curated text link

“In 2003, the Library of Congress bought Martin Waldseemüller’s world map for a world record $10 million dollars, because it is the first map to name America and show the Pacific. Widely regarded as ‘America’s birth certificate’, the map was believed lost until found by a Jesuit priest in a castle in Germany in 1900, where it remained 2003, when the library persuaded its owner, a German count, to sell it. Made by Waldseemüller and a team of scholars in Germany in 1507, its distinctive bulb-shaped projection reflects their attempt to keep up with the extraordinary period of rapid discoveries made by the Spanish and Portuguese from the late fifteenth century, including landfalls in southern Africa, India, Asia, and of course, the Americas. At the top of the map are Ptolemy (left) and Amerigo Vespucci (right), whose voyages proved conclusively that America was a separate continent, disproving Columbus’ belief that he had landed in Asia. It is a map that remains full of mysteries: how did Waldseemüller know about the Pacific six years before any European discovered it?” Time.com 2013

https://www.loc.gov/item/2003626426/

https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2015/11/mr-duerer-comes-to-washington/

Time.com

“Ortelius' book of maps, first published in 1570, is considered the first modern world atlas. It was the first time that a set of maps, contemporary to the date of publication, was designed, drawn, and engraved with the intention of publishing them in a bound volume. Ortelius did not refer to his publication as an "atlas," as we know it today. Rather he entitled it "Theater of the World," implying not only that the entire known world could be viewed in this one book, but that the Earth was a stage on which human actions unfolded. Although most of the maps in this book pertain to European countries and provinces, it can be considered a world atlas because it also includes a map of the world (displayed here), as well as one map for each of the four continents. The featured map is from the second state and was published c.1578 and is similar to the first state map, but with a few corrections. It is one of the most recognized maps from the Age of Discovery. This version includes the mythical Great Northern Passage, an irregular "bulge" on the west side of South America and the mythical Great Southern Continent, "Terra Australis Ingognita," roughly in the place of Antartica before its discovery. Most of North America is still based on conjecture and mythology, though he does credit Columbus for its discovery.” Steve Hanon, themapmaven.com

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3200m.gct00003/?sp=18 http://www.themapmaven.com/my-map-gallery

“His Cosmographia of 1544 was the earliest German-language description of the world...The Cosmographia was one of the most successful and popular works of the 16th century. It passed through 24 editions in 100 years. This success was due to the fascinating woodcuts...in addition to including the first to introduce "separate maps for each of the four continents known then-- America, Africa, Asia and Europe." It was most important in reviving geography in 16th century Europe. The last German edition was published in 1628, long after his death...He died at Basel of the plague in 1552.” wikipedia.org

"Excellent example of the earliest separate map of the entire Western Hemisphere. This was also the earliest map to refer to the Pacific Ocean (along with Munster's world map) by a variant of its present name, Mare pacificum. It was one of earliest acquirable maps to show Japan prominently, which is depicted as a large single island called Zipangri (after Polo) just off the coasts of California and Mexico. The depiction of North America is dominated by one of the most dramatic geographic misconceptions to be found on early maps--the so-called Verrazanean Sea. On the map, the Pacific Ocean cuts deeply into North America so that there is only a narrow isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This resulted from the voyage of Verrazano, who mistook the waters to the west of the Outer Banks, the long barrier islands outlining the North Carolina coast, as the Pacific Ocean. The division of the New World between Spain and Portugal is recognized on the map by the flag of Castile planted in Puerto Rico, here called Sciana.”Martaya Lan

https://www.loc.gov/item/2005630225/

“Striking full color example of this fine early map of the World, which first appeared in the third of edition of Quad's Europae totius orbis terrarum, published by Johann Bussemacher. / Quad's map derives from Mercator's planispheric map of 1569, with the addition of the figure of Christ and a quote from Cicero at the bottom. South America includes the large western bulge, as shown in contemporary maps by Mercator and Ortelius. The mythical islands of Groclant, Thule, Frischlant and S. Brandam appear near Greenland. Large Terra Australis Incognita at the bottom of the map, predating the voyages of Le Maire and Schouten which identified the route around Cape Horn--with only the Straits of Magellan showing. / The cartography of Southeast Asia includes references to the mythical lands of Beach and Lucach, based upon Marco Polo, in the general vicinity of Australia, with a note crediting the Venetian for his travels in the region. No sign of the Korean Peninsula. Oddly shaped Japan. Unusual NW coast of America with clearly delineated NW passage and Northeast passage, the former being obscured by the image of Christ. Classic 16th Century cartographic representation of North America, dominated by the conjectural course of the St. Lawrence River reaching to Texas and the Great Plains. Quivira is a town on the west coast of North America. Many other early cartographic misprojections.” Raremaps.com

