Death and Funeral Culture in San Francisco

Thank you to all of the attendees of last night's documentary films program. Programs continue for San Francisco History Center with One City One Book - please join us in learning more about the death and funeral rituals and practices of San Franciscans during the late 19th century to early 20th century. Tonight Timothy Keegan will share his research for a pending article in The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society.

Mr. Keegan is a regular researcher in the San Francisco History Center. Mr. Keegan has called San Francisco home for 33 years. For the past 15 years he has written articles for the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society about buildings, people, and eras he feels are in danger of being forgotten.

Mr. Keegan has two former articles published in The Argonaut -

WPA Construction in San Francisco, volume 14, no. 1, summer 2003

The Art of Timothy Pfuleger, volume 17, no. 2, winter 2006

Dirty Books

Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Book Store. Aug. 6, 1957.
Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

Typically, we think of archives as places containing literally, rather than figuratively, dirty books--books with the residue of actual grime from attics or basements in them rather than books deemed to be obscene or offensive. But as I washed my hands from our trip to glean treasurer's ledgers and began to anticipate Banned Books Week, I thought about archives and dirty books in the latter sense. How do archives document the ways in which we speak and write? How are these expressions perceived to be "dirty," and in what historical context?

In honor of Banned Books Week, I'd like to feature two very clean copies of books related to the obscenity trial against San Francisco's own Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who was arrested in 1957 for selling Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl at City Lights Bookstore:

Howl of the Censor
Howl on Trial

If you visit the San Francisco History Center and want a sense of location, you can also read the Landmark Designation Case Report for City Lights Bookstore from March 21, 2001. Just ask for our vertical file for "SF Buildings. City Lights Books."

And of course, read Howl itself.

Banned Books Week runs Sept. 26-Oct. 3. Have lunch with the ban(ne)d on Thursday, October 1!

Punk in Print

What do you think of when you hear "punk"? Images of Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb in Alex Cox's Sid And Nancy? Or a hot and sweaty 1978 night at Mabuhay Gardens? For me, it's the look on my parents face when their 13-year old daughter played Dead Kennedys' Nazi Punks F--- Off for them.

Whatever your experience - cinematic, live, or via vinyl - if you wanted to know more about punk there was (and still is) a great way to find it: zines.



The SFPL Little Maga/Zine Collection, a rich resource documenting the SF/Bay Area underground and alternative press from the 1940s to the present, includes several punk zines from the earliest days of punk through queercore and beyond. Search & Destroy, Psyclone, Cometbus, Absolutely Zippo, Bitter Pie and Outpunk are just a few of the titles available to browse here on the 6th Floor.

September 12 - December 6

Visit the Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk exhibition in the Jewett Gallery, Lower Level at the SFPL Main Library.


And don't miss:
Punk Live on Film --- Wednesday, October 7 --- 6 p.m.
Screenings of Louder, Faster, Shorter; Deaf Punk; and Insect Lounge Sally RemiX 1978 followed by audience Q&A with filmmaker Mindy Bagdon and photographer Ruby Ray.
Koret Auditorium, Lower Level, Main Library.

A Second Final Rest and Gravediggers at the Library

In connection with One City One Book - Alive in Necropolis - the San Francisco History Center is presenting two documentary films on Tuesday, September 29 in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library. Trina Lopez's A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries and Justin Schein's Gravediggers will be shown. Trina Lopez, a local filmmaker, will be present for a Q&A session.

Ms. Lopez's initial inspiration for making A Second Final Rest came from Dr. Weirde's Weirde Tours: A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco. After many hours of archival research (including in the San Francisco History Center), numerous interviews and countless days exploring San Francisco's waterfront, park space, and the adjacent town of Colma, Ms. Lopez crafted A Second Final Rest into her thesis project for her Master of Fine Arts degree in Cinema at San Francisco State University, 2004. Watch the preview and learn more about the film A Second Final Rest.

In Gravediggers you will meet the men who have devoted their lives to tending the graves of Holy Cross Cemetery. Mr. Schein received his Masters in Documentary from Stanford University with Gravediggers as one of his student projects. The documentary first aired on PBS in 1993 and screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Mr. Schein has shot over 50 documentary films including the eco-dramedy documentary No Impact Man that is currently playing at the Lumiere Theater (Place your hold now for Colin Beavan's accompanying book!)

