Firsts

Apropos of its being the first month of the new year, this week's post features our card file of  San Francisco "firsts." The San Francisco History Center has an entire drawer's worth of subject cards under the heading "Firsts," neatly alphabetized, with citations to newspaper articles (and sometimes with the clippings pasted right on the card). Below are some of my favorite "S.F. Firsts" cards; if you haven't yet come up with a New Year's resolution, or if you're already discouraged about the one you made, maybe reading about the city's firsts will inspire you to your own:

First:

• arrest by telegraph (1861, one Marguerite Niebla, for kidnapping a child)
• crab race (Nov. 1960 at Fisherman's Wharf)
• escalator in a bank (1948)
• fog signal (a cannon at Point Bonita "some time prior to 1857")
• gold coins ("about the end of 1849")
• hive of bees purchased (Sept. 1854 for $150)
• lipstick machine (for mixing colors to a customer's specifications)
• psychedelic wedding (1967, of course)
• second-hand store (selling your clothes and buying "new" ones was cheaper than sending out laundry)
• speed limit (8 mph, in 1901)
• strike (by Chinese laborers)
• syrup, artificial (the clip on the card doesn't say what flavor)

On a more macro level, the "firsts" card file is strong on racial and ethnic minority firsts, such as first Black Federal Judge, or first Chinese American baseball player to go pro; and "maritime firsts," citing various types of ships, routes, cargoes, and nations that first entered or left San Francisco Bay.

In case you haven't yet seen it on our facebook page, the San Francisco History Center and Book Arts & Special Collections are now open on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Please visit us in the reading room.