Let's Go Giants!

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As the San Francisco Giants are on their way to clinching another World Series title, we indulged our "Orange October" fever by browsing the SF History Center's ephemera folders (SF. BASEBALL. GIANTS). Here is a peek at the 1962 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees.

1962 World Series program cover

The Giants had just moved to San Francisco in 1958 and the tension of battling their former hometown team was heightened with rain delays in both cities. The teams played seven games with the Yankees winning the last game 1 - 0 and taking the series.

Tickets from Game 1 and Game 7 of the 1962 World Series

So, get out your orange and twirl those rally towels! With two games ahead, we're rooting for a 2012 World Series Championship parade and celebration!
 1962 San Francisco Giants - from the 1962 World Series program

San Francisco's Municipal Railway: MUNI at 100

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The A car departing from the Ferry Building

There are thousands of photographs and negatives of San Francisco's transportation systems in the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection. Here are a few favorites from the collection which were published in San Francisco's Municipal Railway: MUNI to entice you to attend Muni at 100 at the Main Library on Wednesday, November 7. Transit historian, Grant Ute, and co-author of San Francisco's Municipal Railway: MUNI, will give a talk about the history of Muni. This will be a treat for streetcar fans!


 






The two images below are from the San Francisco Department of Public Works Photograph Albums. From 1912 to 1932 the San Francisco Municipal Railway fell under the jurisdiction of the Board of Public Works. In January 1932 under the new city charter, the new Public Utilities Commission took control over Muni.

Forward San Francisco: Mayor Rolph in Mission Park (now Dolores Park), August 11, 1917

Church Street "J" line, car 72, negotiates the Church Street grade along Mission Park, Aug. 11, 1917

Your official invitation to Wednesday's program! Before the program, visit the exhibition area outside the San Francisco History Center to view Cussed and Discussed: 100 Years of the Municipal Railway in San Francisco. The exhibition will be on display until January 24, 2013.

Captain's Orders--Mission Station, 1910-1911

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For all of you Mission District aficionados out there, as well as our SFPD-obsessed followers, here are some sample pages from a singular (yes, we have only one of them in the SFPD archives) volume of Captain's Orders from Police District No. 4, Company "D," Mission Station, just over 100 years ago. Henry Gleeson served as Captain.

The orders are delicately bound in a basic black binder.

The index, useful for looking up officers mentioned in the orders, is fascinating also for the way it reflects both the racy ("craps shooting") and the banal ("days off") aspects of life on the beat.

Index to Captain's Orders, Mission Station

J.A. Corbeil gets the go-ahead to sell his holiday notions on Mission & 17th.

Officer Biernan captures a hold-up man one week later, Sunday morning.

"No Female Patrons" that phrase we know from the liquor permit applications, resounds here.

In the new year of 1911, "Babe Curtin, a Safe Cracker, is at large."

Because the San Francisco Police Department Records are still being processed, some volumes may not yet be available for public use. Please contact the San Francisco History Center with questions at 415-557-4567.

All images are from  the San Francisco Police Department Records (SFH 61), courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Educate! Amuse! And In Colors! : Selections from the George M. Fox Collection of Early Children's Books

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Beginning December 15th, and just in time to brighten yourholidays, you will have the opportunity to view some beautiful 19th centurychildren’s picture books from the George M. Fox Collection of Early Children's Books in the Skylight Gallery.

Routledge’s Picture Gift Book, London,  George Routledge & Sons. Illustration by Harden Sidney Melville and printed by Vincent Brooks

A Little Girl’s Visit To A Flower Garden. [A Little Girl’s Visit To A Country Garden on title page] London.  George Routledge & Co. Edmund Evans, engraver and printer.

This exhibition,entitled Educate! Amuse! And In Colors! features over eighty examples ofcolor printing, especially color wood engraving and chromolithographs. Many arefragile, paper pamphlets which open to reveal color that is stillbrilliant after more than 130 years.
 

Four Footed Favourites; drawn by Giacomelli and described by Mrs. Surr. London & Edinburgh, T. Nelson & Sons.

Highlights of the exhibit include “toy” and “moveable”books; many examples from the shop of Edmund Evans, the premier 19th centuryprinter of colored wood engravings (whose most notable artists were WalterCrane, Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway); and many examples of fineBritish chromolithographs from the firms of Thomas Nelson & Sons, FrederickWarne, Dean & Son and George Routledge & Sons. Early hand-coloredimages are included as well.

Birds on the Wing, pictures by Giacomelli. London ; Edinburgh : Thomas Nelson and Sons, [1878?]

George M. Fox

The Fox Collection  includesmore than 2,000 early British and American children's picture books, many ofwhich were drawn from the file copies of the McLoughlin Brothers publishers ofNew York, along with other books acquired over the years by Mr. George M. Foxof Charlemont, Massachusetts. The books are notable for their pristinecondition; probably because, as file copies, they were never handled bychildren. Mr. Fox generously donated his collection to the library's Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts and Special Collections Center in 1978 andthey are on view to the public for the first time since 1986.

  We will mark the official opening of the exhibition with alecture by Laura E. Wasowicz, Curator of Children's Literature from the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Saturday, January 5, 2013at 2pm in the Main Library’s Koret Auditorium. Her talk is entitled McLoughlin Brothers: Nineteenth-Century Entrepreneurs and Innovators of the American Picture Book. The AAS owns an extensive collection of McLoughlinBrothers materials, including original drawings and prints, picture books,paper dolls, games, correspondence, publisher’s catalogs, price lists andmanuscripts. The title, Educate! Amuse!And In Colors!, is taken from advertising copy found in their catalogs.

British Sports & Games, Glasgow : John S. Marr & Sons. [18--?]

 

The Comic Alphabet containing 26 illustrations by P. [Percy] Cruikshank. London, Read & Co. Series: “Toy and Story Books For Children.” Hand-colored.

The exhibit runs through March 10, 2013.