San Francisco Presidio

 

 

The Society of California Pioneers 

 

The Society of California Pioneers 

 

           PANORAMIC VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO in 1878
  
       Taken by Eadweard Muybridge from Mark Hopkins’ mansion at the top of Nob Hill (now the site of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel), this 360-degree panorama shows the extraordinary growth of this city in the 30 years since the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento in January of 1848. At that time, San Francisco was a small town of less than 500 people and by 1878 the city boasted a population of nearly 250,000.

      The panorama consists of 13 albumen prints. Muybridge used a huge plate wooden view camera.  Each of the 13 images was captured on a mammoth wet collodion negative over a period of perhaps 4 or 5 hours (about 20 minutes for each negative). Each mammoth plate negative was then contact printed onto albumen paper, rendering an extraordinary degree of detail in the final print.
 
      Shortly after Muybridge created this panoramic view, he and Leland Stanford went to Stanford’s ranch in Palo Alto (site of Stanford Jr. University), set up a series of cameras, and proved that all four hooves of a horse do indeed leave the ground when it is galloping. From this revelation, which then led to his later extensive studies in animal and human motion, Eadweard Muybridge is now known as the Father of Cinema.

Slices of Time: Eadweard Muybridge’s Cinematic Legacy (SFMOMA)
     

For their display of the Muybridge panorama, the Society of California Pioneers Museum created a QR code that linked the museum visitor to my web site. To see my version of the panorama, where I have identified 274 buildings and streets, click here: Muybridge Panorama (or use the museum's QR code).

Muybridge Panorama (or use the museum's QR code)

 In 1878, when Muybridge created the panorama, Nob Hill was crowned with the mansions of the Big 4, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. The mansions of these four railroad barons, and nearly everything else in the photo panorama, burned 28 years later during the earthquake and Great Fire of April 18, 1906.

My newsletter of San Francisco in 1906

Eadweard Muybridge

Gawain Weaver Art Conservation

Portrait of Adolph Sutro  

Jan Muller, 1885

Gift of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Mrs. Carlo Morbio; acquisition underwritten by Karen and Robert Cabrera; conservation underwritten by James W. Haas

 

The paintings featured in the museum's current exhibition were recently conserved by Alina Remba. Small repairs were made, layers of varnish that had yellowed (distorting the original colors and obscuring details in the image) were removed, and the dust and grime that had accumulated over many years were cleaned away.

Photographs displayed alongside the paintings document the process and their condition prior to the restoration that these historically significant works needed and deserved.

 

 

The horse in motion (Eadweard Muybridge) 1878 First Film Ever

 

Washerwoman’s Lagoon, San Francisco  

Hiram R. Bloomer 1886

gift of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Dr. and Mrs. John L. Butin; acquisition underwritten by the Auxiliary of The Society of California Pioneers; conservation underwritten by James W. Haas and the Auxiliary of The Society of California Pioneers

 

Yosemite Valley  (on easel)

Thomas Hill, 1886

Gift of Major Edward Bowes; conservation underwritten by recent donations from members of The Society of California Pioneers

 

PANORAMIC VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO in 1878

By Eadweard Muybridge

The Pioneer 

Jules Tavernier, 1877

conservation underwritten by Patricia and James Griffin, Nadine and Dr. Barton Lane, Peggy and Drew Neubauer, Claire Neubauer, Terry Trosper Schaeffer, Virginia Howard Siegman, and the Auxiliary of The Society of California Pioneers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

selfie

November 21, 2022

selfie

November 21, 2022

Eadweard Muybridge