What We're Reading: August 2024

Summer is over and what an epic summer we've had! From reading about Kamala Harris's historic democratic nomination for president, beginning with her 2003 run for SF DA and through to the celebratory selfies at the DNC; to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, which saw the amazing placing of Cal and Stanford athletes, who outperformed some countries; to our own race for San Francisco mayor heating up (where do the candidates stand on public safety?)—there has been no lack of riveting articles to inform us. Nonetheless, this August edition of What We're Reading is serving up some articles to give a break from the exhilarating and exhausting news cycle we've been on. 

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The best livestream so far this year? A corpse flower slowly blooming

New Scientist, August 10, 2024

Read it in Flipster, an eMags platform courtesy of SFPL

For journalist Annalee Newitz, this was a favorite story to write this year. As they said on the social media platform Bluesky, "Plant time is the best way to get away from social media chaos." Watching the plant slowly grow day by day on livestream wasn't the only draw; spectators also got to watch the blossom's owner cut a small "window" in its spathe in order to be fertilized by pollen from a corpse flower in another state. After 13 years of growth, this corpse flower gave virtual watchers the ability to unplug from tech while using tech, and get pretty emotionally invested in the process.

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She Survived the Maui Wildfires. She Couldn’t Survive the Year After.

New York Times, Aug 21, 2024 

This story, which is available to SFPL patrons through the weblink above rather than in any print edition we can offer, follows the trajectory of wildfire refugee Edralina Diezon following the 2023 Lahaina fires in Hawaii. Having emigrated from her homeland of the Philippines to Lahaina in 2015, Diezon worked as a janitor at a local hotel and managed to survive the wildfires by sheltering there. But, as the article explores, getting help following the disaster was ultimately too difficult.

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SF Investor Uprooting Businesses

San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 20, 2024 

This disturbing piece by business and real estate reporter Laura Waxmann started ringing alarm bells in our neck of the woods as it doled out bad news for legacy businesses like the beloved restaurant La Med in the upper Fillmore. Good news came a few days later in an August 27 follow-up about proposed legislation from supervisor Aaron Peskin that would protect these businesses and was tempered by a contrarian piece in the SF Standard that ran August 26. Update 9/30: Investor in the project Neil Mehta counters the "sinister plan" in an SF Standard op ed.

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Gen-Z Is Killing the Curveball

FanGraphs, August 22, 2024 

Baseball writer Michael Baumann is a poet! In this online and openly accessible piece, he rhapsodizes about the disinvestment in the curveball by younger pitchers who prefer the slider for its efficiency. Baumann characterizes his beloved curveball as a "calligraphy brush, all swooping lines and fine control," while the "changeup is a Blackwing pencil, rich and precise, its marks here one moment and gone the next." The worse insult comes for the slider: it "is a crayon." Sports writing is anything but dull in this piece, which reads as a sext in praise of the finer nuances of a baseball's movement.

Ohlone in the News

The Ohlone tribes of the San Francisco Bay Area are news makers and shakers. Anyone can keep up with the triumphs, challenges, and stories from Ohlone tribes and their members by reading the news. Here are some tips for searching SFPL electronic news sources to stay abreast of the most recent goings-on. 

Recommended SFPL News Databases 

America's News (Newsbank platform) 

Connect to this database (SFPL Library card required) 

This database provides news articles from about 2,200 news outlets across the USA, including traditional print newspapers, news websites, blogs, radio programs, television programs, and other media. 

• Pros: Search many news sources at once; Includes many California newspapers up to the most current issues, e.g. San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, and Sacramento Bee.
  
• Cons: It does not include current articles from the Los Angeles Times or the New York Times, and it only has San Francisco Examiner content from 2008 - 2016 (and only web content at that); it's a little difficult to share lists of results with someone
  

US Newsstream (ProQuest platform)

Connect to this database (SFPL Library card required) 

This database provides news articles from about 1,300 news outlets across the USA, including traditional print newspapers, news websites, blogs, radio programs, television programs, and other media. 

• Pros: Search many news sources at once; Includes current articles from the San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times; it's very easy to share result lists with others by generating a share link
  
• Cons: Does not provide current articles from other California newspapers

Searching Tips 

Library databases don't exactly work like a Google search, for better and for worse. You want to be strategic about keywords and other ways to refine your search, and not to use long phrases or questions. Thankfully, these two are pretty similar so you can use the tips below in either one.