Barry Ruderman - raremaps.com

“William Berry (1671-1708) was a London bookseller and engraver who produced a series of maps and geographies. In the title to this map of North America he attributes indebtedness to the Nicholas Sanson family. In fact, it is based on the Sanson/Jaillot map of 1674 with the Strait of Anian repositioned. The territory claimed by the English was expanded from the French sources. This remains a large format map in the French tradition, published in London by a cartographer whose best known atlas was referred to as the “English Sanson”.” arkway.com

mapsofpa.com

loc.gov

gizmodo.com

“Didier Robert de Vaugondy’s compilation in 1772 illustrates the history of this cartographic odyssey clearly showing the various depictions of the mapping of California during this period. The map was published in Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopedie, ou Dictioinaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Metiers (Paris, 1751-1778).” exhibits.stanford.edu

“Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy produced their maps and terrestrial globes working together as father and son...The Robert de Vaugondys were descended from the Nicolas Sanson family through Sanson's grandson, Pierre Moulard-Sanson. From him, they inherited much of Sanson's cartographic material, which they combined with maps and plates acquired after Hubert Jaillot's death in 1712 to form the basis the Atlas Universel.” wikipedia.org

Loc.gov

“An impressive, monumental size double hemisphere world map by Dunn. The world map is full of detail, including topography, settlements, Indian tribes in America, etc. There are 15 insets, including celestial charts (both Northern and Southern Hemisphere), the Solar System, a selenographic map of the moon’s surface as well a smaller world map on Mercator’s projection. This version also shows Captain Cook’s and other explorer’s tracks and voyages. Dunn's decorative double hemisphere map of the World, embellished with a number of different Celestial Models, which has been revised to include the discoveries of Captain Cook on his 3 voyages. There is plentiful of descriptive text throughout the map. This is the first edition of the map, published by Robert Sayer.” Liveauctioneers.com

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~3628~420003:Composite--World-or-terraqueous-glo# https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/61185288_1787-dunn-map-of-the-world-and-celestial-maps

“This is the earliest obtainable map of San Francisco Bay. The map may seem a little hard to decipher by modern standards. It is oriented to the Northeast, the peninsula emerging from the right is the location of the modern urban center of modern Francisco, with the Golden Gate being the tiny entrance into he larger bay. The general form of San Pablo Bay, which leads into Suisun Bay is evident at the top of the map. The greater part of San Francisco Bay, extending towards the right side of the map is significantly truncated. The map identifies 21 place names, including Alcatraz, the Presidio, Merced, the Mission of San Francisco, and other landmarks, alphanumerically via a table integrated into the title cartouche...La Perouse did not personally survey the Bay, instead he most likely obtained the data for this map from the Spanish pilot Francisco Antonio Mourelle de la Rúa (1750-1820) in Manilla...La Perouse died tragically on a shipwreck near the Solomon Islands. His journals were shipped back to Europe from Australia before the shipwreck and posthumously published in 1797, along with an accompanying atlas volume, from which this map was drawn, Atlas du voyage de La Perouse.” geographicus.com

Rumsey

“Humboldt, who during his lifetime was considered the world's greatest living man, composed this map during his 1803 sojourn in New Spain (Mexico). Covering from Alta California to Connecticut and from the Great Salt Lake (here Timpanagos) to Honduras...[this map outlines]...the territory that in the coming years would be subsumed into the expanding United States. Humboldt spent part of 1803 and 1804 living in Mexico City as a guest of the Spanish Crown. As such he had access to rarely seen explorer's accounts and earlier mappings available in the Mexico City archives. These he combined with information from his own travels and explorations, as well as indigenous cartographic traditions and his own theoretical understanding of geography, to create this landmark mapping of the North American southwest…” wikipedia.org

stanford.edu humboldt.edu-1 humboldt.edu-2

“Very rare and important chart of San Francisco Bay, the result of the first scientific mapping of the Bay. The chart had a wide influence upon later maps of the area. The chart, with copies and adaptations of it, served to the end of the Mexican period and formed the substantial basis of the earliest ones produced under the American regime. It was deficient only in the region beyond Carquinez Strait. The chart of the entrance contains additional hydrographic data pertinent to entering the port and reaching the chief places of anchorage. Accompanying the chart are elevation views depicting the approaches to the bay and the hazards to navigation.” davidrumsey.com

New York Public Library

https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscowate1977olms/page/280

“Fremont's Map of Oregon and Upper Californi . . . is without question one of the most important 19th Century maps of the American West. As noted by Carl Wheat, "in the history of the American West, the year 1848 is signalized by three events above all others, the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill… the formal close of the Mexican War… which brought the cession of California and New Mexico… and the creation of the Territory of Oregon… All three events figure in the characteristic maps produced during the year, and particularly the cartographic monument of 1848, the magnificent 'Map of Oregon and Upper California'" (Wheat 49)...More than any other persons, John Charles Fremont and Charles Preuss dominate the cartography of the American West during the three years before the Gold Rush and brought a human tide surging into that land which had so long lain beyond the ken of most Americans" (Wheat, Mapping of the Transmississippi West, 523).”

