William Alexander Leidesdorff

Image courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

After hearing poet devorah major's readings November 29 at Classic Black: African-American Voices, come to the San Francisco History Center to see some of William Leidesdorff's personal papers.


Leidesdorff-Folsom Estate Papers

William Alexander Leidesdorff was born in the Danish West Indies in 1810. He came to California in 1841 as captain of the schooner Julia Ann. Engaged in trading between California and Hawaii, he had settled in Yerba Buena by 1845. He became a Mexican citizen and acquired the Rio de los Americanos rancho near Sacramento. Buying up property in Yerba Buena, he built a warehouse and the City Hotel here, and had bought a home by 1847. He served as U.S. vice-consul under Thomas Larkin, beginning in 1845, and launched the first steamer to sail San Francisco bay, the Sitka (later, the schooner Rainbow). Besides becoming one of the town's most prominent merchants, he served on the Town Council as Treasurer, and as a School Committee member. He died of typhus May 18, 1848 in San Francisco, and his estate, though encumbered by debt, increased greatly in value following the gold discovery. William D. M. Howard was named administrator of Leidesdorff's estate in 1848, then removed from that position the following year; Joseph L. Folsom then searched out heirs and purchased title to the Leidesdorff estate, becoming one of the wealthiest men in San Francisco.

Joseph L. Folsom, from  The Annals of San Francisco

The collection includes receipts, promissory notes, leases, correspondence, power of attorney and other papers collected by Leidesdorff, and later by Howard, administrator of Leidesdorff's estate, and finally, by Folsom, who purchased title to the estate. Claims submitted to Leidesdorff, and paid by him or by Folsom, make up the bulk of the collection. See our catalog record for this small manuscript collection: Leidesdorff-Folsom Estate Papers

You can see records for other manuscript collections by going to our online catalog and doing a call number search: SF MSS.

Picture From the Past - Shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving, 1958

[Shopping crowds at Market and 5th Streets].  1958 Nov. 28. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

40th Anniversary of the Alcatraz Indian Occupation

Photo: [Indians invade Alcatraz Island]. [1969 Nov. 20] Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

Alcatraz Island was occupied in November 1969 by about 100 Native Americans, many of them students, the Indians of All Tribes. Led by Richard Oakes, the occupation was organized to draw attention to the plight of Native Americans and to encourage their self-determination. After changes in leadership, the influx of non-Native persons, growing violence and drug abuse, and increasing isolation of the community, the federal government was prompted to remove the Indians from the island in June 1971.

Following the evacuation of the island, the records were transferred to the custody of the Federal Records Center, San Francisco, until their release to Frederic S. Baker, legal representative of the Indians of All Tribes, Inc., in October 1971. In June 1972 Baker donated the records to the Special Collections Department of the San Francisco Public Library.

The records contain materials which document activities of the Indians of All Tribes, the governing Council, and individuals. These include meeting minutes, correspondence, legal files, publications, and photographs.

This collection is available for browsing at the San Francisco History Center. You can also download a detailed guide for this collection. (PDF)
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Five Tips for a Better San Francisco NaNoWriMo From the 6th Floor:

It's National Novel Writing Month - how many words have you written so far? If you're in need of a bit of inspiration, come on up to the San Francisco History Center/Book Arts and Special Collections!

Photo of Dashiell Hammett's typewriter, donated to the San Francisco History Center by his daughter, Jo Hammett, in December 2001. Photo courtesy of SFPL.

1. Dashiell Hammett's Typewriter
Stand in presence of the machine that was used to create some of the best and most famous San Francisco hardboiled detective fiction ever written. Let it inspire your own tales of troubled sleuths, caught between sinister criminals and dangerous dames, and maybe one day your own laptop will be keeping that old typewriter company.


2. Location, Location, Location

Make the 6th floor of the SFPL Main Library your first stop on a quest to visit the haunts of famous San Francisco writers and the characters they created. Here are a few books to get you started:

The Beat Generation In San Francisco: A Literary Tour by Bill Morgan, introduction by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Dashiell Hammett Tour: Thirtieth Anniversary Guidebook by Don Herron
Literary Hills of San Francisco by Luree Miller
The Literary World of San Francisco and Its Environs by Don Herron
San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History by Mick Sinclair
A Writer's San Francisco: A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul by Eric Maisel, drawings by Paul Madonna

Barbara Smitten sitting and writing while San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge being constructed in background. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, SFPL.

3. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Check out the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection where we've got 38,000 historical San Francisco photographs online - how many words is THAT?! You can browse the collection from home or come up to the photo desk on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays if you're looking for something in particular.

4. Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
So, read some books! The library is full of them, but why not check out some of the Golden State's best? SFPL's Book Arts and Special Collections is where you can take a look at some of the treasures in the Phelan California Authors Collection.