Related and upcoming San Francisco History Center / One City One Book programs and display -

Timothy Keegan, The Death/Funeral Culture in San Francisco, 1880-1940
Timothy Keegan will share research and present a talk about the rituals and customs with death and funerals in late 19th century to early 20th century San Francisco.
Wednesday, September 30 - 6:30 p.m.
San Francisco Main Library, Latino/Hispanic Room B - 100 Larkin St.

Nancy Peterson, author of Raking the Ashes: Genealogical Strategies for pre-1906 San Francisco Research - Old San Francisco Cemetery Records
Nancy Peterson, Certified Genealogist and Research Director for the California Genealogical Society, will present and answer questions about San Francisco’s old cemeteries - Where did the bodies go and what records followed them? Who and what was left behind and never moved at all?
Saturday, October 17 – 11 a.m.–1 p.m.
San Francisco Main Library – Latino/Hispanic Room B – 100 Larkin St.

San Francisco History Center Display: 19th century Odd Fellows’ Cemetery Tombstones – These Odd Fellows’ Cemetery tombstone fragments had been unearthed in San Francisco backyards. The Odd Fellows’ Cemetery was dedicated in 1865. In 1933, the bodies were removed to the Greenlawn Cemetery in Colma. Most of the stonework was used to construct the seawall at Aquatic Park, although some odds and ends were left behind.
September – November 2009
San Francisco Main Library – San Francisco History Center
100 Larkin St., 6th Floor

From Our Test Kitchen: Lillie Hitchcock Coit's Apple Cheese Cake

Photo: [Lillie Hitchcock Coit] n.d. Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

In honor of One City One Book, this month's Test Kitchen features a recipe from one of Alive In Necropolis' most influential ghost characters, the colorful San Francisco heiress, Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She is famous for her devotion to the San Francisco Volunteer Fire Department Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5 and for Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill which was built with the money she bequeathed to the city. However, Lillie was also a connoisseur of fine food and dined often at San Francisco's famous French restaurant, The Poodle Dog. She also kept her own recipe book.

The Recipe Book of Lillie Hitchcock Coit is filled with recipes that she collected in the 1870s and 1880s. It was transcribed and published by the Friends of the Bancroft Library in 1998.

For the Sixth Floor Test Kitchen, I decided to attempt Lillie's Apple Cheese Cake, a recipe which she procured from a Mrs. Simpson.

1 lb steamed and mashed tart apples
3/4 lb sugar
1/2 lb Butter
1/2 pint rich milk or cream
6 Eggs
Juice & grated rind of a lemon
1 grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powdered
Sherry glass of brandy

Bake in a crust & mix like the squash pie. The sugar depends on the tartness of the apples, if not sweet enough add 1/4 lb more. Bake them thick and full.

Courtesy of Friends of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. From The Recipe Book of Lillie Hitchcock Coit Introduction by Carol Hart Field; edited by John C. Craig; transcribed by Barbara Hoddy. 1998.

Despite its name, the final product turned out to be neither cheesy nor "cakey". Instead it was a pie, very much like a pumpkin pie with apples in place of the squash. What made it extra special were the apples Wendy brought in, picked from a tree in her Mission District backyard! Oh, and just so you know, this recipe actually makes two pies.

So, how was it? We put it to our Sixth Floor testers and this is what we heard:

"Not too sweet, not too creamy" - Tami, ...and she meant this to be a good thing!
"You can make this one again" - Tom, after the initial query, "This doesn't involve alligator pears, does it?"

All in all, we can call the Apple Cheese Cake a stunning success! Want to try your hand at one of Lillie Hitchcock Coit's recipes? Come on up to the San Francisco History Center on the Sixth Floor of the SF Main Library to see more. And if you'd like to know more about Lillie herself, the SF History Center has a wealth of information, including her original diary from 1872 in the Small Manuscripts Collection(pdf) - it is an amazing read!

...

Monday Morsel

Guess what! The results of this months Sixth Floor Test Kitchen experiment are about to be revealed! Here's a Monday Morsel to get you in the mood:
Photo: [Mrs. David Huenergardt, Pastry Chef Ernie Wenger, Mrs. Sydney Weisbaum and Mrs. Arnold Pastorius providing apple pies for the AWVS canteen] Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

Caption:
AWVS CANTEEN IN ACTION--Apple pie is a favorite of San Francisco men who guard the city at night. Here is a fresh batch of pies made by Pastry Chef Ernie Wenger of the Palace. Wenger has enlisted in the Navy as a pastry cook, and is awaiting a call to duty. Meanwhile he helps Mrs. David Huenergardt (in dark uniform) provide pastries for the AWVS canteen. Looking on are Mrs. Sydney Weisbaum and Mrs. Arnold Pastorius, whose husband was a pastry chef in World War I.
1946 Sept. 18.