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~1820~170046:Map-Of-Oregon-And-Upper-California-#

https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/60107/rare-gold-rush-edition-map-of-oregon-and-upper-california-fremont-preuss

https://www.loc.gov/item/79692900/

“Nice example of Thomas O. Larkin's map of the Sacramento Valley, including the newly discovered gold regions, the first printed map of the gold regions. Thomas Oliver Larkin was an early California merchant, who served as U.S. Consul to the Province of California and U.S. Consul to the Republic of California, following the Bear Flag Revolt. His 2 letters to the president in June 1848 are two of the earliest communications of the discovery of gold in California sent to the East and his map of the Sacramento Valley was the first printed map to show the Gold Regions. The map shows Ranchos in the Central Valley and along the American river has "Gold Region" on both sides. The original was traced from a map prepared for Bidwell in 1844.” raremaps.com

Image: davidrumsey.com

“The title words including the Gold Region and the designation of the Mining District on the map make this map by Thomas Oliver Larkin, the first and last U.S. Consul to Mexican California, one of the key maps of California history. As Carl Wheat points out in his great cartobibliography, The Maps of the California Gold Region, it ranks as “one of the earliest (if not the earliest)” to denote the discovery area along the American River. In creating this map, Larkin simply took the best-known map of the Sacramento Valley, John Bidwell’s manuscript map of 1844, traced it, and made additions. As delineated by Larkin, the Mining District occupied two ranchos bordering both banks of the American River: Rio de los Americanos Rancho of the late William Leidesdorff and Rancho San Juan of Joel P Dedmund. Larkin sent his tracing back to Boston for publication, and publisher T. Wiley, Jr., for protection, placed the lithographed, hand-tinted map in a protective black cloth folder with the magical words Gold Region gilded on the front cover. On the inside cover, Wiley added a paper label with the words “A Correct Survey Of The Gold Region California.” With a copyright date of 1848, this stands as one of the earliest examples of a publisher taking advantage of the gold fever that was just beginning to sweep across the nation. Given the map’s lack of detail, it can hardly be called a “correct survey”.” californiamapsociety.org

https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/30256/map-of-the-valley-of-the-sacramento-including-the-gold-regio-larkin

“Historic Gold Mines - In recognition of the California Gold Discovery to Statehood Sesquicentennial (1998-2000) CGS produced the Map of California Historic Gold Mines (PDF) (MM 009) as a poster at the scale of 1:1,500,000. The map shows the location of 13,500 historic California gold mines.” CA Department of Conservation

“The California Gold Rush was the largest mass migration in American history since it brought about 300,000 people to California. It all started on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall found gold on his piece of land at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma. The news of gold quickly spread around. People from Oregon, Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and Latin America were the first to hear the breaking news, so they were the first to arrive in order to test their luck in California by the end of 1848. Soon the others from the rest of US, Europe, Australia and China followed and since they mainly arrived during 1849 they were called the “forty-niners”...At first, the gold could be picked up from the ground but later on it was recovered from the streams and rivers with the use of pans. The gold rush peaked in 1852 and after that the gold reserves were getting thinner and harder to reach so that more sophisticated methods of mining had to be employed. The best results were achieved with hydraulic mining although it was environmentally damaging...The gold rush resulted in the hasty development of California: many roads, churches, schools and towns were built to accommodate the gold-diggers. In the beginning, property rights in the goldfields were not covered by law and this was solved by the system of staking claims. The gold also helped to speed up the admission of California into the US as a State. All the preparations in terms of constitution and legislature were made in 1849 and California became a state in 1850.” historynet.com

”The map shows three small sections in outline color, corresponding to the grants to Senora Briones, the claim of the heirs of Col. J.A. King, and the claim of Senor Pana under a Mexican grant. The streets, original lot numbers, government reserver, Yerba Buena Cemetery, and the earliest wharfs are shown, along with Portsmouth Square and Montgomery Fort... William Eddy, surveyor for the town of San Francisco, created this first street map of the city in 1849. Only three years prior to the publication of the map, the United States had taken possession of the portion of California including San Francisco, and the next year, in 1847, an ordinance changed the city’s name from Yerba Buena to San Francisco. That same year, Jasper O'Farrell completed a survey of San Francisco covering 800 acres to Leavenworth and Fourth streets. Eddy’s map extends the city limits to Larkin, Eighth, and Townsend streets. The next year, California became a state.” neatlinemaps.com loc.gov

