It Came From the (Photo) Morgue!

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 1920’s to 1965. Much of the San Francisco History Collection comes from the News-Call Bulletin morgue. However, the morgue also includes national and international subjects that have not been digitized or cataloged.

As a page on the 6th floor of the Main Library, one of my favorite tasks is searching the vast collection of “morgue” photos for images that someone has an interest in: pictures of favorite movie stars; local, national or global newsworthy events; and even relatives who may have, for better or worse, ended up in a news column somewhere. While not every request turns up a positive result, it’s a very satisfying feeling when it does.

But there is another reason why I like searching through the “morgue” – the weird, funny and fascinating photos that I sift through as I search. And that is what “It Came From the (Photo) Morgue” is all about. Here are some of the most amusing in the collection. Enjoy!

Photo and caption from the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue, courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

Caption:
FIRST LARD QUEEN
Chicago - The nation's first Lard Queen, Helen Armstrong of Austin, Minn., crowned as Lard Queen of Minnesota, stands beside statue of herself, modeled in pure lard, at Chicago, where she was guest of the city.
04-05-1940
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.

Comments

  1. Wow good to know. How are these cataloged? By year? Subject? Key words? Haha Lard queen, I love it. Keep em coming please !

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  2. Good question. Well, there are some photos filed under subjects and geographic locations, but the majority are filed under people's names. Some of these that have to do with SF history have been scanned and are accessible through the online catalog, but there are a LOT that aren't. So if some one was looking for Helen Armstrong we just have to look for an Armstrong file and see if there is anything there. Every now and then we find something awesome like this!

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  3. Hahahaha! That's awesome! :) I would have never guessed that's what it was. I'll bet her parents were so proud!

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  4. yes, please keep up with the morgue photos!
    xo p

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