A Dickens of a Resolution

NQUESTIONABLY, Charles Dickens had an inventive genius, but for certain former students who were "encouraged" to read his novels in their youth, he also has considerable baggage. So it wasn't until a bit later in life--and with the encouragement of another student/colleague who was taking a course in nineteenth-century English literature--that I found the nerve to read my first Dickens novel, and a hefty one at that: Bleak House. Reader, it is a wondrous tale (wait until you read about the rag-and-bone man). After Bleak House, I gobbled up more of the Victorian master's fare: Dombey & Son, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities; yet Bleak House remains my all-time favorite. By the end of this juicy feast, I was completely bloated with Charles Dickens and stopped reading him entirely.

Toward the end of this year I heard from yet another friend who was all fired up by Charles Dickens. "Hmm," I thought, "Might it be time once again to pick up one of his tales?" I chose The Old Curiosity Shop, the story of the journey and hardships of Little Nell, first serialized in 1840-41 in Master Humphrey's Clock. With seventy-three chapters, this saga could take quite a while to plow through, but reading it as originally published by the author--a few chapters at a time--seems almost effortless. Plus, I like to savor Dickens, the way I savor tiny morsels of my favorite foods.

Populated with eccentric characters, unforgettable scenes, and language at once comic, tragic, and brilliant ("a pestiferous old slaughter house" is a memorable line), The Old Curiosity Shop and its main character had become, by the time of his death, Dickens' trademark. Reading this story in the twenty-first century, after the rise and decline of interest in Little Nell, is for me a sort of revelation, and an antidote for the hustle and bustle at the close of 2009.

So here's my resolution for the New Year: I will read at least one story or novel (to the end) by Charles Dickens every year. I'll check back next year around this time with the results for 2010. Happy New Year!

Images: "The Old Curiosity Shop," Master Humphrey's Clock, vol. 1 (1841)
Courtesy Grabhorn Collection on the History of  Printing & the Development of the Book
San Francisco Public Library

The novels of Charles Dickens may be borrowed from the Main  Library and most branches. For more on the life and work of this great novelist and social reformer, read the essay "Victorian Novelists Before 1885," in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, volume 21; and his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, volume 5. For readers with San Francisco Public Library cards, these resources are also available in the online databases Literature Resource Center and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Biographies, letters, literary criticism, and the periodicals published by Dickens (Household Words, All the Year Round) may also be found in the library's collections. To learn about nineteenth century London (and before), take a look at this incredible three-volume gazetter:  London, Past and Present; Its History, Associations, and Traditions by Henry B. Wheatley (1891). As always, when in doubt, ask a librarian!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tuer

 Image: Andrew W. Tuer, Old London Street Cries (1885)
Courtesy Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, San Francisco Public Library

 
Andrew White Tuer, one of the bright lights of Victorian England, was a publisher of antique-inspired imprints. Born on Christmas Eve, 1838, in the north of England, he was schooled for the religious life, which didn't take; he then moved to London and medical school, which didn't take either. Instead, experiments in printing laid the fruitful groundwork for a life in publishing. In 1862, Tuer and his partner opened the prolific and renowned Field & Tuer, where they produced illustrated books reminiscent of eighteenth-century chapbooks under the imprint Ye Leadenhall Presse. Tuer was passionate about popular culture of that time; his books often used seemingly crude but charming wood engravings by Joseph Crawhall (1821-1896), another north countryman who is remembered today for his hand-colored and comic woodcuts.

Andrew Tuer is less-readily remembered. When he is, it's usually for his History of the Horn Book (1868) or Bartolozzi and His Works (1881), but the curious reader might be interested to know that Tuer was also an inventor ("Stickphast" glue, among other inventions specific to the book trades) and a collector of clocks, prints, children's books, and lottery advertisements. His compilation Quads for Authors, Printers & Devils  (1884) provided a bellyful of trade-specific jokes, lending to his everlasting fame in printing circles.

Andrew Tuer died at the age of sixty-one on February 24, 1900. In reporting his death, the London Times noted that his most popular work, Old London Street Cries and Cries of Today "is now in its 76th thousand" printing. A "widely known and versatile man." Indeed! 

Many of Andrew Tuer's books may be found at the San Francisco Public Library. In the online catalog, search by author (Tuer, Andrew White) or publisher (Field & Tuer; Leadenhall Press). While you're exploring the library, check in at the Magazines & Newspaper Center, where you'll find the complete London Times from its inception, plus the full index to the newspaper.

Image: Quads for Authors, Editors, & Devils edited by Andrew W. Tuer (1884)

Courtesy Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor, SFPL

Read more about Andrew White Tuer:

J. P.T. Bury, "A.W. Tuer and the Leadenhall Press," The Book Collector 36, no. 2 (Summer 1987), 225-243.

A.F. Johnson, "Old-face Types in the Victorian Age,"  The Monotype Recorder 30, no. 242 (1931), 5-14.

Holmes for the Holidays

In just a few days, Guy Ritchie's latest, Sherlock Holmes, will be opening in a theater near you. We haven't a clue whether the latest cinematic incarnation of the Victorian super sleuth, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, will be a stunning success or a devastating disappointment. However, we can tell you about the Sherlock Holmes Collection at SFPL's Book Arts & Special Collections department on the sixth floor of the Main Library.

