List of Photo Collections

• San Francisco History Subject Collection

  
  
  The San Francisco History Subject Collection consists of approximately 250,000 photographs, from the 1850s to the present. This collection includes views of San Francisco street scenes, buildings, and neighborhoods, as well as photographs of famous San Francisco personalities. A large part of this collection consists of the photograph morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper, dating from the 1920's-1965, when the collection was donated to the library.
  
  
  The San Francisco History Subject Collection is arranged alphabetically by subject heading. A subject guide to this entire collection, including both digitized and paper images, is available. In addition, a guide to browse digitized images by subject is also available. Finally, it is possible to search the San Francisco History Subject Collection using keywords.

• James A. Scott Collection

  
  
  This collection contains over 4,000 photographs of San Francisco taken by James A. Scott over a period of 40 years, beginning in the 1960's. Shown here is a selection of 27 pairs of before-and-after images accompanied by photographer Scott's notes and comments.

• Willard E. Worden Glass Plate Negative Collection

  
  
  The collection contains 432 glass plate negatives taken by San Francisco photographer Willard E. Worden ca. 1911-1912.  227 of the images depict the building of the Ingleside Terraces residential neighborhood by the Urban Realty Improvement Company. The remainder include residences in Jordan Park and Visitacion Valley, various residential interiors, Sacred Heart School, the Y.M.C.A. building at Golden Gate Avenue and Leavenworth. Y.M.C.A. camps, and views of Berkeley and Piedmont.

• San Francisco Assessor's Office Negative Collection: Residences and Businesses.

  
  
  This collection was given to the History Center by the San Francisco Assessor's Office. It includes properties photographed by the Assessor's Office from the 1940s through the 1960s. The finding aid is divided into three sections: alphabetically by street name (PDF), numerically by block number (PDF), and alphabetically by business name (PDF).

Please note that viewing and ordering images is limited to Tuesday and Thursday from 1-5pm; and Saturday from 10-Noon and 1-5pm.