Do 10 Pictures Say 10,000 Words?
For the past who-knows-how-many months - I'll say seven - I've been nose deep in books. Some exciting, some boring, some valuable, and some that leave me wondering how they ever got published. My local library (quick plug for local libraries!) has been indispensable as a resource for information about San Francisco and the Gold Rush, as has Google (quick plug for local Googles!) with its vast collection of digitized old books from the 1850s. I literally click my mouse buttons and books appear on my screen. As a result I haven't had to move much and my butt has grown into my office chair.
I'm now coming to the point where it's time to venture outside and see what lies beyond the computer screen. One of the reasons is that I'm starting to see facts repeat themselves in the books I'm looking through, and the other reason is that I'm feeling, frankly, a little ashamed. Why? Because I haven't been to the Bancroft yet.
The Bancroft Library, for those of you who know the Bay Area or know a little something about the academic world, is one of the most vital resources for California history in the country. Its collections are truly an embarrassment of riches, but what's even more embarrassing is that I haven't once been to see them. Not once. The library is only a mile and a half down the road.
So I decided yesterday that the time has long since come to pry myself away from Google Books and schedule a visit. I went to Bancroft's website, found its hours, and poked around its catalogs a little bit to narrow down what I should look for. Immediately I found an index called: "The Chinese in California." It's over 400 pages of descriptions of photos, drawings, letters, journals, and more. And a lot of it online! Of course I had to start clicking.
What I found was really cool, especially the images. The 1850s was a time when photography was just getting off the ground and starting to become a common way of capturing scenes. Up until that point artists drew what they saw, and so the images of San Francisco during the Gold Rush is a fun and interesting mix of artistic renderings and photographic realism. Here are a few:
The Bancroft has drawings and photographs of 1850s San Francisco as well. These will be especially valuable to me as I attempt to describe to readers what the burgeoning city looked like. For example:
I love images. I could try ten different ways to describe a street in San Francisco, but once you see a picture of it, you get it. For those who are familiar with the layout of the city, it's even cooler to see scenes of rickety wooden buildings and sand dunes where today we see stately Victorians and Twitter. It just makes everything come so much more alive. I plan to use as many images as I can get my hands on for this book.
So thank you, Bancroft Library, although you shouldn't have put so many items online. I may never leave this office chair again!
I'm now coming to the point where it's time to venture outside and see what lies beyond the computer screen. One of the reasons is that I'm starting to see facts repeat themselves in the books I'm looking through, and the other reason is that I'm feeling, frankly, a little ashamed. Why? Because I haven't been to the Bancroft yet.
The Bancroft Library, for those of you who know the Bay Area or know a little something about the academic world, is one of the most vital resources for California history in the country. Its collections are truly an embarrassment of riches, but what's even more embarrassing is that I haven't once been to see them. Not once. The library is only a mile and a half down the road.
So I decided yesterday that the time has long since come to pry myself away from Google Books and schedule a visit. I went to Bancroft's website, found its hours, and poked around its catalogs a little bit to narrow down what I should look for. Immediately I found an index called: "The Chinese in California." It's over 400 pages of descriptions of photos, drawings, letters, journals, and more. And a lot of it online! Of course I had to start clicking.
What I found was really cool, especially the images. The 1850s was a time when photography was just getting off the ground and starting to become a common way of capturing scenes. Up until that point artists drew what they saw, and so the images of San Francisco during the Gold Rush is a fun and interesting mix of artistic renderings and photographic realism. Here are a few:
A drawing of a scene from a Chinese theater:
A (rather racist) drawing of Chinese men gambling:
A photo of a marriage ceremony:
The Bancroft has drawings and photographs of 1850s San Francisco as well. These will be especially valuable to me as I attempt to describe to readers what the burgeoning city looked like. For example:
A drawing of San Francisco in 1851:
A drawing of San Francisco in the early 1850s:
A photo of a view down Sacramento Street to the water (with ship masts in the distance) in 1855:
A photo of North Beach and Alcatraz in 1855. The posts are marking off water lots (to be filled and sold):
A photo of Telegraph Hill and North Beach from the water in 1855. This is what new arrivals would have seen to their right after they passed through the Golden Gate:
I love images. I could try ten different ways to describe a street in San Francisco, but once you see a picture of it, you get it. For those who are familiar with the layout of the city, it's even cooler to see scenes of rickety wooden buildings and sand dunes where today we see stately Victorians and Twitter. It just makes everything come so much more alive. I plan to use as many images as I can get my hands on for this book.
So thank you, Bancroft Library, although you shouldn't have put so many items online. I may never leave this office chair again!
I like the HIGH AND DRY picture as I had no idea old ships were turned into storehouses and hotels. I looked this up and it's fascinating, some artifacts are left in the SF Maritime History Museum, which I now want to visit, if you ever want to go, although it is more than 1.5 miles away...
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Cindy, this is another part of San Francisco that makes its history so funky. San Francisco had so many abandoned ships (due to the sailors rushing for the gold in them thar hills) and with shelter in such short supply, it made sense at the time to re-purpose them. The Niantic (in the picture) was probably the most famous. It was used as a hotel for a couple years until it burned down in one of the city's countless fires.
DeleteI agree, it looks like the Maritime Museum is a great place to check out. Will you go with me next time you're in California, perhaps?
I'm glad you're leaving the homey world of our upstairs office and the Internet and heading to the exciting land of books! :) I think the Bancroft will be interesting and fruitful.
ReplyDelete