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Thomas Day Company salesman's album and catalog
SFH 559  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography/Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Thomas Day Company salesman's album and catalog
    Dates: circa 1918-1926
    Collection Number: SFH 559
    Creator/Collector: Thomas Day Co.
    Extent: 2 volumes
    Repository: San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
    San Francisco, California 94102
    Abstract: Product photographs and catalog for San Francisco light fixture manufacturer
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    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.

    Publication Rights

    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

    Thomas Day Company salesman's album and catalog. San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center

    Acquisition Information

    Purchase, 2019.

    Biography/Administrative History

    Thomas Day & Company was founded in 1850 and designed fixtures for San Francisco's gas street lamps. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, their products were featured in many prominent residential and commercial structures. The company was later bought out, and today is known as Phoenix Day Company.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    A salesman's album, Chandeliers & Brackets for Public Bldgs. & Residences consists of 70 silver gelatin prints, most measuring 6" x 8", depicting chandeliers and brackets, andirons, floor standards, table lamps, torchieres and shades in a three-ring binder. The album may date from 1918, as one photograph shows a bank (?) interior featuring a war-time service flag with thirteen stars. The accompanying published Catalog Number Twenty-nine: Electric Lighting Fixtures shows products, descriptions, and prices, chiefly illustrated in black and white, with nine color plates; views of the showroom and exterior of the company's 725 Mission Street building are included.

    Indexing Terms

    Electric light fixtures -- Catalogs.
    Lamp-chimneys, globes, etc. -- Catalogs.
    Electric light fixtures -- History -- 20th century.
    Electric light fixtures -- California -- San Francisco.
    Thomas Day Co. -- Catalogs.
    Photograph albums.
    Manufacturers' catalogs.
    Trade catalogs -- California -- San Francisco.