Cinematic San Francisco: "Big Eyes"

December 31, 2014, 11:33 am

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Living in San Francisco can often feel like living on a movie set. Sometimes it's 9 to 5, other times it's The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Either way, San Francisco is a backdrop that fills the big screen like no other city can. This post is the first of a new series, Cinematic San Francisco, that will focus on (mostly) current films shot in San Francisco and resources from the San Francisco Public Library that can help you explore each film a little further.

WOODSIDE, CALIF. 1/12/63 "Painters Walter and Margaret Keane get busy with their palettes in "Paint Room" of their home here. In background are some of paintings of children with oversized, brooding eyes that have become Walter's hallmark." UPI (Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library)  [P 377 KEANE, WALTER]

Tim Burton's biopic Big Eyes tells the story of Margaret Keane, the artist whose portraits of big-eyed children became famous in the 1960s, and her husband, Walter, who started as a sales rep for the paintings and later claimed to have created them himself. Margaret and Walter met in San Francisco in the 1950s. They married soon after and Walter began promoting Margaret's artwork at one of the city's hottest spots, the hungry i nightclub in North Beach. Walter was a successful PR man, and celebrities began buying up the Keane paintings. Jerry Lewis, Kim Novak and Joan Crawford were all fans of the works.

Kim Novak and Walter Keane in San Francisco, 1959 (Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library) [P377 KEANE, WALTER]

Last year, locals got a chance to see behind the scenes as the film crew transformed parts of North Beach for the movie. The production also used several photos from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection at the San Francisco History Center to use as references for scenes in the film. A brief look at the photos in the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue reveals a bit of Walter Keanes' promotional finesse. Along with images of the Keane artwork, there are family portraits-- Walter, Margaret, and their two daughters-- each with paintbrush in hand, and shots of Walter mingling with celebrities.

Photo with press release sent to the SF News-Call Bulletin from Walter Keane, 1960. (Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library) [P377 KEANE, WALTER]

The San Francisco History Center also houses the San Francisco Examiner Newspaper Clippings Morgue, where mentions of the Keanes, especially Walter, are plentiful. Several Examiner columnists refer to Walter Keane as "my friend" and seem to take a certain amount of glee in reporting whatever Walter did or said. The 1958 article "Brawl Gives Artist 'Hungry Eye' Full" tells the tale of a brief bar fight between Keane and hungry i owner Enrico Banducci. In another column, Walter is asked to write a provocative article on one of his favorite subjects... women.

"So let us recognize that women present no threat to us. It's true, I admit, that certain antagonisms are engendered when a woman becomes a wife or a mother-in-law. It seems to bring about organic changes that nobody has been able to figure out. But they can be overcome." (San Francisco Examiner, "Some of My Best Friends Are Women" by Walter Keane, Sept. 4, 1963)

Newspaper clippings from 1965, 1966, and 1970. (San Francisco Public Library.)

Margaret Keane at the "paint-off" in Union Square. Life magazine Nov. 20, 1970. (Courtesy of SFPL)

Margaret Keane doesn't appear in headlines until the Keane's divorce in 1965. In 1970 she made the claim against her husband, "He can't paint eyes, he can't even learn to paint."(San Francisco Examiner Oct. 14, 1970) When he cried foul, she challenged him to a paint-off in Union Square. While she displayed her skill to the crowd, Walter didn't bother to show up.

If Big Eyes inspires you to learn more about the Keanes, visit the San Francisco History Center for photos and articles.
Also, check out a recent biography Citizen Keane: The Big Lies Behind the Big Eyes by Adam Parfrey and Cletus Nelson, as well as two art books available for viewing at the Page Desk on the 4th Floor of the Main Library: Walter Keane (1964) and MDH Margaret Keane (1964).


Coming soon: Noir City, At the Oscars, San Andreas

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Paste Paper Paradise

January 6, 2015, 12:00 am

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The Main Library subject departments provide an extraordinary array of materials for a lifetime of exploration. For librarians, discovering the mysteries and histories behind the subjects we specialize in furthers our knowledge and expertise, as we guide our patrons in their own explorations. This is part of the joy we derive from working in the library.

One such interest for a certain librarian is the art and application of paste papers. An early form of decorated paper originating sometime in the sixteenth century, paste paper was used in the end papers and covers of books through the eighteenth century. Interest in the craft of paste papermaking resurged again in the twentieth century and continues to be practiced by makers in San Francisco and beyond. 

In her classic book on the subject, historian Rosamond Loring describes two distinct styles of paste papers: “those that were printed and those on which the design was made with freehand brush strokes or drawn with some tool directly on the colored, paste-covered surface of the paper.” (Loring, Decorated Book Papers, 4^th edition, 2007, p.65).

Developing an interest in a subject requires examples upon which to learn; a search of the Library collection is not only a requirement, but a serendipitous activity. It was a search of the Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book a few years ago that resulted in the discovery of a lovely red printed paste paper. In an album of eighteenth century Italian decorated papers, this was the first paper to appear, followed by many more samples of paste papers, brocade, Dutch Gilt, and marbled papers. Why did this red printed paste paper stand out? It wasn’t long before the answer revealed itself. 

A faded pattern of this same design was discovered in another area of the library stacks. Probably Italian-made, it was used as the binding for Catalogo degli Ordini Equestri e Military (Rome, 1741), an illustrated catalog of military religious orders, documented by Filippo Buonanni (1638-1725), pupil of Athanasius Kircher, the last of the Renaissance men.  Kircher founded a remarkable collection of curiosities in Rome, recording the contents in published catalogs, two of which may be found in the Grabhorn Collection. After Kircher’s death in 1680, Buonanni became curator, but after his death, the collection declined; eventually it was merged into Rome’s Museo Nazionale. In some instances, Kircher and Buonanni’s books are the only visual evidence of what they collected. 

The eighteenth century album of Italian papers and Buonanni’s illustrated catalog are now on view through January 31, 2015, in the Skylight Gallery, South Salon, part of Celebrating 50 Years of Special Collections.

 

 

The 4th Annual Valentine Broadside Printing Event

January 12, 2015, 5:00 am

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The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center 

presents the 4th Annual Valentine Broadside Printing Event on 

Saturday, February 14th, 2-4pm, in the San Francisco History Center.

Come experience letterpress printing on the library’s 1909 Albion handpress 

and take home a unique keepsake for your valentine. 

Our co-sponsors, the American Printing History Association’s NorCal Chapter, 

 will provide printing expertise.

Everyone is welcome; broadsides are limited to the first 100 people.

Here's a peek at the fun we had last year.

Cinematic San Francisco: Noir City

January 16, 2015, 10:27 am

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"San Francisco is a town made for noir." -Peter Maravelis, San Francisco Noir 2

The 13th annual festival of film noir hosted by the 'Czar of Noir', Eddie Muller, takes up residence at the Castro Theatre for ten days starting tonight, Friday, January 16. Several of the films featured at this year's Noir City are set in San Francisco, including the opening double-feature of Woman on the Run and Born To Be Bad. And since this year's theme is 'Til Death Do Us Part - A Festival of Unholy Matrimony, we couldn't help but think of the rather perfect union that has been formed between film noir and the city of San Francisco.

Caption: "WOMAN ON THE RUN - UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL Life-saving medicine is passed to fugitive Frank Johnson (ROSS ELLOTT) by his wife (ANN SHERIDAN) in this scene from Fidelity Pictures'"Woman On The Run," dramatic story of a tottering marriage saved when a mutual peril makes the partners realize their love for one another. Dennis O'Keefe co-stars with Ann in this Universal-International release." Oct. 24, 1950 [P641 SHERIDAN, ANN](Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library)

What is it about San Francisco and noir? In San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, editor Peter Maravelis suggests it is the city's siren call to all who want just a little bit more from life than the usual.