"Discussions of a railroad from San Francisco to San Jose were under serious discussion as early as 1851, with William J. Lewis serving as Civil Engineer. As noted in the History of Santa Clara County: The calculations for the building of a railroad between San Francisco and San Jose were, at the time, based upon the amount paid out over the route for transportation and freight. It was estimated that for the seven months ending January 31, 1851, there had journeyed between the two points ten thousand five hundred passengers, who had expended the sum of one hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars,...By the month of July, fifty thousand dollars had been subscribed; in December the road had been surveyed, and a report made by the civil engineer, William J. Lewis, that was published December 26,1851...Railroad passenger service between San Jose and San Francisco would not begin until October 1863, with the opening of the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad. While a number of railroads were organized in California in the first half of the 1850s, no railroad would commence operation until 1855, when the Sacramento Valley Railroad began its earliest service.” raremaps.com

wikipedia.org

loc.gov

"A Topographical & Complete Map of San Francisco. Compiled from the Original Map, from the recent Surveys of W.M. Eddy, County Surveyor, and Others."

David Rumsey

“In 1852, the city of San Francisco occupied only the northeastern portion of the peninsula of the same name. The city was also part of the County of San Francisco, which was separately governed and encompassed a much larger area, including what is today San Mateo County. However, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors harbored ambitions to expand the city beyond its modest limits. As the mapping of the city had hitherto generally been limited to the densely settled area in what is now downtown, they commissioned a map that showed the territory west and south of the city. The map embraces the San Francisco Peninsula from San Bruno northwards, with areas of elevation, cliffs, and wetlands, lakes and streams all indicated. Major roads are shown, as are the Presidio and Telegraph Station above Fort Point, and ranchos are identified and their acreage indicated. The vast barren area to the southwest of the Golden Gate is labeled the “Great Sand Bank.” The city limits of San Francisco are demarcated, including the boundary extensions of 1850 and 1851, though the only man-made details within the city itself are Market Street, the “Mission” (Mission Dolores), the Embarcadero, and an adjacent brickyard.” bostonraremaps.com

UC Berkeley

“Rare first edition of the U.S. Coast Survey map of the City of San Francisco and vicinity. Printed without color. Relief shown by contours and spot heights. Includes note and table of reference to public buildings. 1857 edition marked a significant improvement in the USCS's mapping of San Francisco. Prepared by A.F. Rogers, it captured the tremendous growth of the City, locating wharves, streets, buildings, roads, topographical features and places such as the Union Race Course and Pioneer Race Course, west of the City. While first issued and corrected in 1857, neither of the 1857 editions was never published in the regular annual Coast Survey reports until a revised edition, dated 1859, was issued.” davidrumsey.com

loc.gov etsy.com

“The three Van Ness Ordinances of 1856 to 1858 resulted in the creation and mapping of the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. These five manuscript maps were likely made to show the existing land claims in relation to the newly platted streets, parks, and other public spaces. They may have been used in the subsequent resolution of the various land claims. They show many interesting artifacts of the early settlement of the area before it was officially made a part of the city in the mid 1850's. The 1858 date of the five maps is estimated, based on the creation of the Van Ness map in the same year. Part of the Mission district is also covered..” davidrumsey.com

“As a San Francisco alderman, [James Van Ness] sponsored the "Van Ness Ordinance", which ordered all land within the City limits that was undeveloped at that time (that is, west of Larkin Street and southwest of Ninth Street) to be surveyed and transferred to their original deedholders. Because there were many fraudulent deed holders at that time, this law led to many lawsuits for many years.” wikipedia.org

ct

"Date estimated. Due to the historic practice of delineating city parcels on maps whether or not they were developed, the map user should not be misled as to the extent of development."