Founded through a bequest from San Francisco Mayor James D. Phelan in 1934, this collection numbers over 1,500 volumes. Books, manuscripts, typescripts, portraits and photographs of such writers as George Sterling, Ambrose Bierce, Gertrude Atherton, Frank Norris, Ina Coolbrith, and Edwin Markham are included, as well as first editions of the novels of Jack London. The George L. Gary Collection of Bret Harte is located here. The collection also includes late twentieth century writers.

5. Keep it Simple (and) Short
As the month comes to a close, aren't there other pressing matters to attend to? (Tofurkey to buy, pumpkin pies to bake, you know the drill.) So why struggle with that conclusion. Have your favorite artistic hipster draw an awesome cover for you and call it v 1, no.1 of your new zine! Then send it over to the Little Maga/Zine Collection for generations to study and enjoy! Contact bookarts@sfpl.org or call 415-557-4560 for more information.

Events and Exhibitions

Events:
Sunday, November 29 --- 3 - 4:30 p.m.Classic Black: African American Voices from 19th Century San Francisco

Former San Francisco Poet Laureate devorah major will be joined by Bay Area jazz treasures Richard Howell on saxophone and Mark Izu on bass in a poetry performance piece featuring African-Americans who lived and thrived in San Francisco between 1845 and 1900. Focusing on less known stories of Blacks who lived and worked in downtown San Francisco, ms. major will bring to life the voices of William Alexander Leidesdorff and his mother Anna Marie Spark, George Washington Dennis and his mother Sylva Dennis and father, Green Dennis and Charlotte Brown, as well as a overviews in the voices of Mary Ellen Pleasant and Delilah Beasly.
Koret Auditorium, Lower Level, Main Library

Thursday, December 3 --- 6:30 p.m.
Waterworks: How Repairing Water-Damaged Art on Paper is Done With... Water!

Join Bay Area paper conservator Karen Zukor for an illustrated talk on the effect of moisture on prints, drawings and books, and how conservation utilizes water-based treatments to undo the damage.
Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room, Lower Level, Main Library


Exhibitions:
October 22 - January 8
The Portola Festival of 1909: A Party with a Purpose
The Portola Festival of 1909 was a grand celebration to declare that San Francisco had rebuilt and was ready for business and tourists after the 1906 earthquake and fire. On the 100th anniversary of this five day spectacle of parades and parties, this exhibition features photographs and artifacts from the festive event. An accompanying video highlights the participation of local and international Chinese and Japanese communities.
Outside the San Francisco History Center, Sixth Floor, Main Library



September 12 - December 6
Punk Passages: San Francisco First Wave Punk 1977-1981
This exhibition features 45 black and white portraits and live music photographs of original punk innovators from the emerging San Francisco punk scene by San Francisco-based photographer Ruby Ray, as well as original punk rock zines, flyers, posters and ephemera from 1977 to 1981. Additional articles and ephemera from the San Francisco Public Library Art, Music & Recreation Center Collection and the Little Maga/Zine Collection from Book Arts & Special Collections, will also be on view.
Jewett Gallery, Lower Level, Main Library
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Primary School, Primary Sources

Last month, Ms. Ivy's third grade class from Creative Arts Charter School visited the San Francisco History Center to learn about primary sources and how to research their neighborhoods.









We looked at Sanborn fire insurance maps, neighborhood newsletters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and books.

                                                        

                                                           
    

We also got a look at the Albion Handpress from 1909, a gift to Book Arts and Special Collections.

The staff here loved getting a homemade thank-you booklet at Thanksgiving time. Thank you for the thank you, Creative Arts students!

Potrero Hill - Then & Now

The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, as well as the Potrero Hill Branch, extend an invitation to the book reading for Potrero Hill, part of the new series Then & Now for Arcadia Publishing. Authors Peter Linenthal and Abigail Johnston will be at Book Bay in the Main Library tonight at 6:00pm. Mr. Linenthal and Ms. Johnston also published San Francisco's Potrero Hill.

Mr. Linenthal and Ms. Johnston spent hours working with the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection Photo Desk staff finding the "then" photographs for their new book.  Many of the photographs used in the book came from one of many San Francisco Historical Photograph Collections that have not been digitized -  the San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW) Albums. The collection consists of 95 albums from 1907 to the 1930s depicting DPW projects including street repair, civic buildings and infrastructure construction.  As a team, Mr. Linenthal and Ms. Johnston, pored through the DPW's card index. The card index is organized alphabetically by project; the best way to search the index is by street name or civic building name. They created lists of photographs that they wanted to view, and many albums were pulled for them. Mr. Linenthal chose to reproduce the photographs by photographing the photos himself.