Keywords: 

The keywords you pick should represent the concepts you're curious about in the most basic form. Think of one word to describe each concept rather than a long phrase or question. 

A simple search for Ohlone brings back tens of thousands of results. Try combining two or more keywords, or use specific names. 

For example, try "Muwekma Ohlone," "Ramaytush Ohlone," or "Tamien Nation" in quotes to find articles mentioning these tribes by name, in the exact order the words appear. 

Another example: put Ohlone DNA in the search box to find articles about the recent scientific break through of DNA evidence connecting current members of Muwekma to thousands-year-old remains in their ancestral homeland. You'll have results containing the words Ohlone and DNA anywhere in the record, but not side-by-side as a phrase. It is not necessary to connect the terms with the word and.

Sorting and filtering results:

Check out the left side bar of the result screen in either database. Use the Sort by tool to change the ranking to date (newest) or most recent first to see the most current news. For complex searches using many keywords and other strategies, a relevancy ranking may be more helpful. You can also use the date tool in the left panel to narrow to a specific time period. If the format of the news is important to you, you can use the Source Type tool to limit results to specific formats, for example newspapers or news wires. 

Refinement tools in US Newsstream are located on the left of the result screen

Follow the Ohlone in the news:

Create an alert from the database to get notified at desired intervals. Look for the Save Search/Alert tool in the top right corner of the screen to get the chance to set up email notifications when new articles matching your search terms appear in the database. 

Search alert tools in US Newsstream are located on the top right of the result screen

Search alert tools in America's News are located at the top center of the results screen

More Tips

Read the America's News help guide (PDF opens in new window), which describes many advanced searching techniques not discussed here, like Boolean operators and proximity searching. 

 

Read the US Newsstream training guide (webpage opens in new window), which describes advanced searching techniques specific to the ProQuest platform. 

Sample Search Results

Try these searches in either database for practice!

Keywords: ohlone dna "federal recognition"

Limit to: 2022-2023 

Which database is better? Do you see the same author names in the results from both databases? While the publications in either database are different, does the content of the articles seem consistent?

Edible SF

A common resolution people make at the start of a new year revolves around improving their diets, so what better way to start developing healthy eating habits than exploring Edible San Francisco--a local magazine from the Wallace Environmental Stegner Center?

A publication of Edible Communities--a network of local food publications that focuses on "transform[ing] the way consumers shop for, cook, eat and relate to local food . . . . and connect consumers with local growers, retailers, chefs, and food artisans, enabling those relationships to grow and thrive in a mutually beneficial, healthful and economically viable way." To find back issues of Edible San Francisco, check with the Magazines & Newspapers Center for further assistance.

Finally, to whet your culinary palette through a variety of ongoing library programs and exhibitions, check out the San Francisco Eats events page which showcases "menus, historical photographs, an array of food writers, cookbooks and culinary history, ephemera such as coasters and matchbooks, and San Francisco food inventions, including gadgets and signature dishes."

The Bay Citizen - a new SF Bay Area news source

If you have been searching for more coverage of local news, the Bay Citizen may help you with your informational needs.

From the mission statement:

"The mission of The Bay Citizen is to enhance civic and community news coverage in the Bay Area, stimulate innovation in journalism, and foster civic engagement.

Across the nation, the field of journalism and access to local news about civic and cultural issues are in jeopardy.

In the Bay Area, local newspapers have cut their newsrooms by nearly 50% in the last five years. And coverage of civic news topics – including education, government, the environment, science, health, and arts – have been cut dramatically compared to topics such as sports and entertainment.

Professional journalism is worth saving. The Bay Citizen aims to provide unbiased and independent coverage of news, which we believe is critical to a functioning democracy and the information health of our communities."

For more information about the Bay Citizen (including the nature of its relationships with the New York Times and the UC Berkeley School of Journalism), take a look at their FAQ page.

Here are some examples of the fascinating articles by the reporters at Bay Citizen:

Bold Ideas Inspire New Life for Magazines by Jeanne Carstensen
The magazine as form being revitalized as evidenced by Longshot (delivered as a print on demand product through MagCloud) and Pop-Up Magazine (magazine as live action theater).