David Rumsey

ct

“A rare 1869 U.S. Coast Survey chart or map of San Francisco Peninsula. This map depicts the city of San Francisco and surrounding areas as far south as San Pedro and Millbrae Station. The San Francisco – San Jose Railroad, the first to link the port of San Francisco to the major inland rail yards in San Jose, is clearly noted. This island Alcatraz is also noted with some of its early military fortifications evident. This chart is of significance not only for its stunning detailed mapping of the San Francisco Peninsula, but also because it is one of the first U.S. Coast Survey charts use contour lines to depict topography. The convention would, in subsequent years be adopted by the U.S. Geological Survey – a late 19th century offshoot of the U.S. Coast Survey. This stunning example of the Coast Survey’s work at its finest was completed under the supervision of A. D. Bache by R. D. Cutts, A. M Harrison, and A. F. Rodgers between 1850 and 1857. It is of note that this example of the maps was not issued as part of the U.S. Coast Survey Annual Report, but rather is an independent issued chart on thick stock.” geographicus.com

davidrumsey.com wikipedia.org

Note: see poem in the lower left corner of the map. “To outsiders, San Francisco’s Chinatown, with its 20,000 residents, is a tourist attraction, a special place to shop or stroll along the streets. For the Chinese, however, it is “Tangrenbu,” the port of the city of Tang. Today, Chinatown represents the combination of neighborhood and capital of West Coast Chinese culture...Until April 17, 1906, Tangrenbu was a ghetto where outsiders forced the Chinese to live. The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire that shook, then burned, the city on April 18, 1906, swallowed Tangrenbu whole.” Lost San Francisco, Dennis Evanosky and Eric J. Kos “San Franciscan’s were worried about a Chinese invasion. This map is part of a years-long campaign to stem Chinese immigration and the Chinese influence in San Francisco and to keep the Chinese in their ghetto, Chinatown.” Tom Paper californiahistoricalsociety.org

“This map reflects the pervasive bias against the Chinese in California and in turn further fostered the hysteria. It was published as part of an official report of a Special Committee established by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors "on the Condition of the Chinese Quarter." The Report resulted from a dramatic increase in hostility to the Chinese, particularly because many Chinese laborers had been driven out of other Western states by vigilantes and sought safety in San Francisco...From the report: "The Chinese brought here with them and have successfully maintained and perpetuated the grossest habits of bestiality practiced by the human race." The map highlights the Committee's points, particularly the pervasiveness of gambling, prostitution and opium use. The Report concludes with a recommendation that the Chinese be driven out of the City by stern enforcement of the law.” PJ Mode Collection at Cornell

“Graphic chart of the city and county of San Francisco respectfully dedicated to the leading interests of California and the Pacific coast. The city of San Francisco was incorporated in 1850, and later grew to become one of the most famous cities in the US. The California Gold Rush in 1848 saw the city's population increase from 1,000 to 25,000 over the course of a year. This map published in 1875 by Frederick Marriott of Britton, Rey & Co. from a drawing by L.R. Townsend, E. Wyneken and J. Mendenhall is oriented with north toward the lower right. There are 188 different points-of-interest that are located on this map.” worldmapsonline.com

wikipedia.org loc.gov

“This miniature map of San Francisco features an interior view of the McDonald & Williams “clothing house” as well as a street view placing it at 14 Montgomery, adjacent to Pacific Publishing, the map’s publisher, at 22 Montgomery. The back cover lists “Points of Interest and Information,” including Alcatras (sic) and the U.S. Mint. Timetables for ferries, local trains, and bay and river steamers are listed on the back of the map.” stanford.edu

davidrumsey.com

“The Spring Valley Water Company was a private company that held a monopoly on water rights in San Francisco from 1860 to 1930. Run by land barons, its 70-year history was fraught with corruption, land speculation, favoritism towards the moneyed elite, and widespread ill will from the general populace."

"In 1850 San Francisco was a treeless windswept dunescape, receiving about 22 inches of rain a year, mostly in the winter. The few creeks running through the land could hardly support the instant city rising from the sand. It was clear that water would have to come from outside the city limits, and whoever controlled the water rights and delivery would control the city and its growth, and have unparalleled opportunities for development and great wealth."

"George Ensign rose to the top in a competitive field shrouded in secrecy. The California Legislature had passed an act of eminent domain, permitting the taking of privately held land and water rights for the common good of cities. Thus empowered, George Ensign was able to seize rights of way to store and deliver water to San Francisco. In 1860 George Ensign incorporated the Spring Valley Water Works (later changed to Company), soon to become the state’s most powerful monopoly. For decades to come the power of eminent domain gave for the elite owning the water company an opportunity to acquire empires in real estate with land increasing in value as the water flowed in.” foundsf.org