Image from "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventure I - A Scandal in Bohemia" by A. Conan Doyle. Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, July-Dec. 1891.

Anthony Boucher's Sherlockiana Collection came to the library through a donation by the Scowrers and the Molly Maguires, a local Sherlockian group. First editions, foreign translations, criticism, periodical and biographical material relating to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes are included among these 250 volumes.

Here are just a few items from the collection that you can view here on the 6th Floor:

• Baker Street: a musical adventure of Sherlock Holmes / book by Jerome Coopersmith ; music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel ; adapted from the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
• The Sherlock Holmes Cartoon Book / by Marc Bilgrey.
• The Adventures of Picklock Holes : together with a perversion and a burlesque / by R.C. Lehmann ; with illustrations by E.T. Reed and E.J. Wheeler.
• The Baker Street Journal - An irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana produced by the Baker Street Irregulars.
• The Sherlock Holmes Journal -  from the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. 
• The Strand Magazine - stories of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson first appear in the July 1891 issue.

While most of this collection may be found in the online catalog (do a "call no." search for HOLMES), some materials remain to be cataloged. Patrons should also use the department's card catalog. Ask a librarian for more information.

Want to take some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective adventures home with you? It's elementary, my dear patron! Just check out the Mystery section on the first floor of the Main Library or at your nearest SFPL branch.

Image: First page of "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventure IV - The Boscombe Valley Mystery" by A. Conan Doyle. Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, July-Dec. 1891.

San Francisco SPCA Archives

These days, mention of the San Francisco SPCA usually brings to mind images of adorable dogs and cats. After all, that's who sits in the Macy's holiday windows. But other animals figure prominently in the organization's history: the sight of a mistreated hog is what prompted James S. Hutchinson to found the San Francisco SPCA in 1868.

Earlier this month, the San Francisco SPCA donated its archives to the San Francisco History Center, and while there is plenty of material about cats and dogs, there's plenty more about other animals, especially horses. Here's a page from a record book of prosecutions for mistreatment of animals, dated 1879:

SF SPCA Record book entries, 1879. Image courtesy of San Francisco History Center

This record book, along with over 30 cubic feet of reports, publications, photographs, ledgers, and other records, documents a unique aspect of our city's history: the relations between its human and animal residents. The San Francisco History Center is thrilled to be the new home of this collection. Thank you, San Francisco SPCA!

You can view more images of the San Francisco SPCA archives on the library's facebook page.

Dance with Me in San Francisco

Dance cards, 1874-1877, courtesy of San Francisco History Center 

As I was looking forward to the upcoming talk by Joanna Gewertz Harris about her book, Beyond Isadora: Bay Area Dancing, the Early Years 1916-1965, I began digging around in the San Francisco History Center's Vertical Files again, this time under the subject heading Dance. What I found turned my historical attention from the 20th century back to the 19th, and from the performance dance scene to the social ballroom: a set of 24 dance cards from various dances held in San Francisco from 1872-1891.

A dance card is a classic example of ephemera: printed material produced for a one-time event or use that sometimes gets tossed out and sometimes (luckily for us) gets saved as memorabilia. It's a small, decorative, fold-out card or booklet in which a person (usually a woman) attending a social dance or ball pencils in her planned dance partners for the evening. As you can see from the pictures, dance cards are extremely varied and often whimsical; and in addition to dance partners, they show the date and place of the event, the order and types of dances on the evening's program, and club officers and/or planning committee members. Most have (or had) ribbons on the corner for attaching to the holder's wrist or clothing.
So, next Wednesday, after you've attended the Art, Music, & Recreation Center's program in the Koret Auditorium, stop by the San Francisco History Center and ask to look at the dance cards in the vertical files.




  


 

How to Find a Photograph of a Building 101

Every day, researchers come into the San Francisco History Center to research buildings but many may start researching at home or at work with the Center's helpful online guide, How to Research Your San Francisco Building. A frequently asked question at the Photo Desk is, "I would like to find a photograph of my building." The best way to begin the search is by using the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection's online database, with over 38,000 images. Begin the search with the street name, building name or business name.  Most of the images are not cataloged by address, but there are close to 300 images with the subject heading "residences," not quite 200 images with the subject heading "buildings," and over 500 with the subject heading "businesses" that may include the address or name of the significant owner. After the search of that database has been exhausted, one collection to use is the San Francisco Assessor's Office Negative Collection.

