographs show views of the harbor, buckled streets, and still-smoking ruins.

photCL 112

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Photographs of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake and fire

Visual Materials

Photographs by an unknown photographer documenting the aftermath of the April 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, California. Images depict the devastated buildings and landscape as well as tent cities and bird's eye views over the city.

photCL 494

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Niantic Building, San Francisco

Visual Materials

This collection contains 269 stereographs by photographer Carleton E. Watkins, dating from the 1860s to about the 1880s, that chiefly depict buildings, points of interest, and locales in Northern and Southern California. The collection includes 1 stereograph from the Central Pacific Railroad series; 5 stereographs from Watkins' Pacific Railroad Series; 110 stereographs from Watkins' Pacific Coast series; and 150 stereographs from Watkins' New Series. The Watkins' Pacific Coast Series, created between 1861 and 1874, primarily depict locales in Northern California with many images of buildings in San Francisco, views of Yosemite and Mariposa County, Missions, and some mining operations including photographs of the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company in Nevada County, California. The Watkins' New Series stereographs, created between 1874 and 1890, consist of images of both Southern California and Northern California, in cities including San Francisco, Pasadena, San Marino, Sierra Madre, and San Gabriel. Among the Southern California residences and properties depicted include the Sunny Slope Ranch of L.J. Rose in San Gabriel, Willow Dale owned by N.C. Carter, and Lake Vineyard owned by B.D. Wilson. Some of the stereographs in Watkins' Pacific Coast Series include titles in the margins in Watkins' own hand (see Nos. 1033, 1135, 1146, 1153, and 1721).

photST Watkins

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Photographs of San Francisco

Visual Materials

A collection of 311 copy photographs and photographs of illustrations of San Francisco showing the city from 1846 up until the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, the majority dating to between 1856 and 1890. Images show city streets, especially Market Street; schools, including the Denman School and Lincoln School; neighborhoods, including Nob Hill, Russian Hill, and Telegraph Hill; churches; the Congregation Emanu-El synagogue; a Masonic temple; an Odd Fellows hall; Mission Dolores; hotels, including the old and new Cliff Houses; banks; waterfront views including ferry boats and steamboats; cable cars from various years; tourist attractions, especially Woodward's Gardens and Warner's Cobweb Palace; July 4th celebrations; photographs of snow from 1882; and views of the destruction caused by the 1868 Hayward Earthquake.

photCL 114

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Photograph album of Alaska, San Francisco and a citrus ranch in Riverside, California

Visual Materials

A photograph album of mounted albumen prints that begins with two views of totems in Fort Wrangell, Alaska, followed by one view of a woman named "Jummie Niehaus" in a backyard in Centerville, California, and the remaining views depicting buildings and scenes in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, and Riverside, California. The photographs are all numbered and have captions and dates handwritten in ink on the card mounts; the photographer is not identified. Golden Gate Park views depict people boating on Strawberry Lake and the Superindent's Lodge, Conservatory and other buildings from the 1894 Midwinter Fair. There is one view of unidentified men and women on the steps of a Victorian house at 1406 Grove St., San Francisco, followed by a photograph of a mission-style ranch house captioned: "New residence. Lot 4. Everest Rancho, May 16, 1898." Two additional Everest Rancho views show a large citrus grove covered with lath and canvas to protect crops from frost.

photCL 366

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Photographs of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake and fire

Visual Materials

86 photographs of the destruction caused by the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. Views include street scenes with pedestrians and bystanders and destroyed or damaged commercial buildings and private residences with a focus on many of the city's breweries and malt houses. The photographer, Theodore Rueger, was the proprietor of the Benicia Brewery and Soda Works in Benicia, California. Eighteen of the photographs were reproduced in the June 1, 1906 edition of the "American Brewers' Review" in an article entitled "In Stricken Frisco."

photCL 570

Photographs of San Francisco buildings and residences

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