Heading: (California - San Francisco)
Author:
Title: San Francisco California: Site of the proposed Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915, celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal
Place Published: San Francisco
Publisher:H.C. Tibbits
Date Published: [c. 1910-11]
Description:

4 leaves with printed letterpress on rectos only, plus 25 silver photographs printed on thick sensitized paper, all on cloth stubs, as issued. 9¾x11½", original flexible morocco stamped in gilt "Hon. Ramon Corral."

Fascinating series of original photographs of San Francisco, the Bay Area, and other California regions, produced as a marketing tool to stimulate interest in the proposed Panama Pacific International Exposition, which was to be not only a celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal, joining the two great oceans, but also as a tribute to the rebuilding of San Francisco from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake and fire. The recipient of this copy, Ramon Corral (1854-1912) was a longtime politician active in Sonora, Mexico, a key advisor to and later Vice President of Mexico under Porfirio Díaz, from 1904 until their resignations in May 1911.

The brief text extols the virtues of San Francisco, and the wonder of its rebirth, outlining the benefits of the celebration and the appropriateness of the venue, concluding "The hotels of this city are second to none anywhere. New York or London have nothing better than the St. Francis, the Palace and the Fairmont, and there are hundreds of others. There are ample accommodations here today for fully 100,000 visitors, while 25,000 can readily be taken care of in the cities across the bay." The excellent photographs, with detailed captions in the negatives printed in the lower margins, include a number of the downtown business section and other San Francisco locales; Lotta's Fountain at the junction of Market, Kearny and Geary streets surrounded by streetcars; Union Square and the Hotel St. Francis; the Hotel Fairmont; Chinatown; the view from Mt. Tamalpais; the Yosemite Valley; the Big Tree Wawona; Mt. Shasta; Lake Tahoe; the Grand Canyon; and more. Albert Woodburn Scott, Jr., whose name is stamped on the cover, was one of the original organizers and directors of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and as chairman of the Congressional Committee and one of the five commissioners that went to Washington to win the fight from New Orleans, he was largely instrumental in San Francisco's victory.

Covers worn, chipped, with pieces of leather missing; some marginal staining and soiling within, good to very good.