San Francisco, California: Site of the proposed Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915, celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal.
San Francisco: H.C. Tibbitts, [1915?]. 9½” x 12”. Full leather over flexible card. 29 leaves consisting of a title leaf + 3 leaves of text printed rectos only followed by 25 leaves, each with a 7¾” x 5¾” photograph printed directly on the leaf and each with a printed caption. Album good due to moderate to heavy edge wear and some loss to the spine; photos generally very good plus or better with dust soiling at extremities, not affecting any images.
This is a photo album promoting the city of San Francisco as the site of 1915's Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). It contains a few pages of text followed by 25 exceptional photographs taken by H.C. Tibbits. Per the first page of text:
“The completion of the Panama Canal, in 1915, is distinctly a Pacific Ocean event. It joins the Pacific with the Atlantic, and opens the Pacific to the commerce of the world. San Francisco, the largest American port on the Pacific, with its super harbor and its growing Oriental trade, is naturally the one fitting point where a great international celebration of this world event—the canal's completion—should be held . . . Since the fire of 1906 San Franciscans have spent $300,000,000 in reconstruction. It is to-day the last word, architecturally, among the nation's great cities, with block after block of business buildings, hotels, apartment houses and private residences, all new, substantial and artistic, with every modern equipment.”
Per the finding aid for a Tibbits collection at the Online Archive of California, the photographer:
“worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad for 40 years starting in 1892. He photographed extensively in the American West, Canada and Mexico, documenting landscapes, towns, agriculture, parks, and other local scenes to help promote the railroad. His work as used in the railroad's magazine Sunset started with the first publication in 1898.”
16 photos depict urban areas in San Francisco and the other nine show area landscapes; all have detailed captions printed on the page. There are at least twelve street-level views including a great shot at Lotta's Fountain at the junction of Market, Kearny and Geary Streets, one of Montgomery Street and another shows the Hotel Francis. There's a shot of crowds at Golden Gate Park, a compelling image of the banking district, and another of Chinatown. We also see the San Francisco Bay, Mount Tamalpais, and the Yosemite Valley from Bridal Veil Meadows.
A lovely album of outstanding photographs touting San Francisco as the proposed location for the PPIE. OCLC locates 16 copies. Good. Item #8217
Price: $600.00