Title:

Francis Burnham Rigby photograph albums: reconstruction of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley after the earthquake and fire of 1906, and scenes from the English countryside

Creator/Contributor:

Rigby, Francis Burnham., creator

California album (Vol. 1) contains ms narrative text by Rigby describing his observations of several San Francisco Bay Area locales and various aspects of American culture in general (business, real estate, transportation, democracy, boys and girls, police officers and the criminal justice system, etc.). Text accompanied by snapshot views of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and various locales in Marin County, as well as of Rigby's friends and associates. Of special interest is Rigby's documentation of camping in the Berkeley Hills, U.S. Navy activity at Mare Island, the demographics and reconstruction throughout the region following the 1906 earthquake and fire, and technical details pertaining to the installation of underground power cables in Oakland and Berkeley. Album also includes a drawing by Rigby of the San Francisco Bay Area as seen from the Berkeley Hills, demarcating points of interest pertinent to Rigby's visit to the region. Other album (Vol. 2) contains snapshots of unidentified family (perhaps that of Rigby?) and others, taken during leisurely and recreational pursuits, chiefly in what appears to be the English countryside. Pictured throughout album is an unidentified man often appearing in military uniform.

Date:

1907-ca. 1918 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca -- e-uk-en

Mare Island Naval Shipyard -- Pictorial works

San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906 -- Photographs

Underground utility lines -- Design and construction -- Photographs

Camping -- California -- Photographs

San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906 -- Personal narratives

Soldiers -- England -- Photographs

San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) -- Pictorial works

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Pictorial works

Oakland (Calif.) -- Pictorial works

Berkeley (Calif.) -- Pictorial works

Marin County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works

England -- Pictorial works

California album compiled by Rigby; ms narrative by Rigby; photographs by Rigby and his companion Mr. Morcom. Title on first leaf of album: California: impressions photographic and otherwise, 1907. Album includes narrative text with illustrative photographs on facing leaves. Album bound in brown suede with decorative fringe.

Compiler of English album -- and photographer(s) of prints therein -- unknown.

Title and date supplied by cataloger.

Francis Burnham Rigby was an English electrical engineer who was employed in the installation of underground power lines in Oakland and Berkeley during the aftermath of the 1906 San Francsico earthquake and fire. Rigby travelled extensively and eventually settled in the Solomon Islands. At the outset of World War I he returned to England to join the Royal Naval Air Service, then later the Royal Air Force. He died at age 40 in 1918. (From obituary clipping affixed to inside back cover of California album.)

Type:

graphic

Photograph albums.

graphic

photoprint

1 box (2 albums: 185 photographic prints) : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm and 29 x 19 cm

English

Origin:

Various places