Drawn to the romantic landscape by the lure of possibility, millions have flocked here to cast their stakes in the hope for prosperity, pleasure, and a personal freedom seldom dreamed of elsewhere. Following the imperatives of manifest destiny, the city's pioneers engaged in fraud, larceny, kidnapping, and murder. The prospect of gold led many to their demise while establishing a terrain ruled by human passions.

Caption: "KEEPS SECRET FROM HER - Edmond O'Brien, in and as "The Bigamist," doesn't tell wife Ida Lupino he has a mate (Joan Fontaine) in San Francisco. The Filmakers' [sic] picture will have its world premiere tomorrow at the St. Francis, with evening stage appearances by the above stars, Miss Fontaine, Edmund Gwenn, Producer Collier Young and Matt Dennis, who sings the film's theme song. All are here today in preparation for the premiere." Nov. 23, 1953. [P426 LUPINO, IDA (groups, doubles)] (Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library)

Nathaniel Rich, author of San Francisco Noir: The City in Film Noir from 1940 to the Present, believes it might have more to do with the weather, specifically, San Francisco fog.

It is a looming, shape-shifting mist that, especially at night, plays tricks of perception on anyone it engulfs. It is eerie not so much for what it conceals [...] but for what one fears it might conceal. More than anything else it is this feeling - dread - that is the subject of film noir.

Whether it is unleashed human desires or natural air-conditioning, San Francisco and noir have been in a long relationship that is still going strong.

Caption: "WILLIAM POWELL AND MYRNA LOY BLOCK TRAFFIC.....When Director W.S. Van Dyke takes the "After the Thin Man" company to San Francisco for scenes of the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture, sequel to "The Thin Man". Motion picture fans on Market Street had a field day. In the foreground are Van Dyke and Ollie Marsh, cameraman. Hunt Stromberg is the producer." Oct. 28, 1936. [P558 POWELL, WILLIAM] (Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library)

Books about film noir:
San Francisco Noir: The City in Film Noir from 1940 to the Present by Nathaniel Rich
The Art of Noir: Posters and Graphics from the Classic Film Noir Period by Eddie Muller
Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir by Eddie Muller
Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir by Eddie Muller
The Gang That Shot Up Hollywood by John Stanley, which features the article "Eddie Muller: Czar of Noir"

Noir stories:
San Francisco Noir edited by Peter Maravelis
San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics edited by Peter Maravelis
All of the city-based titles in the Akashic Noir Series.
The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories edited by Otto Penzler
And, of course, anything by one of the San Francisco History Center's favorite authors, Dashiell Hammett.

If you would like to create a San Francisco film noir festival of your own, we suggest these titles:
Lady From Shanghai (1947)
Thieves' Highway (1949)
D.O.A. (1950)
The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)
The Sniper (1952)
The Lineup (1958)
Experiment in Terror (1962)

Photos of some of your favorite noir actors, actresses, and directors can be found in the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue, accessible through the San Francisco History Center Photo Desk on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Caption: "Lieutenants Cody Owen, left and Mel Avery, Naval Reserve pilots from Oakland Naval Air Station, are the lucky two carrying Doris Day beside the F2H Banshee jet... Doris was unanimously chosen the "Sweetheart of the Naval Air Reserve" today, in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Naval Air Reserve this year... She is working in the Arwin Production "Julie", in which she plays an airline hostess. It is presently being filmed on location at Oakland Airport, also the site of NAS Oakland and the "Weekend Warriors". May 9, 1956 [P DAY, DORIS] (Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library)

Previous "Cinematic San Francisco" posts: Big Eyes
Coming soon: At the Oscars, San Andreas

Celebrating Letterpress, Valentines, & the PPIE

February 4, 2015, 11:02 am

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The Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center presents the 4th Annual Valentine Broadside Printing Event on Saturday, February 14th, 2-4pm, in the San Francisco History Center, on the 6^th Floor of the Main Library.

You are invited to experience letterpress printing on the library’s 1909 Albion handpress and take home a unique keepsake for your sweetheart. Our co-sponsors, the American Printing History Association’s NorCal Chapter, will provide the printing expertise.

We’ll be printing an image which celebrates both Valentine’s Day and the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). This broadside features an image from the PPIE, which was held here in San Francisco from February 20 - December 4, 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and San Francisco’s remarkable recovery from the earthquake and fire of 1906. To mark the centennial of this historic event, San Francisco Public Library joins dozens of San Francisco Bay Area cultural institutions, organizations, and individuals in hosting events and exhibits throughout 2015. Everyone is invited to the Community Day kick-off event at the Palace of Fine Arts, on Saturday, February 21, 2015, from 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.You can find out more about all the PPIE Centennial activities by visiting the website at http://www.ppie100.org.

Join us here at the library, on February 14th to see the library’s PPIE-inspired valentine and print a broadside for someone special. Everyone is welcome but broadsides are limited to the first 100 people.

Here's a peek at the fun we had last year. And another peek!

 

Beatrix Sherman: “The Girl Who Cuts Up”

February 10, 2015, 4:53 pm

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“The Girl Who Cuts Up” Beatrix Sherman, Silhouettist

Mlle. Beatrix Sherman, the Silhouette Artist.  She cut this portrait of herself by the aid of a double mirror.

Digging into the archives for our Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (PPIE) display turned up a small collection of hand-cut silhouette portraits that were made during the fair in 1915 and later donated to the library by Eliot Evans of Orinda. Two of those portraits were cut by Beatrix Sherman, otherwise known as “The Girl Who Cuts Up" -- a woman who piqued our interest.

Beatrice Sherman was born on January 10, 1894 in Scranton, Pennsylvania to George and Josephine Sherman. Her father was a printer and author of Practical Printing, and watching her mother cut intricate lace designs was an early influence.She began taking Saturday art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at age 11 and later studied at Henderson College in Arkansas. By 1912, she was back in Chicago taking classes at the Art Institute, and it was around this time that the aspiring artist began spelling her first name with an “x.”

Her career as an artist was launched when she was included in the Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of Water Colors, Pastels and Miniatures at the Art Institute in 1914. Then in 1915, when she was 21 years old, she set off for San Francisco and the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, where she made her professional debut as a silhouette artist. She secured a spot at the entrance to the Palace of Food Products, where she could be found “cutting up” from 9am to 6pm every day during the fair. She made it clear to attendees that she was “not connected in any manner with other concessions purporting to be of a similar nature.” Promotional materials described her as “an American miniature and silhouette artist; the first since August Edouard (1789–1861) to place shadow-cutting on the plane of a consummate art.” 

Paper silhouette of Charlie Chaplin by Beatrix Sherman

Paper silhouette of Mary Pickford by Beatrix Sherman

While in San Francisco, she also cut portraits for society ladies at their parties and charity events. By 1915, she had registered a copyright for her portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford--presumably cut at the fair. 

She was also cutting miniature “engagement silhouettes in 1915.” What are those, you ask?  They were substitutes for engagement rings and supposed to be glued to your left cheek to indicate that you were “taken.” They were “Dan Cupid’s latest fad,” and Sherman suggested that men wear them too, in order to avoid “all possible confusion.” It was supposed to usurp the beauty spot in popularity-- a clever marketing concept and vehicle for her talent. [see: Substitute for Engagement Ring Expected to Become All the Rage below] By the early 1920s, she had also patented and was selling “Silhouette Stick-on-Figures: A Thousand Designs for Decorative Purposes, No Paste Necessary.” [see advertisement below]

Advertisement, circa 1920

 

Advertisement, circa 1920

She set up shop in NYC cutting silhouette portraits in New York through the 1930s and 1940s and continued finding work at society and charity events. In the early 1930s, she was advertising in the New York Times classified section, and Wanamaker’s Department store was advertising her services as a great idea for Christmas gifts or Valentine’s Day cards. She traveled extensively, cutting portraits at six World's Fairs in 25 years. She was notable for cutting, by 1937, all “the Presidents from T.R. to F.D.R.”
 