https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn00813_008/

“San Francisco is unique in California as the only city served predominantly by a combined sewer system. San Francisco collects both sewage and stormwater in the same network of pipes, then treats and discharges the combined flows to San Francisco Bay or the Pacific Ocean. Except for portions of Old Sacramento, all other cities in California have separate sewer systems, which means there are two sets of pipes in the ground. One set of pipes takes sanitary waste to the treatment plant while a second set carries stormwater runoff from street drains directly into creeks, lakes, or the ocean...Many United States cities built prior to 1900 had combined sewer systems. At that time, sewage treatment was not available and sewers simply directed sewage into local water bodies. When sewage treatment became necessary to protect public health, newer cities built separate systems to save on the costs of treating stormwater. Some of the older cities opted to separate their combined systems. San Francisco, already a dense urban environment, decided that separation was too costly and disruptive to the residents. Separating the sewers would have required ripping open nearly every street for stormwater pipe installations. Today, the treatment of stormwater in San Francisco’s combined sewer system helps protect the environment. Many cities that have separate systems are now initiating treatment of urban runoff.” Oakland Museum of CA

davidrumsey.com

“When the idea of Golden Gate Park was first hatched, in the mid-1860's, the whole world scoffed: Everyone knew that the western half of San Francisco was an arid wasteland of barren sand dunes, upon which nothing could be made to grow. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, in 1873, wrote: "Of all the white elephants the city of San Francisco ever owned, they now own the largest in Golden Gate Park, a dreary waste of shifting sand hills where a blade of grass cannot be raised without four posts to keep it from blowing away..."...Fortunately, San Francisco ignored the conventional wisdom and set about the task of creating America's finest urban park. The two chief requirements were fertilizer and water; the latter was piped in and distributed with the help of the Dutch Windmill that still stands by the ocean near where John F. Kennedy Drive hits the Great Highway, while the former was provided in the form of the copious droppings generously bestowed upon the City's streets by the drays who were, until the 1920's, the mainstay of the local transportation system. Though no reliable estimate of the amount of horse-excrement collected for park fertilizer exists, the total undoubtedly ran into tens, even hundreds of thousands of tons. Despite its "natural" look, Golden Gate Park is a purely artificial paradise. One park gardener, asked to estimate how long the trees and plants would last if the irrigation were cut off, said "it'd be dunes again in ten or fifteen years ... though a few eucalyptus trees might survive." (And speaking of artificial paradises, Golden Gate Park has probably hosted more drug-induced mind-alterations per acre than any other patch of ground in the world.)” foundsf.org

davidrumsey.com sfgate.com sfrecpark.org foundsf.org kalw.org

Map showing the Golden Gate Park, The Avenue And Buena Vista Park. 1903. Lith. Britton & Rey, S.F.

David Rumsey

“A tourist map, pre-earthquake, with great detail of sights, structures, monuments and land contours. Was a fold-out map in a larger 32-page book on San Francisco.” Tom Paper “Important and rare pre-earth-quake San Francisco town plan. Covering from the "Sunset District" and the Blue Mountain, up to the Golden Gate and the northern shore of the city ("being filled") this is a very fine folding map, complete with its original guide. This colour lithographed plan has nice architectural detail for the key buildings. Including : Cliff House, the U.S. Mint, City Hall, the S.F. Examiner building, Wells Fargo, the Institute of Art and the huge Ferry Building.” swaen.com

davidrumsey.com

“The last comprehensive plan San Francisco had for a greenway network was over a hundred years ago, when architect Daniel Burnham proposed it as part of his comprehensive plan for the City....When Burnham submitted completed plans and drawings to the City, Mayor Schmitz declared, “On behalf of the citizens of San Francisco, it gives me great pleasure to accept these plans and to state that in the future, they shall forever be our guiding star, as far as the beauty of the city is concerned.”When Burnham submitted completed plans and drawings to the City, Mayor Schmitz declared, “On behalf of the citizens of San Francisco, it gives me great pleasure to accept these plans and to state that in the future, they shall forever be our guiding star, as far as the beauty of the city is concerned.”...Burham’s plan was released, with great fanfare, just a few weeks before the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. It proposed carving a network of monumental new boulevards and public spaces through the city’s street grid. The plan also proposed that much of what was then undeveloped San Francisco remain as parkland...Although the 1906 Earthquake and Fire devastated two-thirds of San Francisco, the Burnham Plan’s vision for an integrated system of boulevards and parks was largely ignored, and the city’s subsequent development left the city’s parks largely separate from one another.” livablecity.org

davidrumsey.com

“A map of the area of San Francisco burned in the 1906 earthquake, with a overlay half-toned in red of the dramatic fire. The map appears to have been derived from one published in Leslie's Magazine shortly after the earthquake. See ID #1154, "Destruction of One of the Greatest Modern Cities" (1906). A comparison of these two images shows how the use of color and graphics can dramatically change the impact of a map. Despite the sensationalist impression conveyed by Lee's map, the text legend ("Plain Facts") emphasizes that "the beautiful Golden Gate city" has not been "entirely destroyed" and the "new San Francisco will be grander and more beautiful." See also ID #1155, "Ideal Picture and Map of San Francisco," 1906. This map is tipped into the front of Searight's book, published by the publishers of the map, Laird & Lee. However, the map is mentioned nowhere in the book, nor does it appear in the lengthy "List of Illustrations" in the book. It appears that the map was added after publication, which explains why it is found only in a small number of copies. Red is often used to emphasize the significance of fire or other hazards.” PJ Mode

