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Guide to the General Subjects Photography Collection
PC-GS: Box [number]
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Title: General Subjects Photography collection,
Date (inclusive): 1850s-1980s
Date (bulk): (Bulk 1870s-1970s)
Collection number: PC-GS: Box [number]
Creator:
Various
Extent:
94 boxes, 12 oversize boxes
(ca. 23,150 images)
(ca. 23,150 images)
Repository:
California Historical Society, North Baker Library
San Francisco, California 94105-4014
Abstract: Contains photographs and picture postcards depicting scenes of California places, people, activities, and cultural resources
from the 1850s to the 1980s.
Physical location: Please consult repository.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the California Historical Society. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
General Subjects Photography collection, PC-GS: Box [number], California Historical Society, Photography Collection.
Consult repository
Contains photographs and picture postcards depicting scenes of California places, people, activities, and cultural resources,
mainly from the 1870s to the 1980s. Each listing represents a file containing from one to more than fifty images. Some files
may also include a small number of non-photographic reproductions and prints depicting images from as early as the 1770s.
Includes images depicting California's agricultural economy (crops, livestock, ranching, etc.), industry (fishing, lumbering,
etc.), and mining operations, as well as common plants (cactus, redwoods, etc.) and animals (bear, coyote, etc.). Images of
the California missions provide the earliest views in the collection. Other scenes of the California landscape reflect the
wide variety of the state's natural features (lakes, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, etc.), and the built environment as evidenced
through architecture (commercial, domestic, and public) and transportation (automotive, rail, water, etc.), and depicted in
the art of individual artists. Also includes images of people engaged in community and cultural activities as members of organizations
(Freemasons, Sierra Club, etc.), or participating in recreation (amusement parks, cycling, dance, swimming, etc.), theater,
and social groups (Chinese, Hispanic Americans, Italians, hippies, women, etc.). The largest segment of the collection concerns
the work of California photographers (chiefly portraits). These have been divided by the city in which they chiefly worked,
and described in further detail as individual catalog records. Images included here compliment those found in the California
Counties Photography Collection.
Organized alphabetically by subject.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Agricultural laborers--California--Pictorial works
Grape industry--California--Photographs
Redwoods--Humboldt County--Photographs
Missions--California--Photographs
Orchards--California--Pictorial works
Chinese--California--Pictorial works
Photographic prints
Landscape photographs
Photographic postcards