Silhouetteof Theodore Roosevelt by Beatrix Sherman.1918. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site.

Over the years, she studied art in London, Paris, and Mexico; by 1949, she had returned to New York, after a three year stay in Paris, to reestablish a shop at 24 East 64th Street. She referred to herself in a newspaper feature at the time as “the greatest little cut-up in the country.” She reported making her start as a silhouettist when she was 13 years old and that it took her approximately two minutes to make a portrait. She estimated that she had completed 10,000 portraits, including those of Henry Ford, Thomas A. Edison, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lillian Russell, and William Jennings Bryan. John F. Kennedy was her 10^th presidential silhouette, done in 1961, from the sidelines of his press conference in Florida. 

Sherman, an entrepreneurial and talented woman, lived out the last 18 years of her long life in Palm Beach, Florida, where she had lived with her husband Jerome E.D. Montesanteau for many years. She reportedly spoke often about writing a book but apparently never did. She died, just before her 81^st birthday, on January 1, 1975 in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

Her guestbooks, all believed to be in private collections, document her life’s work, complete with portraits and autographs of some of the most famous people of the day. But her comments about people, and what she learned from a lifetime of studying their profiles, tell a truth about humanity.  “Men are just as vain as women…and just as sensitive about being portrayed realistically...The middle-aged spread and the double chin are the chief bogeys for women, and the prominent nose and paunch, the tender spots for men." In general, Sherman "found men who have accomplished things…are less demanding and more willing to accept themselves as others see them.”

Famous Persons in Silhouette fromThe Green Book Magazine

And by the way, one of Sherman's silhouettes was the inspiration for our Valentine this year. Come by on February 14th to see it and for the rare opportunity to experience letterpress printing at the library. Everyone is welcome but broadsides are limited to the first 100 people. 

 

Advertisements: Wanamaker’s, The New York Times, 13 February 1932, p. 14 and 11 November 1932, p. 20. 
Advertisement: New York Times, 7 December 1930, p. 62.
Art Show Planned for Welfare Fund, New York Times, 31 March 1935, p. N7
Beatrix Sherman, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia article
Bricks Without Straw, American Printer, v. 63, 5 July 1916, p. 49
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series, 1918, v. 13, No. 1, p. 75, GPO (Google Books)
Democrats Honor Mrs. J. Roosevelt, New York Times, 18 February 1934, p. 20
Famous Persons in Silhouette, The Green Book, November 1916, p. 929
Local Artist Beatrix Sherman To Exhibit at Flagler Museum, Palm Beach Daily News, 30 January 1966, p. 42
Press Club Dinner - "Hawaiian Night", The Press, v. 1, #2, p. 14-15, December 1915, The Press Club of San Francisco
Reporting Washington With a Pair of Scissors, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 June 1918, p. SM5
Silhouette Artist to Exhibit Works, New York Times, 9 October 1949, p. 81.
Local Artist Beatrix Sherman To Exhibit at Flagler Museum, Palm Beach Daily News, 30 January 1966, p. 42
Many Anecdotes Reveal Commoner’s Career, New York Times, 2 August 1925, p. XX3
Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Silhouettes, Framed artwork collection, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
The Press Club of San Francisco Has an "Hawaiian Night", The Pacific Printer, v. XV, #1, January 1916, p.36
Silhouettes Popular in Decorative Art Works, The Bush Magazine, Vol VIII, #2, February 1920
Substitute for Engagement Ring Expected to Become All the Rage, San Francisco Examiner Clippings, “Sherman, B.” envelope, April 1915. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
2-Day Bazaar to Aid Projects of Church, New York Times, 29 March 1949, p. 32
Work By Women Artists, New York Times, 7 November 1937, p. 191

It Came From the (Photo) Morgue!: Beer Week

February 13, 2015, 11:07 am

≫ Next: Cinematic San Francisco: At the Oscars

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We hope you are enjoying the last weekend of SF Beer Week as these ladies are.

Caption:  These New York girls are believed to be pioneers of their sex in the recently-resumed vocation of beer-tasting. They are shown tasting the golden brew at the Lion Brewery, 108th Street and Columbus Avenue, and apparently are convinced that they may sip beer and still not have to worry about 18-day diets for reducing. Left to right: Ann Schindler, Loretta Kelly, and Rose Hesman. [March 29, 1933; International News Photo] [PS 17 BEER]

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The San Francisco Public Library owns the photo morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, a daily newspaper that covered the time period from the 1920s to 1965. Much of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection comes from theSan Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue. However, the morgue also includes statewide, national, and international subjects and people that have not been digitized or cataloged. When researchers order scans from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue,selections are cataloged and added to the online database.

Looking for a historical photograph of San Francisco? Try our online database first. Not there? Come visit us at the Photo Desk of the San Francisco History Center, located on the sixth floor at the Main Library. The Photo Desk hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. You may also request photographs from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue.

Cinematic San Francisco: At the Oscars

February 19, 2015, 12:13 pm

≫ Next: A Spirited Tour of the Grabhorn Collection with Alastair Johnston

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It's Oscar season once again, and as we have discussed before, the Academy often nominates films set in San Francisco. This year is no exception. Previous nominees take place in either contemporary (Blue Jasmine,Foul Play, and Bullitt) or historical (Milk and The Pursuit of Happyness) versions of San Francisco. This year, however, two Oscar nominated films are set in San Franciscos of alternate universes.

In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, nominated for visual effects, Marin County apes swing across the Golden Gate Bridge to challenge the last remaining humans living in the overgrown ruins of post-Simian Flu San Francisco.

via 20th Century Fox

via Walt Disney Animation Studios

In contrast, the Japanese-influenced landscape of San Fransokyo in Big Hero 6, nominated for animated feature, is bright and modern.

The San Francisco History Center is no stranger to imaginative concepts of San Franciscos that might-have-been. Our 2013 exhibition for "Unbuilt SF" included plans for a Twin Peaks monument, an alternative City Hall, a freeway that would have run the length of the Panhandle, alternative sites for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and renovated Sutro Baths. More alternate San Franciscos can be found in the History Center's stacks and ephemera files. Come up to the sixth floor of the Main Library to study Daniel Burnham's 1905 plans for the city, which included extending the Panhandle to Hayes Valley. Or look into our vertical files: SF.BRIDGES.PROPOSED CROSSINGS for alternate plans of SF Bay crossings such as the Butterfly Bridge.

Image of proposed San Francisco Butterfly Bridge from Pacific Road Builder and Engineering Review, June 1953. SF.BRIDGES.PROPOSED CROSSINGS.BUTTERFLY BRIDGE (SF Public Library)

While we like San Francisco just the way it is, there are several books and movies that imagine an alternate-universe or alternate-history San Francisco. Along with the recent Planet of the Apes film and Big Hero 6, you might want to check out these titles:

• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• The Iron Heel by Jack London
• Big Trouble in Little China
• The Book of Eli (Check out how they created post-apocalyptic SF in this YouTube video.)
• Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness (For more on the Star Trek/San Francisco connection head over to Memory Alpha - The Star Trek Wiki.)

