ENVISIONING THE CITY: PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1850-1906. (VOLUMES I AND II) (CALIFORNIA)

This dissertation is a study of the social context of San Francisco-based photographers and their photographs from the early years of the California Gold Rush to the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. The careers of leading photographers during the years under consideration have been investigated in terms of the varied relationships of the photographers and their work to the urban community. The major forms of photographic presentation popular throughout the last half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century (cased photographs, albums, prints on paper, and process halftone reproductions) and the resulting representations of portraits, cityscape, and landscape are the focus of the study.; The intimate connection of photography to all social levels of the city's population and the new medium's impact on American Victorian society in an urban setting have been detailed in this dissertation. In addition, the aesthetic concerns of the photographers and their attempts to adapt these artistic issues to the demands of the particular economic and cultural environment in which they worked has been carefully considered.