Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- California Camera Company daybook
- Dates:
- 1896-1897
- Creators:
- California Camera Company (San Francisco, Calif.)
- Abstract:
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
California Camera Company daybook. San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco History Center
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This daybook, titled Orders on cover, documents sales to customers throughout California from a San Francisco business, dating Sept. 7, 1896 through Sept. 30, 1897. Notable customers include photographer Arnold Genthe, local architect Henry Kenitzer, and surgeons Henry D’Arcy Power, Emmet Rixford, and John W. Baker. A January 1897 store inventory is found in the middle of the chronological arrangement. The book ends with printed lists of customers and addresses in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, and San Francisco.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Born in Milwaukee, Nelson C. Hawks entered the printing trade at sixteen. He was hired by Marder-Luse & Co., type founders, and came to San Francisco, where he would establish the Pacific Type Foundry in 1873. Hawks is most notable for proposing the point system of type sizing to Marder in 1877, a system that became widely adopted by type founders throughout the United States and England. He later was owner and operator of California Camera Company at 124 Geary St., San Francisco, which opened about July 1896. By 1905, the Company had moved to Alameda, where Hawks resided.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift, 2018-1.
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- 1896-1897
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on July 14, 2025, 2:54 p.m.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk hours. Collections that are stored offsite should be requested 48 hours in advance.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
- Preferred citation:
-
California Camera Company daybook. San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco History Center
- Location of this collection:
-
San Francisco Public Library100 Larkin StreetSan Francisco, CA 94102, US
- Contact:
- (415) 557-4567