Previous "Cinematic San Francisco" posts: Noir City, Big Eyes
Coming soon: San Andreas

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A Spirited Tour of the Grabhorn Collection with Alastair Johnston

February 23, 2015, 5:34 pm

≫ Next: Guest Blogger - Abigail Markwyn: Researching the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

≪ Previous: Cinematic San Francisco: At the Oscars

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Alastair Johnston will present a spirited tour of the Robert Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing and the Development of the Book on Wednesday, March 4th, at 6pm, in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library. Johnston, of Poltroon Press, is an old friend of the Marjorie G. and Carl W.Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center and has worked extensively with the collections. He promises a lively and fascinating illustrated talk, full of surprises, about one of the most important collections at the San Francisco Public Library. For a preview, we recommend Alastair’s article on the collection, which can be found on our website. 

Here's a taste of what will he'll be discussing:

Oliver Byrne, The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid. (Chiswick Press, 1847)

Libro del Cosmographia. (Pedro Apiano,1548)

Margaret Rust, The Queen of the Fishes. (Eragny Press, 1894)  Alastair Johnston is the author of Transitional Faces: The Lives & Work of Richard Austin, Type-cutter and Richard Turner Austin, Wood-engraver (2013), Typographic Tourists: Tales of the Tramping Printer (2012), Alphabets to Order(2000),  A Bibliography of the White Rabbit Press (1985), A Bibliography of the Auerhahn Press (1976), and other works.  Author's photo courtesy Grace Gomez.

Guest Blogger - Abigail Markwyn: Researching the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

March 2, 2015, 4:47 pm

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The San Francisco History Center is pleased to present author and historian Abigail Markwyn speaking about Spectacle, Identity, and Citizenship: Bay Area Ethnic and Racial Communities at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition on Wednesday, March 11 at 6:00pm in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room at the Main Library. Dr. Markwyn has written a guest blog post for "What's On the 6th Floor" about doing research for her book in archives.

Researching the Panama-Pacific International Exposition
by Abigail Markwyn

California Invites the World

When I began my research on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition years ago, nothing was digitized. That meant that archives like the San Francisco History Center were absolutely essential to my work. It was in the History Center that I discovered photos and pamphlets, official memos, press releases, and letters that all helped me bring the fair to life. Eventually, this research formed the basis for Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, the Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Even today – or rather, especially today – when many historical documents are digitized, there remains much to be learned from visiting the collections of libraries and archives.







  

The People's Easy Guide to the PPIE

Pamphlets, such as the Exposition City, or the Carnival Spirit of San Francisco offered me insight into just how fair boosters sought to “sell” the city to tourists. They emphasized things like the city’s cosmopolitan population, pleasant climate, and plentiful economic opportunities in the hopes of convincing tourists to consider making the city their home. Other pieces of publicity stressed the fun parts of the fair – the Joy Zone, the restaurants, and the many works of art. Still others reminded visitors of the educational features of the fair. [Archivist's note: these resources are available in the San Francisco History Center's San Francisco Ephemera Collection.]




Photographs, like this one of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition's Woman’s Board revealed to me the extent of these women’s involvement in the fair. Here, they host a dinner for visiting dignitaries and officials, performing an act of cultural diplomacy in their capacity as hostess.

 

Women's Board Dinner - California Building, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915

Japan Day, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, August 31, 1915

Others, such as these of Japan Day at the fair, reveal in full detail the numerous celebrations that occurred on the grounds to celebrate Japan, even as many Californians vehemently spouted anti-Japanese rhetoric and supported anti-immigrant measures aimed at the Japanese.

Dedication of Swedish Building at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915

Ethnic communities from across the Bay Area gathered on the fair grounds to celebrate their heritage, as this photo of the dedication of the Swedish Building at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition illustrates.

"African Dip" in The Zone at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915

Photographs also reveal the full extent of the racial biases present on the fair grounds. African Americans found little to celebrate at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, as the attraction below reveals.  Despite attempts by local blacks to contact fair officials to arrange for exhibits that featured African American accomplishments, blacks remained sidelined at the fair, mainly relegated to demeaning attractions such as the “African Dip,” pictured here.


Historians rely on many kinds of sources for their research, but as these photos reveal, the topic of a World’s Fair lends itself particularly to reliance on the visual record. Collections such as those of the San Francisco Public Library are essential to telling these stories, and I’m forever grateful to those librarians a hundred years ago who carefully collected and cataloged these!

Your invitation to Dr. Markwyn's talk - 

Addition to the blog entry: for those who missed this wonderful talk, we recorded it for you!

It Came From the (Photo) Morgue!: Coffee Time

March 9, 2015, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Printing Valentines on the Albion Handpress: 14 February 2015

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It's Monday morning... time for some coffee.

[Pre-Photoshop cut and paste photo manipulation. Written on the back is: "left to right - Baker, Albert; Mrs. Moy, Martha; Harriger, Louis" Dated Feb. 26, 1927.] [P31 BAKER, A]

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The San Francisco Public Library owns the photo morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, a daily newspaper that covered the time period from the 1920s to 1965. Much of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection comes from theSan Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue. However, the morgue also includes statewide, national, and international subjects and people that have not been digitized or cataloged. When researchers order scans from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue,selections are cataloged and added to the online database.

Looking for a historical photograph of San Francisco? Try our online database first. Not there? Come visit us at the Photo Desk of the San Francisco History Center, located on the sixth floor at the Main Library. The Photo Desk hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. You may also request photographs from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue.

Printing Valentines on the Albion Handpress: 14 February 2015

March 18, 2015, 1:06 pm

≫ Next: Annual Wit and Humor Exhibition-- Mad World: Subversive Humor Magazines from the Schmulowitz Collection

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Gary Price and Fred Voltmer being precise.

The 4th Annual Valentine Broadside Printing event was another rousing success.

The planning started well in advance. The inordinate amount of necessary prep work is painstaking. But to the printers, all of it is fun.

Even on the day of the event, there was a lot of fine-tuning to do.

Grendl Löfkvist and Fred Voltmer being precise.

Above you can see the copper block in the bed with the little red heart visible. The experts are aligning the paper on the tympan.  

Li Jiang inking.

  Inking the block again. Red ink of course.

Penelope Houston getting ready ...

With the frisket closed over the tympan, you can see the paper peeking through. 

Next steps: close it up, roll it under the platen, turn the rounce handle, and pull the bar handle.

Gretta Mitchell and Fred Voltmer.

Here you can see the happy result!

Photo courtesy of Gretta Mitchell.

More happy printers!

Norman McKnight with broadsides. Photo courtesy of Gretta Mitchell.

Norman, with the broadsides from our previous valentine printing events.

Valentines laid out in the SF History Center Reading Room

By the end of the afternoon, production printing filled the room.

Gary Price helping the curious.

Back in the Rare Book Room, everyone waiting to print on the Albion, got to practice on the little Golding "toy" handpress. And of course, we had another capable expert from the American Printing History Association's NorCal chapter supervising the entire process.

It was just another Valentine's Day in Book Arts & Special Collections at the SFPL.

Photo courtesy of Gretta Mitchell.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Watch the video from last year's event.

 

Annual Wit and Humor Exhibition-- Mad World: Subversive Humor Magazines from the Schmulowitz Collection

March 31, 2015, 3:10 pm

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Subversive humor magazines have pushed the boundaries of civility and politics since the nineteenth century. They’ve been loved, hated, banned and worse. Most of us are familiar with Punch, MAD magazine, The Onion, The New Yorker, and now Charlie Hebdo, but did you know that Charlie Hebdo derived its dual inspiration from MAD magazine and the satirical French magazine, L’Assiette au Beurre(The Butter Dish)?

                                                                  

You may be surprised to learn that the founders of Punchwere inspired by the French humor magazine Le Charivari. Few of us may know that the Muslim world embraced one of the most acerbic humor magazines published in the early twentieth century, Molla Nasreddin, founded in Azerbaijan in 1906. This beloved magazine continued to be published through 1930 until it was shut down by Soviet authorities. Unfortunately, San Francisco Public Library does not hold any issues.

