Collection Guide
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
Title: Minor White photographs
creator:
White, Minor
Identifier/Call Number: PC-RM-White
Physical Description:
5 boxes
2.25 linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1946-1953
Language of Material: English
The photographic prints in the collection are open for research. The negatives in the
collection are restricted for conservations reasons.
Reproduced with permission of the Minor White Archive, Princeton University Art Museum. ©
Trustees of Princeton University. Reproductions can be obtained from the California
Historical Society. For copyright clearance and permission to use images from the Minor
White photographs held at the California Historical Society, please visit the Minor White
Archive website.
[Identification of item], Minor White photographs, PC-RM-White, California Historical
Society.
The Minor White Archive—comprising more than 26,000 photographs and other items created by
or related to Minor White—is held by the Princeton University Art Museum. Rights to Minor
White’s work are held by Princeton University.
Gift of Minor White, 1957.
Processed by Jaime Henderson, 2017.
Photographs are arranged into forty-five folders organized chronologically by year, then by
print size and, finally, by either a numbering system presumably created by White, or by
month and date on which the photograph was taken. Negatives are stored in two boxes,
organized in chronological order by negative number. Negative numbers appear in the left
upper corner of negative enclosure and correspond to negative numbers recorded on backs of
photographic prints.
Minor White (July 9, 1908 – June 24, 1976) was an American photographer and educator. His
professional career began in 1938 as a photographer on a Works Progress Administration
project, documenting historic buildings in Portland, Oregon. After serving in World War II,
White settled in New York enrolling in Columbia University and working as a photographer for
the Museum of Modern Art. In 1946 Ansel Adams invited White to teach in the photography
department at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute).
While teaching White continued to practice photography, documenting the distinct
neighborhoods of San Francisco and various other Northern California counties. He left the
California School of Fine Arts in 1953, accepting a curatorial position with the George
Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Two years later White joined the faculty of the
Rochester Institute of Technology, and in 1965 was invited to design the visual arts program
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. White continued to teach, photograph, exhibit
his work and publish a monograph and text on his personal photographing process. He died of
a heart attack on June 24, 1976.
The collection consists of 479 black and white gelatin silver prints and 423 gelatin silver
print negatives of urban and rural postwar Bay Area and greater Northern California taken by
photographer Minor White while he resided in San Francisco from 1946 to 1953. The bulk of
the photographs document San Francisco county neighborhoods, including the downtown
financial and produce districts; the Embarcadero and waterfront; and the Potrero, Mission,
Glen Park, Bayshore, Nob Hill, Chinatown, Bernal Heights, Laurel Heights, Fillmore, Sunset
and Richmond districts. The images document African American, Japanese American and Chinese
American neighborhoods and businesses in San Francisco. A significant number of photographs
document the postwar housing construction boom in San Francisco including the construction
of the planned neighborhood Parkmerced; the construction of single family housing in the
Sunset district; the development of former cemeteries into residential and commercial areas;
and the construction of public housing in the city.
The collection also includes many photographs taken in counties in proximity to San
Francisco County, including Alameda County, Amador County, Calaveras County, Contra Costa
County, Marin County, Mariposa County, Mendocino County, Placer County, San Mateo County,
Santa Clara County, Solano County, Sonoma County, and Tuolumne County. These photographs
document many of the historic buildings located in these California counties. Of particular
note are images of one of the oldest Chinese temples in California, the Temple of Kwan Tai
in Mendocino County; the first Serbian Orthodox Church in America, the Saint Sava Serbian
Orthodox Church and the Argonaut Mines in Amador County; and flood damaged buildings in
Alviso, San Jose, Santa Clara County.
Supplied titles created by cataloger.
The original information recorded on the verso of the historical photographs may include
racial terms that were commonplace at the time, but are considered to be derogatory
today.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Gelatin silver prints
Gelatin silver film negatives
Ethnic neighborhoods -- California -- San Francisco County --
Photographs
House construction -- California -- San Francisco --
Photographs
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland and San Francisco, Calif.) --
Photographs
Waterfronts -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs
Alameda County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Amador County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Calaveras County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Contra Costa County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Marin County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Mariposa County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Mendocino County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Placer County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
San Francisco County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
San Mateo County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Santa Clara County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Solano County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Sonoma County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Tuolumne County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works