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[Peter Charles Baker portraits of San Francisco earthquake and fire refugees and other photographs]
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Collection Overview
Title:
[Peter Charles Baker portraits of San Francisco earthquake and fire refugees and other photographs]Creator/Contributor:
Baker, Peter Charles, 1862-1955, creator, photographer.Creator/Contributor:
Nedwick, Alfred.Creator/Contributor:
Nedwick and BakerAbstract:
Chiefly portraits documenting the refugees of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Includes richly-detailed individual,
family and large group portraits of subjects posing at their tents and other shelters within the refugee camps of the city.
Also includes family portraits of former refugees posing in front of their new homes, most of which are presumably in San
Francisco. Collection also includes other portraits taken in studio settings (some of them rather makeshift), in domestic
environs, in places of employment and other locations; less formal views of individuals, families and other groups; interiors
and exteriors of various businesses and other buildings, chiefly in San Francisco; and earthquake and fire damage. Himself
a refugee of the 1906 disaster, Baker, his family members and their residential property in the Excelsior district are depicted
in several portraits and other scenes. Other miscellaneous subjects include views of unidentified rural and coastal locations
outside of San Francisco, and multiple views of a sewing machine, a house jack, a wooden table, and a complex mechanical contraption.
Date:
1906 (issued)Subject:
n-us-caSan Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906 -- Photographs
Refugees -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs
Refugee camps -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs
Dwellings -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs
Tremblement de terre de San Francisco, Calif., 1906 -- Photographies
Réfugiés -- Californie -- San Francisco -- Photographies
Camps de réfugiés -- Californie -- San Francisco -- Photographies
Habitations -- Californie -- San Francisco -- Photographies
Dwellings
Refugee camps
Refugees
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
California
California -- San Francisco
Baker, Peter Charles -- 1862-1955 -- Archives
Note:
Title devised by cataloger.
Photographed by Peter Charles Baker.
Includes 470 negatives and approximately 100 vintage prints; 14 oversize digital prints (B folders) produced by seller; digital
files for 8 images (locations of originals unknown); and 1 box of empty original glass plate negative manufacturer's boxes
(NEG(5x7) box 28).
Matching prints, some with multiple copies, available for some negatives. A small number of prints have no matching negatives.
Approximately half of negatives are 8 x 10 format; remainder are 5 x 7 or smaller.
A few prints bear the studio stamp of Nedwick and Baker, photographers, Oakland, Cal.
Collection discovered in basement of Baker's former residence in San Francisco's Sunset district.
NEGATIVES RESTRICTED. Requests for use of original must be approved by the appropriate curator.
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
Item list available in library.
Purchase; From Marc Selvaggio ; 2010.
Accompanying hard drive containing digital files of scans of selected items from this collection transferred to the Digital
Collections Unit of The Bancroft Library (BANC DIG 2015.006).
Two print-on-demand books produced by seller and illustrated with images from this collection transferred to Books Collections
of The Bancroft Library.
Born Peter Charles Becker to German immigrants, the San Francisco-based photographer usually used the last name of Baker and
is listed as a photographer in various city directories as Peter Charles Baker, P.C. Baker, C. Baker and Charles P. Baker.
He also worked as a clerk for the Pacific Box Co. Born in New York City in 1862; married Anna Marie Gross in 1909; one son,
John Gross Becker, born in 1912. Resided in South of Market district until the 1906 disaster; thereafter lived in Excelsior
neighborhood and, later, the Sunset district. Worked briefly with Oakland-based photographer Alfred Nedwick. Listed as photographer
until 1913, thereafter as boxmaker. Died in 1955.
Preferred citation: Peter Charles Baker portraits of refugees of the San Francisco earthquake and fire and other photographs,
BANC PIC 2011.007, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Type:
graphicArchives.
Photographs.
Pictorial works.
Portraits-California-San Francisco.
Glass negatives.
Physical Description:
photonegative
photoprint
508 photographs in 69 boxes : chiefly glass negatives, some gelatin silver prints ; negatives 26 x 21 cm or smaller, prints
28 x 33 cm or smaller.
Language:
English
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
NEGATIVES RESTRICTED. Requests for use of original must be approved by the appropriate curator.
COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.