Mad World: Subversive Humor Magazines from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humorgathers together some of the most irreverent magazines from around the world, reviewing the antecedents that helped to radicalize modern cartoonists and humorists, while connecting the dots to twenty-first century humor magazines. Mad World is a visual display of in-your-face humor, outrage, and shocking reality in a war-torn time where humor will, if we let it, dominate the world. The exhibition opens April Fools' Day in the Skylight Gallery, Sixth Floor, Main Library; on view through May 31.

The Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor (SCOWAH) is the happy result of the biblio-adventures of one man, Nat Schmulowitz—lawyer, library commissioner, and humanist—who collected printed humor from around the world. One aspect of his collecting habit was his ongoing search for humor magazines. SCOWAH is a rich source of both classics, and long forgotten titles, with strong examples of Cold War underground humor. The collection includes over 250 magazine titles, many of which were subscribed to or collected by Nat: a real slice of life from the old world. Here on display are just a few periodicals from the saucy, satiric, mad world of SCOWAH.

On April 1, 1947, as a measure of his interest in the Library, Nat Schmulowitz presented ninety-three jest books, including an edition of the Hundred Merry Tales, as the first step toward the establishment of a research collection of wit and humor.

The Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor now contains more than 23,000 books, as well as periodicals, audiovisual materials and ephemera; it is a growing collection in thirty-eight languages and dialects. Located in the Book Arts & Special Collections Center, SCOWAH is one of the most important research collections of its kind, and characteristically reflects the eclectic humor of its founder, whose motto still resonates: 

“Without humor, we are doomed.”

Related Programs:

Thursdays at Noon Film Series: Comedy Films -

Featuring Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love theBomb (April 2); Crumb (April 9); Network (April 16); Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics (April 23); and They Live (April 30).All films are shown with captions when possible to assist the deaf and hard of hearing. Main Library, Koret Auditorium.

The Politics of Humor: Jack Boulware (founder of the satirical magazine The Nose and co-founder, Litquake) and political cartoonist Mark Fiore in conversation. Tuesday, May 5, 6 p.m., Koret Auditorium, Main Library.

For more information about these and other Library programs and exhibitions, please call (415) 557-4277.

All programs at the Library are free.

  

Spotlight on San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue

April 17, 2015, 2:08 pm

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Communist demonstrators in front of German consulate, 1937, Call Bulletin photo

Between 1966 and 1969, the San Francisco Examiner donated two libraries of photographs --what newspapermen call “morgues”-- to the San Francisco Public Library. The combined gift of the morgues from the San Francisco News and Hearst’s San Francisco Call-Bulletin was an estimated 2 million photographs.

Fireman on the Embarcadero Freeway near Front St., 1959, San Francisco News photo

The San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue (SFP 39) represents the working files created and used by the newspapers’ staff between the 1920s and September 1965. It consists primarily of images from news agencies and wire services depicting local, state, national and international events and people; together with photographs by local staff photographers, studio portraits, and promotional photographs supplied to the newspapers by families or agencies. Political, social, and cultural leaders, crime victims and suspects, celebrities, athletes and sporting events, accident scenes and victims, street scenes, shipping and waterfront views, and buildings are among the common subjects. This collection is one of the richest sources of historical news photographs documenting San Francisco’s modern development.

Upon receipt of the collection in 1966, photographs of San Francisco places and portraits of local, famous individuals were separated and transferred to the San Francisco History Room (now the San Francisco History Center). These photographs were interfiled with additional photographs from many other sources to form the base of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection. In the late 1980s, the rest of San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue was transferred to the San Francisco History Center. The San Francisco News-

Paulette Hefner being escorted from The Cellar nightclub by Amy Sliger, 1965, News-Call Bulletin photo

Call Bulletin Photo Morgue does make up the bulk of the San Francisco History Subject Collection. However, the morgue also includes statewide, national, and international subjects and people that have not been digitized or cataloged. There are over 1,200 cartons of photographs in off-site storage and the majority of the photographic print files remain in their original order, as received by the library. The files that were not broken up and distributed to library subject files are divided into nine series, with an alphabetic code assigned to each series. Five series are from The Call Bulletin and The News-Call Bulletin and four series are the files of The San Francisco News. Since these two groupings represent the files of separate newspapers over a roughly parallel period, there is significant overlap in content. All of the series include interfiled Call Bulletin staff photographs, submitted photographs (studio portraits or promotional photos), and wire or news agency photographs (news wire service photographs include Acme, Associated Press and International News). Approximately 40% of the "People" files and probably up to 90% of some geographic files are from news agencies. Researchers may request for people, places and subjects to be searched in the morgue. There is an in-house guide that breaks down the series - with detailed lists of subjects and famous people. When researchers order scans from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue, selections are cataloged and added to the online database.

Market Street, 1960, San Francisco News-Call Bulletin photo

The San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue is one of the largest and most significant photograph morgues of a twentieth century American newspaper that is open for research in a public library (list of newspaper photograph morgues in custody of public institutions). Photographs from the morgue have been published in books, displayed in exhibitions, added as rich content in documentaries, and of course, liked, shared and tweeted via social media -  locally, nationally and worldwide. What's on the 6th Floor likes digging deep into the photo files for the series "It Came From the (Photo) Morgue!" In the late 1960s, the Hearst Corporation transferred copyright of staff photographers to the San Francisco Public Library.

Please come visit and explore the morgue!

The San Francisco Examiner split the newspaper morgue gift and theSan Francisco News-Call Bulletin negatives were donated to the Bancroft Library.

Preservation Week With Guest Blogger, Vanessa Hardy

April 23, 2015, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Wide Angle:19th Century Lithographic Views of San Francisco

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The Robin Hood of California

Choosing the appropriate treatment for a piece is more than half the battle in conservation. Considerations that come into play are: the integrity of the original materials, the cultural or monetary value of the piece, its current condition, how much use it is likely to have, the availability of appropriate treatment materials, the knowledge and skills of the conservator, and the time and expense the treatment might take. Sometimes the best treatment is to do nothing. But it can be hard to walk away from something that cries out for conservation. One book, Joaquin the Saddle King, (a man who was otherwise known as the Robin Hood of California) was one such piece that recently passed through Preservation.

Cover of Joaquin the Saddle King

Joaquin Murieta, the storied California bandito of the mid-nineteenth century, arrived in pretty poor shape. This version of his legend - No. 154 of Volume 12 of Beadle’s New York Dime Library - was intended to be read and tossed: cheap, disposable entertainment, printed on poor quality paper. But that very disposability has made the few copies that remain more valuable. 

Over the years our copy was cherished and lovingly mended with tape; it was finally donated to the library to find its proper home in the San Francisco History Center. But what a conservation challenge it presented! The original paper was so acidic it was tea-colored and brittle to the touch. Those loving tape repairs became an additional problem: given the fragile state of the paper, removing them would probably cause even more damage. We took some time to consider our options.

We regularly wash, deacidify and resize paper. But the poor quality of the original paper of this piece, plus those tape repairs, made us pause. It would be a lot of work for questionable gain. We could simply box the item, but that is rarely a satisfying option. Our mission at the library is to make all our materials available to our patrons; any patron who looked at Joaquin in this condition would inevitably cause more damage. A box would be no protection.

Folder custom made for book

We eventually decided to encapsulate the pages in mylar, a transparent archival polyester film. We have an ultrasonic welder that joins the sheets neatly along the edges. This is a treatment we often use for single sheet items like maps, but we rarely do a complex encapsulation like this. Managing the mylar in bulk turned out to be quite a challenge, and we made several models before we came up with a design we liked.

