A guide to the Leale family photograph album, 1914

2015, National Park Service

Title: Leale family photograph album

Date: 1914

Identifier/Call Number: P95-046 (SAFR 24438)

Creator: Leale, John, 1850-1932

Physical Description: 1 item.

Repository: San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, Historic Documents Department

Physical Location: San Francisco Maritime NHP, Historic Documents Department

Language(s): In English.

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[Item description], [Location within collection organization identified by Collection Number/Series Number/File Unit Number/Item Number], P95-046 (SAFR 24438), Leale family photograph album, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

SAFR-00956

The album was donated by the National Maritime Museum Association with other material to San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park after it was purchased with Association funds from Allen Louis Gernard, Cobb, California. He in turn had purchased it from the Doggett Family.

John Leale (1850-1932) was born on the Isle of Guernsey and came to San Francisco in 1864. He married Fanny A. Cheney in 1881. They had two daughters, Marion W. and Edith. Leale was at the helm of San Francisco ferryboats from 1873-1914, "the Golden Age of ferries on the Bay." Leale was in his prime during the zenith of ferry service in the late 19th Century, and he played an important role in the relief effort after the 1906 earthquake. He made some 125,000 round trips across the Bay during his career. Hog Davis hired Leale as the South Pacific Coast's (SPC) first ferryboat captain. At one time or another, Leale captained all four of the SPC boats – NEWARK, BAY CITY, GARDEN CITY and ENCINAL. He also served as an agent of the Department of the Shipping Board for San Francisco and San Pedro during World War I. As head of the Service Bureau, he signed on more than 10,000 officers and crew. Biographical material taken from the Shipping Register, September 29, 1919 and May 25, 1920, and San Francisco Bay Crossings.com, "A South Pacific Coast Bibliography," by Randy Hees, http://www.baycrossings.com and http://home.netcom.com/~hees/NRRWGauge/SPCbib.htmlO, respectively, accessed September 14, 2007.

Captain William G. Leale was born in England in October 1846 and arrived in San Francisco in about 1872. He was the brother of Capt John Leale on Pacific Avenue.

The Leale family photograph album (P95-046, SAFR 24438) consists of a single volume of black-and-white photographs bound in an album and attributed to the family of Captain John Leale.

The photograph album consists primarily of photographic prints of family on their 1914 trip to the Isle of Guernsey and England. The photographs have no written captions and the pages are unnumbered. The album has a sewn binding and appears to have had covers with leather but now reduced to paper. The album measures 14 x 11 x 2 in. The interior consists of a 200 pages with 165 pages containing photographs and 35 pages blank at the end. One page has a photograph identified as "John & Dad." Another page has a photograph of Leale Ltd, House Furnishers in Guernsey. A loose sheet with a biography of Capt. William G. Leale in "The Time Card" was inserted in the volume. The album consists of views of the family, sites and activities including railroads, outings and picnics, tennis, gardens, costumes, dogs, cows, farming and a rock quarry. The beginning of the album has photographs of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co. steamship Toronto and scenes of travel to Guernsey. There are several full length snapshot portraits of soldiers in uniforms and a series of snapshots of soldiers dated Mar or Apr 1915 some labelled "Fall Out." Scenes of Guernsey include St. Peter Port, Bosq Lane, W.F. Jehan street sign, a French vessel Alert with sailors in the port, a schooner in drydock, a French Navy vessel 307 painted on the side, a barkentine with FALYEN, DANMARK painted on side. There is a street scene with the signs for Jersey Eastern Railway and Marshalls Cadena Cafe, Goey Pier in Bailiwick of Jersey. Photographs of the New Forest, England, Rufus Stone - marking the spot where King William II was fatally wounded with an arrow. The return voyage includes American Line SS St. Louis (built 1894; passenger vessel) in heavy weather, the Statue of Liberty in the distance, train crossing the Rockies or Sierras and finally a series of group family portraits. Source: “A Captain's Remarkable Record.” Boston Evening Transcript. July 24, 1914, Last edition edition. Google News Archive Search.

Single volume.

Captain John Leale papers and scrapbook (HDC1323, SAFR 21836)

• This material is located at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park