Circa 1849-1859

Julio Michaud y Thomas, editors, Vista de San Francisco de California, n.d. Lithograph and watercolor on paper, color image 24 1/4 x 16 3/8 inches, overall print 29 1/8 x 20 7/8 inches. Reproduced by Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, from the original courtesy of the Reid W. Dennis Collection.

Print dealer Julio Michaud's shop (estampería) was in Mexico City. In the mid-19th century he collaborated with a man known today only as Thomas on their Álbum Pintoresco de la República Mexicana and on this rare print. Replete with topographical incongruities, it is a charmingly fanciful northward view of Yerba Buena Cove, where San Francisco's financial district is today. Telegraph Hill is center, Russian Hill left, and a curiously glacial Marin County upper left. The lack of a signal station atop Telegraph Hill and the presence of just one Wharf (Central Wharf, now Commercial Street), among other things, suggest 1849-1850. But the pioneer Atlantic steamer Washington, although well known for its loss to the Britannia in an 1847 transatlantic race, did not appear in San Francisco until July 2, 1859! Michaud may have appropriated an 1847 Nathaniel Currier lithograph of the famous side-wheeler (under steam and sail off New York) for his early San Francisco view, but when and why he might have done so remains a mystery.

Our 2003 Calendar is now available as a poster. Visit the Posters and Books section of our Steam Gear Store.