My Halloween Costume



Calvo. Anatomies Atomique (1946)
Courtesy The Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor

I recently discovered this exquisite corpse game in the French language section of the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor (SCOWAH). Published just after World War II, Anatomies Atomiques was illustrated by the French cartoonist Edmond-Francois Calvo (1892-1958). This version of the game has 4,098 different combinations. The last page depicts one of my favorites, so very appropriate for this time of year. Happy Halloween!

Researching a San Francisco Building

Here at the San Francisco History Center, buildings are one of our most popular topics for researchers. People who are researching their homes, building historians compiling information for neighborhood surveys, students in architecture and urban planning, and others interested in local buildings and the people who design, build, and live in them all visit the 6th floor for maps, files, microfilms, books, journals, and online resources about San Francisco buildings.

On Wednesday, October 27, 2010, the Main Library is hosting two public programs about San Francisco Bay Area buildings and architecture: Researching a San Francisco Building and Women with T-Squares: San Francisco's Early Female Architects. The presentations will be at 12 noon and 6 p.m. respectively, and both will be held at the Main Library, Lower Level, in the Latino/Hispanic Room B.

Exterior of 1197 Dolores Street, March 1, 1938. Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

At Researching a San Francisco Building, a librarian/archivist from the San Francisco History Center will discuss how to research the history of a San Francisco house or commercial building. The workshop will provide an overview of both print and online resources to help answer questions such as the age of the building, who owned it or lived in it, and how to find a historical photograph of it. 

At Women with T-Squares, author Inge Horton will discuss early women architects of the San Francisco Bay Area who were contemporaries of Julia Morgan. Copies of her new book, Early women architects of the San Francisco Bay Area: the lives and work of fifty professionals, 1890-1951, will be available. 

Hope to see you there at one or both of these programs!

Insurance and the 1906 Earthquake and Fire

If you're reading this year's One City One Book selection, Zeitoun, you probably have your mind on hurricanes and floods. But in San Francisco, the natural disaster par excellence is earthquakes, especially the 1906 earthquake and fire. The San Francisco History Center has an archival collection that uniquely documents that disaster from the point of view of the insurance industry:  Royal Indemnity Company Records of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, 1890-1987 (bulk 1901-1911). 

Royal Insurance Company pamphlet, 1928

The San Francisco earthquake and fire stands as one of the most significant natural disasters in United States history, but it is also extremely important in insurance history. After the disaster, many insurance companies could or would not pay claims in full for a variety of reasons: many companies suffered grave local losses themselves, some were financially unprepared to cover the policies they had written, and still others engaged in unethical business practices.

The Royal Indemnity Company Records document the practices of insurance companies after the disaster, specifically highlighting the fair practices of the Liverpool & London & Globe, Royal, and Queen Insurance Companies, who were lauded by the media and their industry as three of only five insurance companies that always paid their adjusted insurance claims in full, without discount.

London & Lancashire Fire Insurance Company pamphlet, undated

The collection includes correspondence, ledgers of claims, minutes, and other operational documents; technical, scientific, financial, and personal reports about the disaster; a large scrapbook of newspaper articles spanning 1906-1908 pertaining to insurance practices; publications, and photographs.

Of particular interest are the graphic representations of the rebuilt Royal Insurance Company building at 201 Sansome Street, including internal and external photographs depicting before, during and after construction images; an advertising brochure for tenants; and a vanity publication showcasing the reconstructed building.

Royal Insurance Building advertisement, [1909]

The collection also provides a fascinating practical insight into the cultural and psychological context of post-1906 San Francisco -– determined optimism and an effort toward order during a period rife with desperation and chaos. The Royal Indemnity Company Records offer an intimate view into the heart of a business that is not allowed to falter even under the most extreme conditions.

If you'd like to see the Royal Indemnity Company Records, please visit the San Francisco History Center during our open hours. To view the photographs from the collection, please visit during Photo Desk hours. For a guide to the collection, click here.