Arcadia Publishing, the publisher of Potrero Hill, is well-known for the series Images of America.  In this series, the books consist mostly of sepia-toned photographs with captions for every photograph. In the books published about San Francisco neighborhoods, ethnic groups and significant landmarks and events, a reader can find many photographs from the San Francisco History Center collections. In the following selected Images of America books, one can discover many photographs credited to the San Francisco Public Library -

Camp Mather by Michael Buck (2008)

French San Francisco by Claudine Chalmers (2007)

Irish in San Francisco by John Garvey and Karen Hanning (2008)

San Francisco Fire Department (2003) and San Francisco Police Department (2004) by John Garvey

San Francisco's Bernal Heights by Bernal History Project (2007)

It Came From the (Photo) Morgue!

As the days get shorter and the temperatures start to drop, this novel warming device just might be what you're looking for:

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

Caption:
Oaklahoma City, Feb. 26 [1958] 
TEENAGER MODELS HER KNIT NOSEWARMER
Karen Bowers, Northwest High School student here, is busy these day [sic] knitting what may become a fad at the school.  She makes nosewarmers, and says they could become real popular if wintry weather sticks around awhile.  Karen, who models her handiwork above, has given nosewarmers to other students as gifts and says she is making more.


The 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.

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.
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Carville-By-The-Sea

Please join the San Francisco History Center on Thursday, November 5 for Woody LaBounty's presentation about his new book Carville-By-The-Sea: San Francisco's Streetcar Suburb. The program will begin at 6 p.m. in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room B on the lower level of the Main Library with a book signing following the presentation.  Mr. LaBounty will talk about San Francisco's quirkiest and least-remembered communities. In the late 19th century the community began out in the sand dunes by converting old transit cars into cottages and clubhouses. 

If you would like to learn more about Carville before or after the program, please come visit the San Francisco History Center or view sources online through the San Francisco Public Library's Web site.

In the San Francisco History Center, ask at the reference desk for the Vertical File "San Francisco. Districts. Carville."  In the file you will find newspaper clippings and magazine articles about the Carville buildings and community. While you're in the Center, you may want to read the article "A City of Cars" by Gibbs Adams in Overland Monthly, v. 52, November 1908. The contemporary article highlights the community with wonderful photographs.

Through the online San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, you may browse digitized images of Carville. With a San Francisco Public Library card, one can view articles about Carville in the San Francisco Chronicle Historical database. The San Francisco Chronicle article "Burn the Car Out of Carville Residents of Oceanside Celebrate" dated July 6, 1913 reports on the Fourth of July celebration, spearheaded by the Oceanside Improvement Club,  which burned over 30 cars. The article reminisces about the old Carville community.

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS

Altar de Muertos (Guadalajara: Padi, 2009)

For me, Halloween usually conjures up images of goblins and witches, scary-looking carved pumpkins, Mischief Night capers, and enough candy corn to make my teeth hurt. But a recent trip to Mexico introduced me to a different autumn tradition, a more personal and folkloric celebration of the dearly departed. Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a life affirming fiesta. Families and friends gather in cemeteries during the last days of October through November 2 to honor loved ones with decorated altars and offerings (ofrendas) of holiday candies and favorite foods, incense, candles, water, bread, papel picado (colorful paper cutouts), and flowers (the most traditional flower used is the marigold). Personal items may also be displayed. This annual ritual enables families and friends to visit together, care for the grave, and honor ancestors.

Wandering the old town, I stopped at a small art shop, and found hanging just inside the door an intricately designed paper altar. This magical creation was the perfect acquisition to honor the lives of two of the Library's dearly departed. And so our Altar de Muertos is displayed in the Rare Book Room, in remembrance of Nat Schmulowitz, beloved founder of the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, and his devoted sister and benefactor, Kay Schmulowitz.

Nat Schmulowitz, 1889-1966

The following titles, and many others, are available at the San Francisco Public Library. Try a subject search for All Souls' Day:

Annual El Día de los Muertos Celebration, San Francisco, California / Galería de la Raza (San Francisco: Galería de la Raza, 1989)

El Corazón de la Muerte: Altars and Offerings for Days of the Dead by Chiori Santiago (Heyday Books; Oakland Museum of California, 2005)

Days of the Dead: Mexico's Festival of Communion With the Departed by John Greenleigh (Collins Publishers San Francisco, 1991)

The Mexican Day of the Dead: An Anthology, compiled by Chloë Sayer (Shambhala Redstone Editions, 1994)

Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead by Stanley Brandes (Blackwell, 2006)

A Través de los Ojos del Alma: Día de Muertos en Mexico/Through the Eyes of the Soul: Day of the Dead in Mexico by Mary J. Andrade (La Oferta Review Newspaper, 1998)