“Panoramic aerial view from above Nob Hill looking southeast, depicting the ruins of San Francisco following the earthquake and fire of 1906, with streets and city blocks. Buildings and landmarks shown in background.” davidrumsey.com

“George Raymond Lawrence (February 24, 1868 – December 15, 1938) was a commercial photographer of northern Illinois. After years of experience building kites and balloons for aerial panoramic photography, Lawrence turned to aviation design in 1910...One of Lawrence's world-renowned photographs is of the ruins of San Francisco, California after the 1906 earthquake. It is a 160-degree panorama from a kite taken 2000 feet (600 m) in the air above the San Francisco Bay that showed the entire city on a single 17-by-48-inch contact print made from a single piece of film. Each print sold for $125 and Lawrence made at least $15,000 (US$ 418,277.78 in 2019) in sales from this one photograph. The camera used in this photograph weighed 49 pounds (22 kg) and used a celluloid-film plate.” wikipedia.org

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:193...

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:193...

https://www.alamy.com/english-an-unusual-map-of-sa...

“Map of San Francisco on sheet 47x54, folded in paper covers 18x8. Copyrighted by August Chevalier, 1915. Shows the "Ground plan of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Relief shown by contours. Includes legend. Shows wards, city blocks, streets, railroads, bridges, tunnels, places of interest, important buildings are drawn in vignettes. Includes index to places of interest at the lower panel and index to theatres, railway depots and post offices at upper right. "Car lines" shown in red. Includes index and text on verso. See our other maps of San Francisco by Chevalier, from which this map is taken.” davidrumsey.com

“August Chevalier (fl. c. 1903 – 1932) was a San Francisco based lithographer active in the first decades of the 20th century. Chevalier is a remarkably elusive figure and little is known of his personal or professional life. He is best known for his large and magnificent topographical map of San Francisco boldly known as 'The Chevalier.' His few other maps also, almost exclusively, focus on San Francisco and the surrounding communities.” geographicus.com

wired.com

Second of two maps of San Francisco and the Bay Area, made by the US Coast Survey in 1918 and 1919, found in a garage in San Francisco. Thanks to Ann Murphy for sharing these map images.

“Geodesy, is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravitational field. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivalent measurements for other planets.” wikipedia.com

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:193...

“Set of 164 black and white negatives of the same Harrison Ryker Aerial 1938 Survey that we scanned for the San Francisco Library (our 5820.000). Negatives have been scanned to positive and the digital files provided by the Western Neighborhoods Project. The database, image processing, and large composite image by David Rumsey.” davidrumsey.com

“The maps were created by Harrison Ryker, an Oakldale-born World War I veteran who studied at U.C. Berkeley. Ryker was an avid photographer and partnered with a number of Oakland Airport-based pilots to take aerial photographs all over the the American West. “In the...Sunset District, the most interesting part is what’s not there,” notes The Richmond District of San Francisco blog. “Blocks and blocks of sand dunes still existed in the heart of the outer Sunset in 1938.”” Aaron Sankin, Huffpost

“Set of 164 black and white negatives of the same Harrison Ryker Aerial 1938 Survey that we scanned for the San Francisco Library (our 5820.000). Negatives have been scanned to positive and the digital files provided by the Western Neighborhoods Project. The database, image processing, and large composite image by David Rumsey.” davidrumsey.com

“The maps were created by Harrison Ryker, an Oakldale-born World War I veteran who studied at U.C. Berkeley. Ryker was an avid photographer and partnered with a number of Oakland Airport-based pilots to take aerial photographs all over the the American West. “In the...Sunset District, the most interesting part is what’s not there,” notes The Richmond District of San Francisco blog. “Blocks and blocks of sand dunes still existed in the heart of the outer Sunset in 1938.”” Aaron Sankin, Huffpost

David Rumsey

“Born in 1899, Ruth Taylor and her family, like many, headed persistently west in the late 19th century, moving from East Coast to West in the span of about 20 years and finally settling in California. According to the 1920 US Census, Taylor seemed to be settling into a pretty normal life--she was married to Leonard White and living in Phoenix, Arizona. Leonard was a life insurance salesman. Two kids followed, and so did divorce. With limited information, it’s easy to fill in the gaps and imagine a disastrous mismatch of temperaments, but all we know is that Ruth and her children moved to California and she began working as an illustrator. Ruth’s artistic training is unclear, but her family proved to be very important in her future work. Several of her early jobs were linked to her brother, Frank J. Taylor (1894-1972). Frank was a journalist and writer, served in World War I, and attended Stanford University. That school connection probably helped Ruth earn one of her early commissions, the cover of the November 1927 The Stanford Illustrated Review.” swaen.com

