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.