On Gold Coast, a Legacy of Low Taxes by Elizabeth Lesly Stevens
An article describing the discrepancies in the amount of property tax owed on some of the City's most valuable domestic properties. The article includes an interactive graphic that shows a portion of Broadway with pictures of houses together with their estimated current value, their assessed value, and property tax.

In Tough Times, Grandpa Pushes Pills by Shoshana Walter
The economic downturn and the increasing street demand for prescription drugs has broadened the demographics of the "drug dealer" in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco.

Mark Twain, Bay Area Man Around Town by Thalia Gigerenzer
This article gives a brief description of Twain's history and writing while in California (including a stint at the San Francisco Daily Morning Call). Part of a series of articles that celebrates the recent publication of yet another edition of Twain's biography.

Early San Francisco Newspapers on Microfilm

SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN

Part One

An immediate consequence of the discovery of gold on the American River near the village of Coloma in January of 1848, was the insatiable regional and national demand for all manner of topical news emanating from the faraway west and San Francisco - the gateway to the mines. Most of the early San Francisco newspapers were earnest, often threadbare and not a little bit parochial; most actively sought to play ball with the vested interests of the day. Yet there was one paper that was as much a journal as the means to a singular mission, founded with indomitable courage and all the axioms of the righteous.

C. O. Gerberding & Company launched the SAN FRANCISCO DAILY EVENING BULLETIN on October 8, 1855. James King of William, disillusioned banker, ex-prospector and former member of the original Committee of Vigilance, acted as the source of editorial vengeance. He zealously assailed crooked financiers, political opportunists, rioters, gamblers, moneyed influence peddlers, strike goons, houses of prostitution, graft, bribery, corruption and election fraud. The BULLETIN's fervent campaign on behalf of civic reform caused an immediate public sensation, and the daily edition progressively expanded to some 6-7,000 copies in the first six months. King was nothing if not forthright, placing his work ethic and publishing philosophy front and center:

". . . . an editor who cannot stop in the middle of one of the finest trains of thought that he is putting on paper, to minute the dimensions of a huge pumpkin, write an advertisement of a dog lost, enter the name of a new subscriber, or receive pay for an old one, to take a cow hiding for something he has said, and after all resume the thread of his discourse, and carry out the idea in its original force and beauty, is next to no editor at all . . . ."

James King had himself been a witness and victim to corrupt business practices and unscrupulous dealings in the banking industry prior to becoming a journalist, and he utilized the powerof the press and the platform of the BULLETIN for the excoriation of the Palmer, Cook and Company banking house, I. C. Woods (caretaker of the bankrupt Adams & Company), United States Senator David C. Broderick, and other city newspapers thought to be compliant in the city and statewide corruption.

San Franciscans responded wholeheartedly, sensing hope and redress in the defiant language and pugnacious stance of the new DAILY EVENING BULLETIN:

"in California still it may be said, that rogues and villains make their daily bread . . . but who would dare these villains to expose in public print and make so many foes? . . . .Yes, now we have a friend who dare speak out, the BULLETIN explains their whereabouts . . . ."

From an office on the southeast corner of Merchant and Montgomery, the BULLETIN battled "shoulder-strikers, ballot-box stuffers, and political vagabonds generally in the city", and advocated the formation of chartered banks and oversight regulation by the state legislature - tall demands from a modest, four-page crusading tabloid locked in fierce sales competition with the ALTA CALIFORNIA, the HERALD, the PICTORIAL TOWN TALK, the GLOBE, and the CALIFORNIA CHRONICLE.

The vigorous James King had become, in a very short time, a renowned and fearless champion and folk hero for the law-abiding and the previously fearful; this was a man who labored to expose and throw out politicians who were no better than pirates of the mainland:

"A man, unworthy to serve the humblest citizen in the land, has filled the highest office in the gift of the people. Judges have sat on the bench, whose more appropriate station would have been the prison house. Men, without one particle of claim . . . have filled the posts of Mayor and Councilmen in this city, for the sole purpose of filling their pockets with the ill-gotten gains of their nefarious schemes, their pilfering and dishonesty . . . ."