Davidrumsey.com printsellers.com newspapers.com

GOLD MOUNTAIN, BIG CITY: Ken Cathcart’s 1947 Illustrated Map of San Francisco’s Chinatown, by Jim Schein. (Cameron Books, $40.) Based on Cathcart’s impressions of the neighborhood, this stylized cultural map of the largest Chinese community outside of Asia is brought to life by vivid details and photographs.

Schein & Schein

Link to purchase the book

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RU...

“A pictorial map by Don Bloodgood, who produced similar maps of other cities. The map is a reflection of the optimistic and giddy 1950’s, as well as Herb Caen’s fun-loving San Francisco’s.” Tom Paper

“Pictorial maps (also known as illustrated maps, panoramic maps, perspective maps, bird’s-eye view maps, and geopictorial maps) depict a given territory with a more artistic rather than technical style. It is a type of map in contrast to road map, atlas, or topographic map. The cartography can be a sophisticated 3-D perspective landscape or a simple map graphic enlivened with illustrations of buildings, people and animals. They can feature all sorts of varied topics like historical events, legendary figures or local agricultural products and cover anything from an entire continent to a college campus. Drawn by specialized artists and illustrators, pictorial maps are a rich, centuries-old tradition and a diverse art form that ranges from cartoon maps on restaurant placemats to treasured art prints in museums.” wikipedia.org

davidrumsey.com davidrumsey.com neatlinemaps.com

“A surreal, literary-based, 60-minute audio tour that uncovers dozens of the vessels still buried beneath San Francisco’s Financial District. / James Marshall’s discovery of gold at Coloma in 1848 set in motion a world-wide migration of fortune-seekers to the gold fields of California. In the first year of the gold rush, over 62,000 of those immigrants came by ship, landing in San Francisco and abandoning their vessels as fast as their legs could carry them. / By 1850, the bay held nearly 600 abandoned brigs, barks, ships, and whalers, left to rot by the starry-eyed Argonauts who had crowded aboard to reach their dreams. For most of the Gold Rush fleet, San Francisco was not only their last voyage, but their final mooring, as scores of those vessels still lie beneath the skyscrapers, restaurants, bars, and plazas of downtown San Francisco.” Tavia Stewart, LJ Moore

Armada of Golden Dreams - audio

"Beneath contemporary streets of San Francisco lie the remains of many sailing ships that brought people to San Francisco during the gold rush that began in 1849. The ships have different stories, but many were used at storage as the city's shoreline was expanded outward around them by landfill--some of these and other abandoned ships burned in fires and were buried afterward." San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park

Map by Michael Warner

“Tens of thousands of people rely on this piece of San Francisco daily but might not even realize it is there. The Embarcadero Seawall stretching south along the Bay for more than three miles from Fisherman’s Wharf supports popular spots including the Ferry Building and Oracle Park, along with vital assets like the Transbay Tube, Muni rail lines and power and water systems. But this often unnoticed behemoth is aging, and recent studies have found it’s not fit to deal with the next big earthquake that hits the region or with the sea level rise that’s already threatening more intense flooding along the waterfront...The city is taking action to remedy this aging protector of San Francisco, rallying support from local voters, the state and federal funding sources for a massive repair project estimated to cost $5 billion. The task now is figuring out how to best address the current and future risks.” SF Business Times

CMG Architecture & Design

“This exhibit was hosted on April 18, 2019, at the offices of Webster Pacific in downtown San Francisco. The date, April 18, was not entirely coincidental as it was the anniversary of the great earthquake and fire of 1906. The exhibit was a pop-up, which meant that it was put up and taken down within a span of six hours. Every image was printed and mounted onto a posterboard and then rested on a portable easel. The exhibit remains available as a popup for venues that have 150 lineal feet of wall-space.”

Tom Paper & Jim Schein

“This exhibit was hosted on April 18, 2019, at the offices of Webster Pacific in downtown San Francisco. The date, April 18, was not entirely coincidental as it was the anniversary of the great earthquake and fire of 1906. The exhibit was a pop-up, which meant that it was put up and taken down within a span of six hours. Every image was printed and mounted onto a posterboard and then rested on a portable easel. The exhibit remains available as a popup for venues that have 150 lineal feet of wall-space.”

Tom Paper & Jim Schein