San Francisco Album: Photographs 1854-1856 [Hardcover]

George Robinson Fardon (Author), Jeffrey Fraenkel (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

Originally published in 1856 as Photographs of the Most Beautiful Views and Public Buildings of San Francisco, G.R. Fardon's San Francisco Album is the earliest existing photographic record of an American city and one of the earliest of any city in the world. An unmatched historical document of San Francisco during its years of rapid growth and burgeoning prosperity in the wake of the Gold Rush, the album is aesthetically compelling as well. The plates themselves are some of the oldest surviving photographs on paper made in the United States. Fardon's detailed images depict a booming downtown, a rural South Park, the famous Merchant's Exchange on Battery Street, Fort Vigilance, City Hall, and a four-part panorama of the city taken from atop Nob Hill. This book is the first serious, comprehensive look at the San Francisco Album as well as Fardon's other known work. Including critical essays on Fardon's work, his life, and the times he lived in, the San Francisco Album offers a unique perspective on the history of San Francisco and the art of photography.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Fardon was born in England in 1807, arrived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, and in 1856 published a fine album of photographic views of that locale thought to be the earliest published photographic record of an American city. One copy of the album was acquired by the Fraenkel gallery in 1998 and exhibited in the summer of 1999. This beautiful book offers images from the album and other views of San Francisco and British Columbia by Fardon in excellent reproductions that look very much like the original salt prints. Three scholarly essays and a detailed catalogue raisonn? pull together what is known about Fardon's life and photographic work; the political context in early San Francisco at the time his photos were made; the architectural history he documented in these images; and the state of photography in California at the time. The essay by National Archives of Canada photographic specialist Joan Schwartz, who documents Fardon's later life and career in Canada, is especially fine and greatly broadens the appeal of the book. Highly recommended for California, Canadian, and photographic history collections.AKathleen Collins, Bank of America Corp. Archives, San Francisco
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

George Robinson Fardon was born in England in 1806 and arrived in San Francisco at age 43. He is credited with introducing the wet collodion photographic process to California and experimented with paper photographs as a means for wide distribution of his pictures. He died in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1886.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811826309
• ISBN-13: 978-0811826303
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 10.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #737,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.