  

Double page spread encapsulated

In the end we went with a treatment of two sections, guarded with cloth and sewn at the gutter. With the paper protected in this way, a patron will be able to turn the pages and read the story without fear of damage.  The time spent scratching heads and brainstorming feels very worthwhile when it produces a satisfying treatment for a challenging piece.

Vanessa Hardy is a Book Repairer at the San Francisco Public Library. 

 

 

If you enjoyed learning about how our staff repairs and preserves library materials you may also be interested in a program which Vanessa is hosting on April 30th: 

 

Fixing This Old Book: Simple Repairs For Your Much-Loved Volumes. Loose pages, worn spines, dog ears? 

Learn some tips, tricks, and basic repairs for common problems on books old and new from our in-house experts. Watch a professional bookbinder evaluate a problem and demonstrate various simple treatments you can do at home. 

You are invited to bring a favorite book for an evaluation.

Please note: We will not be able to repair your books for you at this event.

Thursday, April 30, 2015, 6:00pm, in the Skylight Gallery Exhibit Area, 6th Floor, Main Library.

 

Presented by the Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center and the library’s Preservation Department in celebration of the American Library Association's Preservation Week.

 

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Wide Angle:19th Century Lithographic Views of San Francisco

July 1, 2015, 4:00 pm

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Don’t miss the opportunity to see, in person, these beautiful and historic lithographic views of San Francisco. They will be on display through July 31^ston the 6th floor of the Main Library, in the Skylight Gallery. Here’s a brief peek at the exhibition. 

Lithographer, from Prang’s Aids for Object Teaching, Boston: L. Prang & Company, 1874

While photography was still in its early years, a hand printing process using limestone blocks - lithography - was also developing in Europe.  The evolution of the lithographic printing process led, over time, from images in black with a faint background tint to spectacular colorful images and large printing runs.  The production and distribution of lithographs involved artists, lithographers, printers and publishers, in varying combinations.  Whether publishers’ ends were aesthetic or commercial, views of cities (or aspects of those cities) became popular.

The City of San Francisco, Currier & Ives, c1877. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Calisphere

This exhibition of lithographs from the collections of the San Francisco History Center illustrates the effects San Francisco's gold rush boom and the subsequent development made possible by Nevada silver mining wealth and increased industrialization. Local personalities within the burgeoning metropolis - movers and shakers of various sorts - are also represented.  The exhibition includes works by artists and lithographers Edward Jump, Eduard Hildebrandt, and Kuchel & Dresel, as well as by publishers and printers such as Currier and Ives, Bosqui Engraving, H. S. Crocker, and Schmidt Lithograph Company.   

San Francisco at the [Industrial and Fine Arts] Fair, Edward Jump, c1864. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Calisphere

Detail of San Francisco at the [Industrial and Fine Arts] Fair,  Edward Jump, c1864. Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Calisphere

Compare depictions of George Washington II, who once competed with ‘Emperor’ Joshua Norton for San Francisco’s attention.  Count a multitude of wealthy, powerful, and prominent men of the City, announced by Lillie Coit.  In other prints, Union Iron Works proclaims its industrial might; we get a rare view looking downhill at the first Cliff House; and the landmarks of Yerba Buena are mapped and labelled.  A 1908 panorama of The Great White Fleet, arrayed in San Francisco Bay, closes this exploration of San Francisco as seen through a half-century of lithography.

Funeral of Lazarus, Edward Jump, [ca. 1861-ca. 1865] Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Calisphere

For further reference, you may also enjoy this related Wide Angle: A Booklist.

San Francisco, Francis Samuel Marryat, M. & N. Hanhart, lithographer, Henry Squire & Company, [1851] Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Calisphere

The Daniel E. Koshland San Francisco History Center maintains a research collection of books, newspapers and magazines, photographs, maps, posters, ephemera, and archives and manuscript collections, documenting all aspects of San Francisco life and history. The Center also houses the archives for the City and County of San Francisco.

 

Guest Blogger - Alan A. Blackman: Letters to Myself

July 31, 2015, 2:30 pm

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In 1968 well-known San Francisco lettering artist Alan A. Blackman began sendinghand-written envelopes as a surprise for his young son, Stephen, across the bay in Berkeley. Blackman had been an avid stamp collector in childhood and remembered the excitement that a new postage stamp could create—and the excitement of receiving his own personal mail. At the same time he addressed an envelope to his son, he addressed a similar one to himself. 

Our guest blogger Alan A. Blackman vividly describes his thirty-six year calligraphic obsession. The exhibition Letters to Myself: The Calligraphic First Day Covers of Alan A. Blackman is on view now in the Main Library's Jewett Gallery, Lower Level, and continues through October 11, 2015.

 

POSTAGE STAMPS HAVE BEEN in my blood since early childhood. My older brother & I fought to the death for the possession of our stamp collections. We grew up in a remote New York State rural community, ordering our new stamps by mail. The monthly arrival of exotic & glamorous stamps was tremendously exciting. They taught us our geography lessons, for example, including such far-flung locations as Tannu Tuba, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Schleswig-Holstein, Sarawak & St. Pierre & Miquelon.

IN THE LATE 1960s I was a postal employee at Rincon Annex, the main distribution center near the waterfront in downtown San Francisco. I became aware of letters addressed to postmasters requesting first day cancellations for new postage stamps. I would often see envelopes passing through the mailstream bearing new stamps cancelled FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. Such cancellations always bear the date and the names of the issuing cities. Monthly posters in the Rincon Annex lobby announced the design of the latest stamps, the respective cities & the dates.

 

MY FIRST ENVELOPE dates back to 1968. I had begun my calligraphic studies some ten years earlier & was fairly competent in the italic & uncial alphabets. My eleven-year-old son, Stephen, lived across the bay in Berkeley. I wondered if "the stamp bug" would bite him as it had once bitten me. Postage was then six cents. I addressed an envelope for each of us, taping twelve cents to a card & mailing them within an outer envelope to postmasters of various cities. Some weeks later we received our respective envelopes, each cancelled FIRST DAY OF ISSUE. Doting fathers may appreciate the element of surprise that this method of indirect communication can bring to their children. My son resided in England for many years, eventually acquiring a collection identical to mine -- bearing his name & address. Our postal service later changed its procedure, requiring collectors to purchase & affix their own stamps, allowing them thirty days to do so & still receive the official cancellation.

THERE WERE TWO SHOPS selling stamps for collectors near my place of employment. I discovered that LINN's Stamp News, Sidney, Ohio, contained a wealth of information about new foreign stamps. I learned that certain foreign philatelic bureaus sent out periodic bulletins announcing their forthcoming new issues. My favorite countries became Great Britain, Canada, Australia, & Sweden. I eagerly requested their cancellations, sending them our blank self-addressed envelopes including a remittances for the price of the stamps plus a possible "fixing fee". Many overseas bureaus accepted personal checks in U.S. dollars including an additional amount to cover the rate of exchange. I believe that now most postal bureaus accept valid credit cards. Some collectors become fond of specific topics. Mine were stamps-on-stamps (new stamps that portray previous historical issues); coats of arms, manuscripts and -- my son's favorite animal, the pangolin -- a scaly anteater native to certain regions of Africa & Southeast Asia.

BY CHANCE MY FIRST effort used a box of 100 Crane’s kid finish white envelopes. The paper takes ink flawlessly. I could carefully scrape off small errors with a surgical scalpel under a magnifying glass without damaging the surface of the paper. It’s a meticulous operation which calligraphers eventually learn. The back flap of each envelope was embossed with the name of a time-honored San Francisco department store or boutique—I. Magnin, Gump’s, Schwabacher Frey—a refinement which I cherished. During my long years of this hobby I continually sought out other brands, other envelopes, other papers, but I became quite enamored of Crane’s. They were always the best for me.