American-style civic reform, it has been observed, usually stems from a bad societal conscience - in search of a good night's sleep. What the firebrand James King began in the pages of the DAILY EVENING BULLETIN would play out in a firestorm of public outcry and vigilante justice that transformed San Francisco on the eve of the American civil war - and the catalytic event was the murder and martyrdom of James King himself, on May 14, 1856.

To be continued . . .

EARLY SF NEWSPAPERS

DAILY EVENING PICAYUNE

Many of the early San Francisco newspapers came into existence and went just as fast - it was the readers who stayed. The denizens of the new city consumed commerce bulletins, compared auctioneers' advertisements, studied steamship schedules and public notices, evaluated price lists for dry goods, posted body, soul and worldly belongings in personal classifieds, and gleaned the latest gold and silver mining news - all of which filled the text-only pages of the pioneer publications of San Francisco in the days of early settlement and statehood. By the end of 1850, San Francisco could boast of no less than five daily newspapers - all competing in cutthroat fashion in a turbulent local economy whose very foundation rested on equal parts ferment, gambling and speculation. The number of dailies rose to eight in early 1851, fell to only two a year later, then expanded to an even dozen by the end of 1853.

The first Pacific coast evening paper, the DAILY EVENING PICAYUNE debuted with the August 3, 1850 issue. Published Monday through Saturday by Dr. John Hancock Gihon & Co., the PICAYUNE was guided editorially by former San Francisco Sub-Prefect P. A. Brinsmade and erstwhile attorney W. W. Shepard. The paper lost no time in championing the miraculous enterprise of lusty pioneers and a city of destiny, rising to a rendezvous with greatness:

"In little more than one year almost the entire town has sprung, like magic, into existence. During that period, too, it has twice been nearly destroyed by fire, but it has each time suddenly arisen, Phoenix-like, from its ashes, with additional strength and beauty. There is unquestionably existing a spirit among our citizens superior to all difficulties, capable of leaping every obstacle, and of achieving any great undertaking . . . ." August 5, 1850

Within three weeks, the PICAYUNE had its first big scoop. On the morning of August 23, 1850, the steamer California docked in the bay, bringing with it news of the death of President Zachary Taylor. That afternoon, black borders framed the front page of the Daily Evening Picayune, detailing a national story the morning papers didn't carry until the next day.

Always topical, the Picayune took pains to laud the civilizing tendencies of 'virtuous females' in the growing city, offered approval of various public works projects (such as the 'grading and planking of the principal thoroughfares of the city'), saluted the opening of the Union Hotel (and approved its subsequent moratorium on in-house gambling a month later), and alluded toward big dreams of California independent nationhood:

"No people can lay under the uncompensated exactions which have, for the years past, been forced upon us; and the people are with great plausibility, familiarizing their minds with the idea, long entertained and boldly promulgated before the close of the Mexican War, by those now in places of executive power and legislative influence at Washington - that united with Oregon . . . . we may build up here a great western Republic, independent of the world beside."

The Daily Evening Picayune building, plant and editorial team of Shepard and Brinsmade were all effectively lost in the fire of May 4, 1851. Following the resignation of the old regime, the paper resumed later that month ( on May 27th) under the helm of lifelong journalist Andrew C. Russell (Sacramento Union, Los Angeles Star) and political dilettante Charles S. Biden. Though not overtly political journalists or firebrands, Biden and Russell nonetheless expressed devout Whig leanings in many editorials. Russell himself survived two separate duels (pistols and knives)fought with offended parties in 1851-52.

Amongst other interesting features which appeared in the early newspapers published in San Francisco were the special columns and sections devoted to the many non-English immigrant settlers, particularly those toiling in the mines. The DAILY EVENING PICAYUNE ran a regular feature in French by 33-year-old Etienne Derbec, a former contributor to the Journal des Debats. Derbec gained a loyal following, and later published the first-ever French and Spanish newspaper in San Francisco, L'Echo du Pacifique and El Eco del Pacifico.

Operating under a spate of different owners during its final year (which included A. M. Macy, George O'Doherty, Sanford Biden and others), the PICAYUNE experienced financial difficulties severe enough to put it out of business. O'Doherty himself, in the role of proprietor, looked ahead to the time when the gold and silver would someday run out:

"The impression for some time has been steadily gaining ground, that the real basis of prosperity in California is her agriculture; that however great the amount of wealth drawn from her mines, it is her soil which is to make her a state."