Ahoy, me hearties!

Yo-ho-ho! It's talk like a pirate day, but up here on the Sixth Floor you'd better be keeping it quiet-like matey, or it'll be walkin' the plank for you! Besides we'd rather talk about pirates. Case in point: "the last of the buccaneers," San Francisco pirate William H. "Bully" Hayes, a notoriously unpleasant man who received his nickname from the way he treated his crew. It is said that he met his end when Peter "Dutch Pete" Radeck, his ship's cook, mutinied, killing him and unceremoniously throwing his body overboard.

Image courtesy of Guampedia.

While many of the early San Francisco newspapers carried stories about this rogue, you can use your San Francisco Public Library card to access the San Francisco Chronicle Historical database and read articles about him online. The Chronicle's "Drift from the Seven Seas" article from June 8, 1913 recounts how "Bully" Hayes sailed out of the Golden Gate aboard the Otranto which he acquired with typical underhandedness.

Read the full story in the Chronicle Historical Archive. (Note: You will need to use your San Francisco Public Library card to follow the link.)

Find more information library booty on pirates at the San Francisco Public Library!
Bully Hayes, South Sea Pirate by Basil Lubbock (1931)
History of the buccaneers of America by James Burney (1891)
Arr!
...

Dead in Necropolis: More death records

(At right:) A record of death, July 5, 1934, Coroner's Register. Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center
Besides tombstones and funeral home records, the San Francisco History Center has coroner's records from 1902-1956. The Coroner, which today is replaced by the Medical Examiner (the office is much the same, except that the Medical Examiner must be a doctor, whereas the Coroner wasn't required to be one), was responsible for investigating and recording deaths due to accident, suicide, homicide, or other "unnatural" causes, as well as deaths unattended by a physician. The records include hundreds of large volumes containing 2-page death reports describing individual persons and the circumstances under which they died. There are also necropsy (aka autopsy) reports beginning in 1928.

If you're interested in seeing what these records look like, visit us on the 6th floor during open hours. We've pulled two sample volumes from October 1929. I chose that date because that's when the Stock Market Crash of 1929 happened, and I had been wondering whether suicides had gone up that month. Apparently not-- or not yet-- although one of the entries does list financial distress as a possible factor in the person's death. To request other volumes or specific reports, please have the month and year of death handy, and allow 24 hours turnaround time for your request to be filled.

If you want a good brief history of the Coroner's Office in San Francisco that you can borrow with your library card, check out Terence Allen's San Francisco Coroner's Office: A History, 1850-1980.

Bits and Pieces of San Francisco History

Did you know that not all of the tombstones from San Francisco cemeteries were moved to Colma with the bodies of those re-interred there? The tombstone was only preserved if descendants were willing to pay for its relocation. Tombstones that were left behind were used as part of several WPA projects including the sea walls at Aquatic Park and the Yacht Harbor in the Marina.

Photo: [Sea wall under construction at Yacht Harbor]1934 Nov. 25. Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

Further inland, bits of tombstones were used to line the gutters at Buena Vista Park. Most of the stones used were turned so that the smooth side of the stone faced up, but if you look closely, you can find a few pieces with writing on them that hasn't completely worn away.

Photo: Bits of tombstones in the gutters at Buena Vista Park. (L. Weddle)

My personal favorite use of old SF tombstones was for the creation of the Wave Organ. With San Francisco's summer finally kicking into gear, now is a great time to check out the mysterious sounds from the ocean while appreciating the marble stones that make it up. (Tip: The Wave Organ works best at high tide!)

Photo: The Wave Organ with detail. (L.Weddle)

However, for those who like a more indoor experience, a few of these tombstones made their way up here on the 6th Floor of the Main Library. Come on up for a closer look at these markers, undertakers receipt and mortuary records!

For more about the relocation of San Francisco's dead to Colma, come to the One City One Book event: Documentary Films - Trina Lopez's A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries and Justin Schein's Gravediggers - Tuesday, September 29 at 6 p.m. Filmmaker Trina Lopez will appear in person for Q & A.


We're pretty used to cavorting with the local ghosts here in the San Francisco History Center, and we'll be sharing some insight into their lives in the upcoming months. In the meantime, get to know some of the Bay Area's more colorful (and now dead) characters highlighted in Doug Dorst's Alive in Necropolis by picking up a copy at your local library today. Check out One City One Book's events page for the fun and fascinating events throughout September and October!