MY EARLIEST ADDRESSES were written with steel pen nibs and black ink. I discovered Boku-eki, a dense, glossy, liquid Japanese sumi ink that has remained my favorite commercial ink to this day. As my calligraphic skills increased I supplanted my use of steel pen nibs with turkey & goose quills, both of which create a finder line on the page. For colored writing I used gouache in tubes or water-soluble colored pencils. I later learned how to grind a set of colored Japanese stick inks on individual ink stones: one stone for reds, one for blues, one for greens, etc. For metallic effects I found that imitation pigments (for example, Winsor & Newton gold ink, Japanese cake colors, Pelican silver & copper gouache) were more attractive than authentic shell gold & silver. There is always the risk, however, that they will eventually tarnish. For greater adhesion I added gum arabic to the ink to prevent smudging as the envelope travelled on the bottom of mail bags, through people's hands & through the cancellation machines.

FOR THE FIRST TEN YEARS most of my envelopes bore identical addresses -- my italic & uncial handwriting. They were exciting to receive at the time, especially when they came from overseas. In the early 1970 calligraphy societies emerged on both the local & national scenes. Our artistic horizons broadened. The writing styles of Friedrich Newgebauer (Austria), Kennedy Smith (England) & David Mekelburg (Los Angeles) had a profound effect on my personal vision. I began to use color more adventurously. Most important of all --- & it happened very gradually -- the images on the stamps became the inspiration for the design of the lettering.

THE MOST INTRIGUING aspect of this activity—apart from the indirect communication with my son—was the creative process. Could I produce something new this time? How? How far could I go? Was legibility important? Where were the good designs when I really needed them?? Every envelope was not “a winner”. I have boxes of unsuccessful envelopes that are rarely opened, whose unfortunate contents never see the light of day. My friends would occasionally ask how I was able to sustain the high outpouring of continuous inspiration. My answer was that it was not continuous. My creativity has always run in cycles of indeterminate & unpredictable duration. I cherish the seasons when wondrous ideas occur: startling designs, whose equal I’ve never seen before. During these times I’m very happy. Then, try as I may to avert it, the sky darkens & a chill fills the air. Leaves fall from the trees. A witch with a bony hand appears at the garden gate extending a poisoned apple. Once again the land becomes arid and unyielding. I am compelled to wait—without knowing the length of the winter— for the coming of spring. Perhaps a truer insight into the above question is that I have learned to wait through periods of frustration without giving in to despair.

I HAVE OCCASIONALLY USED my envelope collection as a teaching example in classes & workshops. It was an obsession that I continued to maintain for thirty-six years. I relinquished it in the year 2004. By that time my son, Stephen, had become an adult, self-supporting as a talented TV cameraman, traveling the world on assignment, no longer resident in what had been till then his permanent childhood home. There was no longer a reason for me to continue, as newer envelopes would not reach him. I believe that by the time I leave the planet this collection will have become my most important work. --Alan A. Blackman

This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of my beloved son, 
Stephen Anthony Richard Blackman (1957-2012).

Note: Please do not send mail to the addresses on the envelopes; the artist may be contacted through his website: http://www.alanblackman.com/

Company’s Coming to San Francisco Public Library’s Skylight Gallery!

August 15, 2015, 10:00 am

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Mark your calendars—Company’s Coming to the San Francisco Public Library.

On September 9, 2015, the San Francisco History Center will open its exhibition, Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in the Skylight Gallery on the 6th floor of the Main Library. This exhibition highlights how the City of San Francisco and its residents prepared for the PPIE by completing numerous civic projects and building its impressive fairgrounds to host millions of visitors. The exhibition also explores how people from San Francisco and beyond engaged with the palaces, exhibits, concessions, and special events they encountered at the Fair, then commemorated their experiences in images, writing, and memorabilia.

All of these stories are captured in a variety of materials from the San Francisco History Center’s collections: PPIE artifacts, guidebooks, pamphlets, official documents, personal scrapbooks, photographs, postcards, and many other archival items. Just what will you encounter when you come to Company’s Coming? Here are a few objects you can look forward to.

Exposition Bonds

Company’s Coming traces San Francisco’s preparations for the PPIE back to the earliest days of the Fair’s conceptualization, the campaign to host it, and the movement to finance it. Things of beauty in themselves, bonds like this one were instrumental in the realization of the Exposition.

Exposition Bond, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Maps

There is no shortage of maps detailing the Exposition grounds, but there’s one in particular you shouldn’t miss. That’s an original Sanborn Fire Insurance Map documenting Exposition buildings, along with locations of fire alarm boxes, hydrants, and other fire-related information. But the map is more than the information it imparts: as an archival document, its physicality, miniscule working notes, markings, and pasted-in corrections suggest an entirely different story of how the map and the layout of the grounds evolved. 

Detail of  PPIE Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1915, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

High School Yearbooks

San Francisco’s youth were definitely among the PPIE’s enraptured visitors—the Polytechnic High School yearbook cover pictured below (evoking the Court of the Universe with the Column of Progress in the distance) indicates as much. Company’s Coming puts the spotlight on Polytechnic students’ experiences of the Fair, whether through the lens of their Fair-themed creative works or accounts of their participation.

The Polytechnic Journal, December 1915, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Souvenirs

As one might expect, the PPIE saw a wealth of souvenirs being sold, bought, and given away. Company’s Coming features a wide sampling of items that commemorate the Fair and highlights unique memorabilia, including the handmade keepsake for sale at the Exposition pictured here. 

“S.F. 1915” Pillowcase, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Photographs

At Company’s Coming, you’ll discover a rich selection of official photographs, personal snapshots, panoramas, and photo postcards documenting the PPIE. These capture the Fair, literally and figuratively, from every imaginable viewpoint. Images like this one of workers who helped build the Tower of Jewels suggest how the PPIE was just as much about grit as it was of grandeur.  

Iron Workers on Main Tower or Tower of Jewels, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Of course, the five items previewed in this blog post will never tell the whole story of how San Franciscans envisioned, built, experienced, and remembered the PPIE. To learn more, visit the Skylight Gallery on the 6th floor of the Main Library, September 9 to December 31, 2015. Company’s Coming will have arrived by then. We hope you’ll be there, too.

Building Community and Leadership: San Francisco's Chinatown, A Model

September 8, 2015, 11:00 am

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On Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 1 p.m., the San Francisco Public Library, in association with the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University, presents Gordon Chin to talk about his book,Building Community, Chinatown Style: A Half Century of Leadership in San Francisco. The lecture will take place in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room of the Main Library, Lower Level. A book sale and signing will follow the talk.


Today, Mr. Chin fills-in at "What's on the 6th Floor?" as a guest blogger:

“ONE OF THE TEN BEST NEIGHBORHOODS IN AMERICA”

When I first heard in October, 2013 that the American Planning Association had selected San Francisco Chinatown for its list of Top Ten Best Neighborhoods in America, I was both thrilled but also a bit surprised. I was thrilled because I was in the midst of writing my book, “Building Community, Chinatown Style,” sharing a personal memoir and my observations about this important place. I was surprised because I had never thought of Chinatown as a “best” neighborhood given the serious problems it has historically been challenged with–the lack of affordable housing in San Francisco, inadequate recreation and open space, traffic congestion impacting pedestrian safety, to name a few.

The lists of “Best Places” you usually see in travel magazines were about places that are ideal places, where anyone would want to live. But these were not the reasons why Chinatown was chosen by the APA for its annual list. San Francisco Chinatown was selected for its leadership, as well as for its strong history of social capital and institutions which has preserved this community since its founding over 170 years ago, protecting it from discriminatory legislation, natural disasters, and civic neglect. And this is the Chinatown leadership I wrote about in my book, with stories of individual courage and organizational persistence which have characterized the community over the last half century, the time span of my book.