The final issue ran on April 17, 1852, and the paper was subsequently absorbed by the SAN FRANCISCO TIMES. Though short-lived, this fascinating journal offers the historian unique, contemporary insights to the early development of the city, from vigilance committees to fire companies to culture and arts.

Visitors to the San Francisco Public Library may view historical issues of the DAILY EVENING PICAYUNE in the Fifth Floor microfilm room, and in the San Francisco History Center.

Underground Newspapers on Microfilm: Peninsula Observer

"We are firmly committed to printing the truth about events in the Midpeninsula area and elsewhere, no matter how many people howl because we do."

An offspring of "Vietnam Summer" at Stanford University, the PENINSULA OBSERVER first appeared on July 7, 1967 and was co-founded by Barry Greenberg and David Ransom. Originally called the MIDPENINSULA OBSERVER, this underground title drew on prior Free University project publishing efforts and sought meaningful societal change. Avidly read in the Palo Alto and Stanford University environs, the OBSERVER featured some outstanding journalism.

Among other highlights, this newspaper ran an August 12, 1968 piece by Robert Coats and Gina Rivera, revealing valid conflict of interest irregularities against the chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Santa Clara County. David Ransom (Harvard graduate and SDS member) analyzed the war research activities of the Stanford Research Institute and produced a series of articles that resulted in sit-in demonstrations, massive protests, and the eventual severing of ties between the University and the independent Institute.

With anti-Vietnam War efforts as a focal point, the PENINSULA OBSERVER staff (composed of educated community members, graduate students and others) strongly opposed the presence of ROTC on the Stanford campus and sought to clarify and expose the many links between big business, the University, and the Pentagon war machine. Other memorable features included an in-depth critical study of Stanford President Kenneth Ptizer, a special issue on air pollution, and an examination of the Black Panther Party's "United Front Against Fascism" (July 28, 1969). The bi-monthly OBSERVER maintained close ties with the Palo Alto area radical high school movement, and frequently interceded in print for the underserved members of the community. The paper spoke out courageously on environmental, transportation, and urban renewal issues, conducting several very effective investigations of nefarious local construction projects.

A revolving cast of editors included Randy Bonner, Marlene Charyn (ex-Syracuse University), Peter Dolinger, David Shen, Maureen Kulbaitis, and Joanne Wallace. The OBSERVER posted upcoming local events on its "Happenings" page, and regular political editorials ran under "Polemicus." Circulation ran in the range of about 5,000 copies per issue, with the paper relying on patron donations and limited amounts of advertising revenue to cover operating costs. An important and ambitious intellectual watchdog publication, the PENINSULA OBSERVER remains one of the most well-written underground papers of its era; the paper folded quietly in November 1969.Check out the Underground Newspapers collection on microfilm at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library and rediscover the experimental journalism of the 1960s.

Underground Newspapers on Microfilm: San Francisco Oracle

The Underground Newspaper Microfilm Collection in the San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch, comprises a twentieth century revolution in graphic arts, journalism, politics, morality and culture. The reporters, editors, idealists, students, activists, crusaders and adventurers who created the alternative print culture of the 1960s were the original dreamers; precursors to the electronic architects of counter-culture Internet media today. In a time of growing social, political, and philosophical polemics, the San Francisco Oracle was born from the need to express a more visual and transcendent cultural radicalism.

Or, as co-founder Allen Cohen once said, "The Oracle was not planned, it was discovered."

Merging the Haight-Ashbury community it served with experimental graphics and journalism in tune with an acid-tinged Orientalia redolent of pacifism and generational promise, the Oracle was a triumph of both quixotic impracticality and newly-available offset printing. With the ability to bring 'camera ready' pages (heavy on the art and graphics, lighter on the text) to an offset print shop at drastically reduced rates (far less than the old letterpress costs of operation), the monthly Oracle was an immediate creative and countercultural citywide success by late Fall of 1966. Artistically peaking with original run issues #4 through #12, the Oracle embraced the talents of Steve Levine, Travis Rivers, Gabe Katz and many others who wrote and designed the paper on site in the Haight at Jay and Rod Thelin's Psychedelic Shop. This fleeting period of seventeen months coincided with San Francisco's 'flower-power' era, and the Oracle bled with illuminated rainbows of split fountain colors and blossomed with an almost utopian insistence . . . .

