Lot Essay
President Polk's 1848 announcement that gold had been discovered in California made an enormous impact. The subsequent onslaught of fortune-seekers and the international interest the announcement created led eager daguerreotypists to San Francisco - between the years 1850 an 1864 approximately fifty of them were in business. As the city expanded rapidly and opportunities abounded, the Gold Rush was one of the first events with worldwide interest to be documented photographically. The mid-nineteenth century was a time of pride for California's residents, and they were eager to share it with the world. Experienced or not, daguerreotypists from all over the United States and Canada grasped at the opportunity to fulfill the public's desire for a glimpse of the City of Gold.
Gold Rush panoramas were made between 1850-53. This one, like the one illustrated in the collection of the George Eastman House (not in the sale) date from 1851 or earlier. The numerous fires that plagued the Bay between the winter of 1849 and and the summer of 1851 help date the images; the First Presbyterian Church, as seen in the second panel from the left, located on Dupont between Pacific and Clay was destroyed in the fire of June 22, 1851. Other identifiable buildings are the Vallejo Street Catholic Church and Telegraph Station atop Telegraph Hill in the second panel to the left; and the El Dorado and the Jenny Lind Theatre (later City Hall) in the second panel from the right. When this panorama was taken, it was estimated that approximately 800 ships filled Yerba Buena Cove. Used as warehouses or hotels after the occupants headed for the gold, some were eventually abandoned altogether. Although the vantage point and the maker are unknown, there were a few daguerreotypists working at the time from similar or somewhat lower points. Among them, a man by the name of S.C. McIntyre, formerly a dentist from Florida, turned to daguerreotypy and made a panorama described in the Alta California of February 1, 1851, as the first of its kind: Decidedly the finest thing in the fine arts produced in this city, which we have seen, is a consecutive series of Daguerrean (sic) plates, five in number, arranged side by side so as to give a view of our entire city and harbor, the shipping, bay, coast and mountains opposite, islands, dwellings and hills - all embraced between Rincon Point on the right, to the mouth of our beautiful bay on the left, included between lines proceeding from the hills to the west of the city as the point of vision. (c.f. Newhall, The Daguerreotype in America). It was from McIntyre's panorama that the French artist Charles Mryon made a widely known etching. Robert H. Vance, the noted Bay Area daguerreotypist, exhibited three hundred panoramas of the west in New York in 1851, including a San Francisco view. Later, after this panorama could have been made, William Shew made five-panel views from a similar point, one of which is now in the Smithsonian. This previously unknown panorama came from the family of Samuel Bigelow Wood, a Sea Captain from San Francisco whose descendants moved to the East in the mid-1940s.
Very few panoramas of San Francisco survive intact. In addition to these plates, other five and six-panel views are in the collection of: The Oakland Museum; The Smithsonian Institution; The Soceity of California Pioneers (4 of 5 panels) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1 of the 5 panels); Zelda Mackay, San Francisco (left side) and the Library of Congress (right side); The American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, MA; and Billy Pearson, San Francisco.
Gold Rush panoramas were made between 1850-53. This one, like the one illustrated in the collection of the George Eastman House (not in the sale) date from 1851 or earlier. The numerous fires that plagued the Bay between the winter of 1849 and and the summer of 1851 help date the images; the First Presbyterian Church, as seen in the second panel from the left, located on Dupont between Pacific and Clay was destroyed in the fire of June 22, 1851. Other identifiable buildings are the Vallejo Street Catholic Church and Telegraph Station atop Telegraph Hill in the second panel to the left; and the El Dorado and the Jenny Lind Theatre (later City Hall) in the second panel from the right. When this panorama was taken, it was estimated that approximately 800 ships filled Yerba Buena Cove. Used as warehouses or hotels after the occupants headed for the gold, some were eventually abandoned altogether. Although the vantage point and the maker are unknown, there were a few daguerreotypists working at the time from similar or somewhat lower points. Among them, a man by the name of S.C. McIntyre, formerly a dentist from Florida, turned to daguerreotypy and made a panorama described in the Alta California of February 1, 1851, as the first of its kind: Decidedly the finest thing in the fine arts produced in this city, which we have seen, is a consecutive series of Daguerrean (sic) plates, five in number, arranged side by side so as to give a view of our entire city and harbor, the shipping, bay, coast and mountains opposite, islands, dwellings and hills - all embraced between Rincon Point on the right, to the mouth of our beautiful bay on the left, included between lines proceeding from the hills to the west of the city as the point of vision. (c.f. Newhall, The Daguerreotype in America). It was from McIntyre's panorama that the French artist Charles Mryon made a widely known etching. Robert H. Vance, the noted Bay Area daguerreotypist, exhibited three hundred panoramas of the west in New York in 1851, including a San Francisco view. Later, after this panorama could have been made, William Shew made five-panel views from a similar point, one of which is now in the Smithsonian. This previously unknown panorama came from the family of Samuel Bigelow Wood, a Sea Captain from San Francisco whose descendants moved to the East in the mid-1940s.
Very few panoramas of San Francisco survive intact. In addition to these plates, other five and six-panel views are in the collection of: The Oakland Museum; The Smithsonian Institution; The Soceity of California Pioneers (4 of 5 panels) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1 of the 5 panels); Zelda Mackay, San Francisco (left side) and the Library of Congress (right side); The American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, MA; and Billy Pearson, San Francisco.