Monday Mayhem

Photo: [Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys performing at the Mabuhay Gardens]
Courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

September 12 - December 6

Visit the Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk exhibition in the Jewett Gallery, Lower Level at the SFPL Main Library.

Featured Exhibition - Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk 1977-1981

Photo: Ruby Ray
San Francisco was the center of a vibrant and exciting punk scene in the late 1970s, rivaling Los Angeles and New York. In 1977, photographer Ruby Ray began documenting the punk scene in the city for the seminal punk magazine Search and Destroy.

Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk features 45 black and white photographic portraits and live music photographs of original punk innovators by the San Francisco-based photographer Ray in the Main Library, Jewett Gallery, September 12- December 6. Original punk rock 'zines, flyers, posters and ephemera from 1977 to 1981 along with additional articles and ephemera from the library's Art, Music and Recreation Center Collection and from the Little Maga/Zine Collection, Book Arts & Special Collections also will be on view, sharing the rich historical roots of punk rock from the center of the San Francisco artistic movement.

The message is unabashed individualism, creativity, do-it-yourself activism and black humor. Bands such as the Avengers, Dead Kennedys, the Dils, Crime, Sleeper, the Mutants and others are represented, placing them within the historic context as an important part of San Francisco's counter-culture history, as innovative for its time as the beat and hippie movements were.

Related Events:
September 12 - November 22
Punk Penelope
A display of original artwork, albums and ephemera from the collection of Penelope Houston, singer/songwriter and founder of the seminal punk rock band, The Avengers.
Cafe, Lower Level, Main Library

Tuesday, September 15 --- 2-4 p.m.
Meet the Artist-Photographer Ruby Ray
Jewett Gallery, Lower Level, Main Library

Wednesday, October 7 --- 6 p.m.
Punk Live on Film
Screenings of Louder, Faster, Shorter; Deaf Punk; and Insect Lounge Sally RemiX 1978 followed by audience Q&A with filmmaker Mindy Bagdon and photographer Ruby Ray.
Koret Auditorium, Lower Level, Main Library

Tuesday, October 20 --- 6 p.m.
Gimme Something Better
Author reading and presentation by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor. Book sale to immediately follow.
Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room, Lower Level, Main Library

Wednesday, November 4 --- 6 p.m.
Film Screening of SF Punk (Target Video)
West Coast Premiere!
Film will be followed by audience Q&A with photographer Ruby Ray and video producer Joe Rees.
Koret Auditorium, Lower Level, Main Library

Tuesday, November 17 --- 7 p.m.
Queer Punk: Panel Discussion
Panel will discuss how being Queer influenced their music and share memories of playing in the San Francisco punk scene in the '80s and '90s. Panelists include KD Davis, bass player for Wilma and Impulse F, Debbie Hopkins, drummer for The Contractions, and Jon Ginoli, founder of Pansy Division.
Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library, 1 Jose Sarria Court (at 16th Street)

It Came From the (Photo) Morgue!

The morgue reveals an affordable trans-Bay commute alternative:

Caption:

May 3, 1936
CASTOFF BIKE, 80¢ CASH AND LAD HAD "POWER" BOAT
Robert Simpson, 18 year old San Rafael, Calif. lad, had eighty cents in cash, a cast off bicycle and an intense longing for a boat of some kind. With this and an idea he produced the peculiar looking craft above. What's more, the thing works too.

The Library owns the photo morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, a daily newspaper that covered the time period from the 1920’s to 1965. Much of the San Francisco History Collection comes from the News-Call Bulletin morgue. However, the morgue also includes national and international subjects that have not been digitized or cataloged.

Looking for a historical photograph of San Francisco? Try our online database first. Not there? Come visit us at the Photo Desk of the San Francisco History Center, located on the sixth floor at the Main Library. The Photo Desk hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
...

Fieldwork: City Treasurer's Records

The last several Friday mornings, archivists from the San Francisco History Center have been getting our hands dirty in a Civic Center basement, sorting through proverbial dusty ledgers that are no longer needed by the City Treasurer's Office. As the official City Archives, the San Francisco History Center is the last stop for City records. Our job is to identify and transfer records that are no longer of day-to-day use to city departments but that might be of historical interest to researchers. Our trips to pick up records mark the beginning of a sometimes grimy process in which "records" become "archives," sort of (but not really) like the way a Schoolhouse Rock Bill becomes a Law, or a stuffed Velveteen Rabbit becomes Real: the records that the archives retain become fodder for making history.

