The Poetry of Provenance, or, Where Did That Clipping Come From?

Remember  Miss Rhoda Thomson, the "Girl Star Gumshoer" featured in one of the newspaper clips posted last month from an as-yet-to-be-revealed SFPD scrapbook source?

Well, I think she offers an object lesson in how archives convey meaning through context. The woman and the clipping are interesting in and of themselves, but they get even more interesting as we broaden the frame of reference until we see the set of San Francisco Police Department scrapbooks in which this clipping appears.

San Francisco Police Department scrapbooks

The scrapbooks pictured here (despite the labels, they're not invoices) are from a set of eight surviving out of at least fourteen volumes kept by artist, photographer, criminal investigator, and handwriting expert Theodore Kytka from 1897 through 1917. Here he is in his San Francisco laboratory, amidst his special photography equipment and blown-up handwriting documents. You can see what are probably the scrapbooks in the background:

Theodore Kytka in his laboratory

Why are these scrapbooks here with the San Francisco Police Department archives? Because chief among Kytka's many clients worldwide was the SFPD. Kytka was appointed a special police officer in the Detective Department in 1909 (see the Municipal Record v. 2 1909, pg. 467). He worked as an investigator and expert witness in many high-profile San Francisco cases, including the Black Hand extortion rackets.

Theodore Kytka Scrapbook / Black Hand

Theodore Kytka Scrapbook

Kytka's professional life was eclectic, and his scrapbooks reflect that. He immigrated to the US from Vienna in 1887, arriving in San Francisco from the Midwest in the early 1890s. Beginning as an artist and photographer, he set up a studio and worked for local newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, The Wasp, and City Argus. On the page pictured at right, you can see letters of reference from former employers in Chicago and St. Louis, along with a portrait photograph from 1890.

His shift towards criminal investigation began sometime in the late 1890s, close to when the surviving scrapbooks begin. They span almost his entire career as an investigator and handwriting expert, including the years he spent with the SFPD. He developed giant cameras like the one shown in the photograph above, as well as determining a method for transferring fingerprints from one object to another. Since he often found himself in life-threatening investigative situations, he was a crack pistol shot; his target practice sheets are interspersed throughout the scrapbooks. Here's one from 1914:

Theodore Kytka's target practice sheet, 1914

 He also raised wild ducks in his backyard at home on Union Street.

Theodore Kytka Scrapbook

According to his obituary in the Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology v. 10 no. 2 (which you can find from home on JSTOR on the library's website by using your library card), Kytka died in 1919, two years after his surviving scrapbooks leave off.

The Theodore Kytka Scrapbooks are part of the San Francisco Police Department Records (SFH 61). Because the collection is still being processed, some volumes are not yet available for public use. Please contact the San Francisco History Center with questions at 415-557-4567.

Theodore Kytka Scrapbook

Theodore Kytka Scrapbook

All images are from the Theodore Kytka Scrapbooks in the San Francisco Police Department Records (SFH 61), courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.