- Title: San Francisco
- Author: Henry Bill
- Date: 1854
- Condition: Excellent
- Inches: 24 3/4 x 18 1/8 [Framed]
- Centimeters: 62.86 x 46.03 [Framed]
- Product ID: 308740
Early Statehood San Francisco: A Post–Gold Rush Urban View
A highly appealing panoramic view of San Francisco, dated 1854, showing the city from Nob Hill looking down California Street, with Telegraph Hill at left. The scene is animated with numerous buildings and ships, and the principal structures and sites are keyed numerically, including North Bay, Contra Costa, Yerba Buena Island, the California Exchange, the Plaza, Leanard’s Warehouse, Ricon Point, Market Street Pier, California Street, Central Wharf, the Catholic Church, the Marine Telegraph, and Anjill Island.
Issued by Henry Bill for the 1854 edition of his History of the World, this view exists in seven printings: the first in 1850, followed by issues in 1851, 1852, 1854, 1855, 1856, and 1857, with only the 1851 printing produced from a different plate.
In custom, fully archival framing by The Antiquarium.
Background on Creator
Henry Bill (1824–1891) was an American publisher based in Norwich, Connecticut, best known for large subscription histories and illustrated works issued in the mid-19th century. After learning the trade with a relative’s firm in Philadelphia and selling books door to door in the western states, he returned to Norwich in 1847 to establish his own publishing house, which produced hundreds of thousands of volumes on travel, religion, and general history over the next quarter century.