Sacramento Street, 325

In the 1980s, the San Francisco Public Library received over 3,000 negatives from the Assessor's Office. The collection includes properties photographed by the Assessor's Office from the late 1940s to the early 1960s.The properties were photographed as part of the process of appraising property values. In general, assessments were determined with the sale of the property, or when permits had been issued, or when new buildings were constructed. The collection guide is divided into three sections: alphabetically by street name, numerically by block number and alphabetically by business name.  The street name and block number sections do not cross-reference each other; the researcher should check both sections. If an adjacent address is listed, the researcher may want to view the adjacent property.  Many times, the Assessor's Office  photographed the adjacent property in order to properly assess the value of the focus property. For example, the image above is listed in the alphabetical list by street name as "Sacramento Street, 325 - Precision Printing Co."  What is not noted in the guide listing is that Vincent's Barber Shop also had the address 325 Sacramento Street and that 333 Sacramento Street, Dickey and Harleen Studios is partially shown. The photograph was taken on January 28, 1962 (at a closer look, one can see the Assessor's Office photographer's reflection in Vincent's Barber Shop window). Through the years the buildings have remained intact and have not been altered too much, only the businesses have changed.

 In order to use the collection guide section by block number, the researcher needs to know the block number of the building. To find the block and lot number of a property, use the San Francisco Office of Assessor-Recorder's link "find a map of a property." For the property, one can view the parcel information.When the envelope of negatives are pulled by block number, the envelope can include anywhere from one negative to 12 strips of 35mm negatives. The image below is negative #21 from one of the strips in the envelope "Block 520" listed in the guide numerically by block number. The address for this building is 1760 - 1770 Filbert Street. Many of the negatives arrived from the Assessor's Office without dates.  The researcher will need to use deductive skills in order to date the negative (i.e., the era of the cars parked in front of the home).

Block 520

Once a property has been identified on any of the lists, the researcher will want to come in during the open hours of the Photo Desk to view the negatives. To examine the negatives, white gloves will be provided for the researcher to wear, and a light box, loupe and/or magnifying glass will be available for use.  Reproductions may be requested. As patrons order scans from the San Francisco Assessor's Office Negative Collection, the scans have been cataloged and added to the online database.

Spotlight on Collections: Visitors to San Francisco

For today's post, I'd like to call your Web 2.0 attention to an offline, oft-used research tool here at the San Francisco History Center: our beloved card file.

That's right, the old-time wooden contraption with drawers, wherein lie paper cards with typed citations to newspaper and magazine articles, pages in books, and other printed matter.

One of the treasures within our San Francisco card file is an extensive section (2 drawers-full) on Visitors. It includes people like Jim Davis, creator of the Garfield comic (visited November 1984), who is filed alphabetically next to Moshe Dayan (visited April 1975); the Dalai Lama (mulitiple visits) abuts Salvador Dali (August 1941).

 My personal favorite is Lassie, T.V. dog star (July 1969), next to Laszlo, Istvan, Hungarian rebel (Dec. 1956).

I love the democracy and serendipity of alphabetical order, don't you?

So, the next time you're wondering if your favorite official, celebrity, or other VIP has graced our city with her/his appearance, consider stopping by to consult our Visitors card file!

Actors Jed Allan and Jack De Mave visiting students at 

Commodore Stockton Elementary School with Lassie. 

[ca. 1969]. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical 

Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library

Book Arts & Special Collections Center's Annual Holiday Lecture tonight!

San Francisco Department of the Environment Lunch Presentation

The San Francisco Department of the Environment has invited the San Francisco History Center's Photo Curator to do a lunch presentation about San Francisco's eco-activism of the past. Tracing San Francisco's Environmental Activism: A Historical Photo Album Presentation will be at the EcoCenter Office in the Department of the Environment at 11 Grove Street on Wednesday, December 2 from 12:00 - 1:00pm. Please join us for this monthly brown bag series!

Here is the Department of the Environment's description of the talk:

Environmental activism is embedded in the genetic DNA of San Francisco.  From the moment of its early settlement history to the present time, generations of San Francisco residents have left indelible marks in pioneering forward-thinking environmental ideas that are the root of today's modern environmental thoughts.  Concepts such as open spaces, zero waste, and urban agriculture had provoked impassioned public reaction in San Francisco's history, and archival photographs have served as evidential truths to these memories.

Join Christina Moretta, photo curator of the San Francisco Public Library, for a historical photo album presentation on San Francisco's eco-activism past, and learn about the freeway revolts of the 1950s and 1960s, the prequel history on garbage, San Francisco's love affair with urban gardening, and more.  

                                                                                                                        

In keeping with the presenter's professional affiliation, the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection was an invaluable source in preparing for the presentation. Other resources explored for the talk include the following:

Cry California published by California Tomorrow  

Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco by Philip Dreyfus

City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco by Chester Hartman

San Francisco History Center Vertical Files Collection - specifically, the "Freeways" files

From Our Test Kitchen: Turkey Hash

Wondering what to do with the last of your Thanksgiving leftovers? Let this month's Test Kitchen recipe take care of it: Turkey Hash, on page 59 of Bradley Ogden's Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner: Savory American Fare for Contemporary Cooks, available for browsing here in the San Francisco History Center.

The recipe calls for forming the hash into patties, but in my test kitchen, they didn't stick, so I just made a "sling hash," and it tasted just fine!

Turkey Hash cell phone photo  by Wendy Kramer

 Choice comments from San Francisco History Center staff:
"Well, it's better than the Alligator Pear recipe."

Another anonymous librarian said:
"Wow, it's like the Thanksgiving dinner I never had."                              

The cookbook was published in the 1990s, but the taste was completely end-of-aughts.