Content/DescriptionA wrong-reading (reversed) view from a roof top. Image includes men, carts, wagons, horses, and bales of goods on the street and sidewalk. Signs on buildings in the foreground read: Circulating Library, Golden Era, [Pai]nts and Oils, D[ ]ney & Co. Gold Dust..., and Pacific Mail Steamship Co., among others. A large metal top hat is on top of one building, presumably advertising a hatter or clothing store. Masts of ships are visible in the distance.
Title
[Sacramento Street; view toward bay down the north side of street, San Francisco.]
Published
ca. 1852-1853
Full Collection Name
Cased photographs and related images from The Bancroft Library pictorial collections, circa 1845-circa 1870
Other Identifiers
BANC PIC 1905.16242:104--CASE
Type
Image
Extent
1 photograph : daguerreotype ; whole plate, visible image 20.3 x 15.5 cm.
Archive
The Bancroft Library
Note
Although attributed by prior owner to Shew, image was possibly taken from roof of the R.H. Vance Gallery. A woodcut published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly (June 29, 1859), was probably engraved from this image. The photograph may have been intentionally wrong-reading, for ease of reproduction. [Observations by Peter Palmquist in his article "The Daguerreotype in San Francisco" in History of Photography, v.4 no.3.]
Collector Zelda Mackay acquired this image from the son and daughter of Oregon photographer Peter Britt, who was said to have received it as a gift from photographer William Shew.
Tarnish lines from a former rectangular mat are visible. A brass preserver was present, but has been removed and retained separately.
<physfacet label="Image Package Note">Original component parts: plate, cover glass, preserver. Preserver: decorative (removed and stored separately).</physfacet>;;;<physfacet label="Container or Case Note">Type: case. Motif: plain. Material: leather (pigskin) over wood. Dimensions: 23.2 x 18.2 cm. Pad: red velvet. Notes: spine label - 417 (from prior owner).</physfacet>;;;<physfacet label="Marks, Inscriptions and Accompanying Material">Accompanying note (modern, possibly by collector Zelda Mackay) identifies view, date, photographer, and provenance. Plate mark: [flower] [lamb of God within crescents] 40.</physfacet>;;;
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