Images from Royal Indemnity Company Records of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, 1890-1987 (bulk 1901-1911) (SFH 16), courtesy San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

A Chance Encounter With Papergirl

Image courtesy of  Papergirl San Francisco

A Sunday walk through Golden Gate Park brought me smack dab in the middle of a pack of bike riders distributing free rolled up art pieces called Papergirl. I had heard about this mailart distribution project through a zinester friend, and hoped to find an example of this once-a-year production for the Little Maga/Zine Collection. But I hardly knew where or when I would find them.


Now, hearing a commotion of whoops and cries from the back of the bandshell, I knew something was up: turns out I accidentally stepped into a performance ride of Papergirl San Francisco. Who could resist a cheer for the bike-riding paper girls and boys, their baskets full of color? A paper girl tossed me a roll wrapped in aquamarine tissue. I love the concept: these performance artists have updated and played with the familiar image of the neighborhood paper boy. They send out a call for artwork, gather up all the responses sent from around the world (no stretched canvas, please), then put the works on display. Finally, they assemble the pieces newspaper-style for distribution. Every roll is different: mine has a large format zine, several single artist illustrations, a photograph, and the commemorative poster showing a large map of the course traveled through the city by members of Papergirl on a single day of distribution.

Papergirl: a great idea made real on a beautiful Sunday in October; a mailart distribution project, a performance piece, bringing free art to the people using a folkloric image that everyone can relate to. Come see our copy of Papergirl San Francisco in the Little Maga/Zine Collection, part of the Book Arts & Special Collections Center. Then ask for a random assortment of zines--it's all about chance encounters!

SFPL Call for Zines

We're busy cataloging the collection, so be sure to check the online catalog (search by call number = little magazines or by title or keyword). You can also check our finding aid (listed by title only). If you'd like us to consider your San Francisco zine for the collection, please visit, call or write us.


See photographs of the Papergirl 2010 distribution and read more about the original Papergirl.

A Day at the Beach, October 7, 1906

Here in the archives, there are some days when there is a small amount of time for me to flip through a photograph album and look at all of the photographs! Today I was going through S.A. Minnich's Photograph Album (SFP-27) for a request from a patron.  The vernacular photography in the album record Minnich's time here in San Francisco between May 1906 and May 1907.  The photographs document refugee camps, reconstruction of the city and the Streetcar Strike - with in between moments of frivolity.  I was struck by the above snapshot - rolled up bloomers and pants, glistening sun on the ocean and and an eager dog. Then I noticed the date - one hundred and four years ago today.

These snapshots continue our blog nod to this year's One City One Book selection, Zeitoun. The photograph album represents how a city rebuilds itself after a devastating disaster.

Paul Radin Papers

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the "Second New Deal," in which the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Rural Electrification Administration were enacted. In honor of this anniversary, and with a nod to this year's One City One Book selection, Zeitoun, today's post features a New Deal-era archival collection about immigrants: the Paul Radin Papers.

This four-box collection consists mostly of survey files from a State Emergency Relief Administration of California project headed by anthropologist Paul Radin in 1934-1935. More than 200 workers interviewed people from dozens of ethnic groups living in San Francisco. Known as SERA project 2-F2-98 (3-F2-145), the survey's abstract was published in 1935 as The Survey of San Francisco's Minorities: Its Purpose and Results. Interviewers wrote up their findings variously as stories, narratives, correspondence, analysis, and autobiography.

The files include both typed and handwritten notes and cover all aspects of immigrants' lives, including their circumstances in coming to San Francisco and what their lives were like once they got here. There is also quite a bit of folklore;  Radin's assistant Jon Lee compiled extensive materials on Chinese immigrants and Chinese folklore, which was later published in his book The Golden Mountain: Chinese Tales Told in California.

For more information about the Paul Radin Papers, you can read the finding aid on the Online Archive of California, then visit the San Francisco History Center to look at the surveys themselves.

Images are from Series 1: Radin Ethnic Surveys (General), folder 2/20: Miqueton; and Series 4: Italians Survey Cards, in the Paul Radin Papers (SFH 23), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.