Book Review - Historic Photos of San Francisco
Photos compiled and captions written by Rebecca Schall, published by Turner Publishing
Review by Nancy J. Reid.

Rebecca Schall has a love of history and is fascinated by the culture that evolves in city life over time. Being a native of San Francisco, California--one of the most important metropolitan centers in the world--it makes sense that Rebecca would use her knowledge of that area to present her first book in 2006, Historic Photos of San Francisco. She has brought the unique and diverse history of San Francisco to life as seen through the eyes, and lenses, of the photographers that were there to see this city grow from a frontier missionary town, boom through the silver and gold rush days, to become the varied culture, beautiful city that it is today.

With undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, Schall has done a superb job in finding, selecting, and providing captions for photos that depict everyday life in San Francisco from 1860 to the 1960s. Each era is outlined in an easy to read synopsis, backed up by photos with captions that enhance the read, by giving you a chance to soak up what is was like to "live back then." Historic Photos of San Francisco takes you through post Golf Rush days; through the 1906 Earthquake; into the flapper and resistance to Prohibition era; into the crash of the stock market and Great Depression times; through the New Deal and building of many of the cities landmarks including the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Coit Tower; ending with the Civil Rights Movement and hippie counterculture movement in the 1960s.

As you read through the book, it is a journey of discovery and reflection--no matter how many times you may have "seen" San Francisco. It made me resolve to visit again, and walk through the streets--book in hand--for the ultimate San Francisco experience. It is an important work or art, in my view, as it paints a clear picture of the history of our ancestors as they struggled to build the foundation for the future.

Schall has researched in depth the Ohlone Indians (the indigenous people of Northern California who have lived in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas since 500 AD); San Francisco during the Civil War; and the experience of the Japanese population in San Francisco during World War II. In addition, she has developed exhibits for the Mission Dolores Museum of Bay Area Indian History, contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of San Francisco, and worked on an archaeological excavation in San Francisco's Presidio. Rebecca Schall currently lives in Palo Alto, California, and is a history teacher and guidance counselor at International School of the Peninsula. She recently returned from a Paris, where she attended the Sorbonne and researched and completed her second book, Historic Photos of Paris, which was published in Fall 2007.

To listen to an interview with Rebecca from an excerpt of our Champagne Sundays online radio show, please double click on the Play Button below.


 

Rebecca Schall Bookstore

For more about Rebecca Schall – Click here.
For more about Turner Publishing or to purchase ‘Historic Photos of San Francisco’ – Click here.