With some consultation from Deputy City Treasurer Pauline Marx, City Archivist Susan Goldstein and some of her staff hauled, peered, analyzed, inferred, sorted, and sneezed our way through the pallets and piles. Here are a few snapshots of us working "in the field." The next time you see us at the Reference Desk looking well-scrubbed, remember the other, pre-burnished side of our professional coin.

From left to right: World-weary Tim, Wendy with face-mask, & Susan examining a specimen


Digital photos really don't convey the amount of grime, confusion, or red rot (the leather that deteriorates into your hands)--that is, they don't convey the True Texture--of the setting. But, at the end of the day, this is part of what makes the job so much fun. So, next time you call us to come look at a collection, but you're embarrassed because it's kind of messy, remember that WE'VE SEEN IT ALL.

At left: A messy corner; Below: Dirty hands.

Featured Exhibition: Marking Time

The San Francisco Public Library's Book Arts & Special Collections and The Guild of Book Workers are pleased to present Marking Time, the Guild's triennial juried members' book arts exhibition.

Time has long captured the imagination of artists, writers, scientists, philosophers and theologians. Guild of Book Workers members, both established masters and gifted emerging artists, were invited to interpret the theme "marking time" for an exhibition featuring 50 works that will travel to nine venues across the country from May 2009 to March 2011. The exhibition will make its West Coast premiere at the San Francisco Public Library Sept. 6 and will be on view through Nov. 22, 2009 in the Skylight Gallery at the Main Library.

Marking Time showcases the rich diversity of backgrounds, talents and interests that has been a hallmark of Guild membership for more than 100 years. Exhibitors are conservators and bookbinders, arts educators, full-time studio artists and people with jobs outside the arts. A number of works in this exhibition refer to or incorporate actual parts of time-keeping devices. Some pieces reference the end of time; others suggest historical structures or formats, and several create contemporary "book of hours." Some celebrate the cycles of nature, while others track deterioration of an environment. Some deal with a literal or figurative journey or with cultural or personal history.

Traditional leather bindings stand alongside contemporary bindings that have been dyed, collaged or incorporated with photographs or handwriting. Texts selected to be bound are as likely to be poetry or classics as they are science fiction or hard science. The exhibition includes work in the codex format, complex folded structures, wooden constructions, hand-held toys and sculptural objects. Text and imagery is produced by the most ancient and most modern mark-making methods: calligraphy, painting, woodcut, letterpress and digital output.

An accompanying exhibition catalog will be on view in the exhibition and available for purchase at the Book Bay at Main Bookstore and online at www.guildofbookworkers.org. The catalog features: full color photographs and complete descriptions of each work; biographies of the artists; remarks from jurors Jeff Altepeter, Melissa Jay Craig and Peter Verheyen; and essays by Marking Time curator Karen Hanmer and Guild president James Reid-Cunningham.

Related Event:
Saturday, September 12 --- 2 - 4 p.m.
Local Guild of Book Workers members Jody Alexander, Coleen Curry and Debbie Kogan will present a walk-through discussion of the exhibition.

Check it Out!

Find published San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection images in two new books available in the San Francisco History Center for reference and to borrow from the San Francisco Public Library.

Dr. Kevin Starr, California historian, former San Francisco Public Library City Librarian and State Librarian Emeritus, published the eighth volume in the series Americans and the California Dream. In Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 you will find seven photographs from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Simon Read writes about the founding of the San Francisco Chronicle in War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder. Look for three images from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

This Just In: A New Item in the SF History Center Archives

Label from ValenciaAbstract of Title

Last July, we received a small, leather-bound volume with the front cover falling off. It was an abstract of title for a small parcel of land in the Mission Dolores, in the block bounded by Guerrero, Dolores, and what is today 16th and 17th Streets. Beginning with entries in 1845, it establishes property ownership by Eustacio and Jose R. Valencia, members of the family for whom today's Valencia Street is named. It records deeds, mortgages, and other transactions up to 1873.

The book was donated by Sandra M. Linehan, widow of Richard Linehan, who was a cousin to Robert Valencia. The cousins are decended from Jose Manuel Valencia, a soldier who served in the Anza-Moraga expedition of the 1770s. Thank you, Ms. Linehan, for helping us build our collective memory.

Illustration of the parcel of land from the Valencia deed book is on the left. On the right, Google maps provides a shot of what the area looks like now.
(Click on either to enlarge.)

...