Clayton Hotel ribbon cutting, 657 Clay Street, 1982. Chinatown Community Development Center's first residential hotel acquisition and rehabilitation project. Courtesy: Chinatown CDC.

Chinatown is one of the least understood neighborhoods in San Francisco. It is alternatively viewed as a major San Francisco tourist attraction and a ghetto with one of the highest rates of poverty and housing overcrowding in the city, a living dichotomy of perceptions and images. Saul Alinski, the late community organizing theoretician, once described San Francisco Chinatown as the most organized neighborhood he had ever seen in America. Most everyone was active in community life as members of fraternal associations, music and cultural clubs, business organizations, kung fu studios, and churches; there was a vibrant community sense of volunteerism and social capital that the outside world did not know.

“Building Community, Chinatown Style” chronicles Chinatown activism in the community development issues I have been involved in for over four decades, starting with the fight for the International Hotel and ending with my observations about other Chinatowns and Asian American communities in the country. The book shares hundreds of stories about leaders I have had the honor of working with, but the book does not have one central character. That’s because the central character is Chinatown, “One of the ten best neighborhoods in America.”

Company's Coming!: How Did People Get to the 1915 World's Fair?

September 16, 2015, 1:14 pm

≫ Next: Company’s Coming: At the PPIE, A Fair Share of Crime

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From now through December, the San Francisco History Center is hosting an exhibition commemorating a World’s Fair held in San Francisco 100 years ago. The exhibit, Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition(PPIE), highlights how San Franciscans prepared for and experienced the Fair, and welcomed millions of visitors from California, the United States, and the world.

At the exhibit, you’ll see a variety of souvenirs, booklets, postcards, photographs, scrapbooks, and other physical items from the San Francisco History Center’s collections. They provide fascinating accounts of the people who visited and participated in the PPIE. In this blog post, we’ll start sharing some of their stories, and begin with tales that answer the question: Just how did company come to the Fair?

By foot or on stilts

Some visitors simply walked—from across the country, that is.

Vittorio Silva, “an alert, soldierly-looking young Italian,” hiked all the way from New York as part of a publicity stunt. He did it for a prize: $7,000, promised to the person who could walk to the PPIE grounds from New York in 100 days or less. Silva started his hike on March 22, 1914. According to the Los Angeles California Tribune, he was on the last leg of his hike, Los Angeles to San Francisco, on July 14.

Vittorio Silva in the Los Angeles California Tribune, July 14, 1914. From Press Clippings Scrapbooks Book 16, Panama-Pacific International Exposition Records (SFH 364), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Yet walking to the Fair was hardly the biggest gimmick. The Panama-Pacific Exposition Commission, which oversaw funds for the PPIE, offered $5,000 to “the party who travels cross-country in the most unique manner.”

F.E. Wilvert answered the challenge by walking on stilts. He covered 3,000 miles from Harrisburg, PA to qualify for the prize. Amazingly, he traveled 22 miles daily along Lincoln Highway. This was the first transcontinental road built for automobiles, and it connected Times Square in New York and Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

By the time Wilvert reached Cheyenne, WY, he had been on the road for 118 days.

F.E. Wilbert, on stilts, featured in the Cheyenne Tribune. From Press Clippings Scrapbooks Book 16, Panama-Pacific International Exposition Records (SFH 364), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

What did Wilvert say of his travels?

“I make good time and don’t mind the hot weather, although I am practically stranded when the wind blows. My stilts and paraphernalia weigh 22 pounds and it is almost out of the question to buck the wind.”

By covered wagon and “pushmobile”

For other people, using a pushmobile to get to the Fair wasn’t out of the question. The Trenton, NJ Gazettefeatured Jake Harris and M. Cramer, who set out for the PPIE from Philadelphia, PA in the toy vehicle:

A crowd sends off Jake Harris and M. Cramer on a pushmobile to the PPIE. Photo from the Trenton, NJ Gazette, July 17, 1914. From Press Clippings Scrapbooks Book 16, Panama-Pacific International Exposition Records (SFH 364), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

The article notes, “They will alternate in riding and pushing.”

In turn, a trio from Norfolk, VA, opted for a more conventional mode of transportation:

"The Overland Three" traveled to the PPIE in a covered wagon. Photo from the Norfolk, VA Pilot, September 18, 1914. From Press Clippings Scrapbooks Book 16, Panama-Pacific International Exposition Records (SFH 364), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

The canvas-covered wagon hardly befitted the innovative vehicles and machines displayed at the PPIE, and it emphasized the outdated way that people traveled to San Francisco in an earlier chapter of California’s history.

By hook or by crook

At least once, people took less-than-honest routes to the Exposition. The San Francisco Police Department Detective Bureau Scrapbooks, which compile news clippings on accidents and crimes, contain the story of two brothers who pocketed $20 just to make the trip. (It’s arguably the most forgivable story in a scrapbook full of sordid tales.)

Note the story on the bottom left of this Detective Bureau's scrapbook: "Lads Take $20, Come to City to See Fair."From California Books Volume 30, San Francisco Police Department Records (SFH 61), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

On September 15, 1915, the San Francisco Examiner reported that two boys from San Rafael, aged ten and fourteen, had gone missing with money from their step-father’s trouser pocket. Though they could have gone anywhere, their step-father—not to mention the reporter and the police—seemed convinced they’d run off to San Francisco:

“When he found the money gone yesterday, [D.F. Foley] thought that he had mislaid it. But when he found the youngsters gone also he remembered that he had been a boy once and hastily notified the San Francisco Police. Yesterday the Exposition guards kept a sharp lookout for the lads.”

Though we may never know how the story ended, the article concludes:

“[The boys] had not been found when evening came. Foley is not disturbed about the $20, but he trembles for the digestions of two small boys.”

But parents were not the only authority figures who had to deal with earnest individuals trying to get to the Fair.

By the good old (or brand-new) Muni

Just three years before the PPIE, San Francisco’s Municipal Railway, or Muni, was a one-street electric railroad. By 1915, it had transformed into a nine-line system with two lines supporting transit to and from the Fair. Between Muni, the competing United Railroads of San Francisco, and privately owned jitney buses, people had many options for traveling to the PPIE.

Much like today, pretty much everyone had something to say about Muni. A handful of these opinions can be found in the San Francisco History Center’s collection of Muni records, amongst them Municipal Railway Superintendent Thomas Cashin’s correspondence from 1912 to 1915. Cashin’s files brim with letters about traveling privileges to the PPIE. These include notes from organizations, ranging from the Divisadero Street Merchants Club to the Masonic Board of Relief, requesting special fares to the fairgrounds.

One letter dated March 16, 1915, from residents of the Richmond and Presidio Heights, even asks Cashin if the “C” line could run directly to the Exposition daily. (The “C” is the now-defunct Geary-California streetcar line.) Cashin deemed this last request impractical—but he was more generous with other appeals, especially when these involved bringing children to the Fair. The San Francisco Railway Museum’s exhibit, Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, gives a fuller picture of Muni in relation to the PPIE.

The Divisadero Street Merchants Club's letter to Superintendent Thomas Cashin, with Cashin's reply to the right. From Letters to Superintendent Cashin, San Francisco Municipal Railway Records (SFH 84), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

All these anecdotes form but a snippet of stories about the PPIE held in the San Francisco History Center’s collections. We invite you to visit the exhibit and the San Francisco History Center to learn more about this unforgettable event in San Francisco’s history.

Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition runs from Sept. 9-Dec. 31 at the Main Library. You won’t need a pair of stilts or a canvas-covered wagon to see the show. Just take the elevator or stairs to the Skylight Gallery on the 6th floor. We’re ready for company.