It was the San Francisco Oracle that called together, on New Year's Day, 1967, the youth enmasse Golden Gate Be-in . . . "a union of love and activism...will finally occur ecstatically when Berkeley's political activists and hip community and San Francisco's spiritual generation all over California meet for a gathering of tribes . . ."

Historically tied to the first generation of underground American newspapers as much by chronology as by a hopeful and sincere spirit of community, the Oracle reflected an inexplicable vision of artful, intricate, childlike fantasy and a genuine humanist affirmation predating the psychedelics of commodity and the sort of cynical, fast food, turned-on hippie paraphernalia designed for sale to tourists. The Oracle's mission was to be "a graphic expression of man's highest ideals: music, art, ideas, prophesy, poetry and the expansion of consciousness through drugs."

To view the San Francisco Oracle (and our entire collection of Underground Newspapers) on microfilm, visit the Magazine and Newspapers Center on the fifth floor of the San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch. See also our San Francisco History Center for related items of interest.

A Bomb in Every Issue

Slick, hip, challenging and smart - RAMPARTS Magazine evolved from a layman's catholic quarterly into a blockbuster monthly of humanistic ideals, subversive opinion, groundbreaking graphics, activist reporting, and premiere muckraking (1960s style). The Magazines and Newspapers Center of the San Francisco Public Library invite you to a special literary event, as author Peter Richardson presents A BOMB IN EVERY ISSUE: HOW RAMPARTS MAGAZINE CHANGED AMERICA.

Join us in the Latino/Hispanic lower level meeting rooms at 11AM on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 for a look back at one of the most explosive eras in San Francisco journalism. RAMPARTS shook the nation time and again with exclusive stories of vice in officialdom and bold coverage of racial, economic, political, environmental, and social issues ignored by the mainstream press. Find out how it happened at this free program, which will feature also a book signing and sale.

Early SF Newspapers -- Alta California Part Three

Arson and Vigilante Justice

ALTA CALIFORNIA editor Edward Gilbert was a firm (and early) editorial champion for the cause of law and order in the crime-ridden city, and he campaigned vigorously for an all-volunteer, organized peacekeeping force. The ALTA CALIFORNIA provided key support for the first Committee of Vigilance (formed in June of 1851), whose storied membership would deal punitively with crime and civil disorder--outside official channels.

Running an otherwise-anonymous editorial credited only with the name of Justice (an authorship later identified as the work of commission merchant R. S. Watson), the ALTA posed a series of "Propositions for the Public Safety" in the June 8, 1851 issue:

". . . we must be a law unto ourselves, and that there are enough good men and true who are ready to take hold . . . to establish a committee of safety . . . to appoint a committee of vigilance of twenty men, in each ward . . . to hunt out these hardened villains . . . ."

The proposal--that a self-selected few should unite in the private administration of justice--as juries, judges and executioners, outside the due process of law--was an extraordinary act which condoned in advance and rationalized the sort of mob-rule actions such as the lynching of Australian expatriate John Jenkins. Said the ALTA on June 10th, all of two days later:

"The trial and conviction of Jenkins was not the act of an inflamed and excited mob - his case was adjudged with calmness and deliberation, his guilt fully established, and the penalty of death imposed by a set of men respected and esteemed by their fellows . . . assuming a responsibility imposed on them by stern necessity, with a full perception of their accountability to their fellow men and their Maker. Who but He shall adjudge or condemn them? We dare not."

Not that Edward Gilbert's staff completely supported vigilantism without reservations; the February 23, 1851 issue had gravely warned that:

"Lynch law is a whirlwind which once set loose may sweep down all peaceable barriers before its angry blast . . . ."

Journalists themselves were not immune to the sort of intimidation, physical assault, and even assassination denounced in many an editorial in 1850s California. Edward Gilbert himself was killed in an August 1852 duel; he had dared to question (not without accuracy) the competence and integrity of Governor Bigler's administration.

Arson and carelessness continued to level and wreck the city again and again with flames, devastation, and conflagration. In the wake of the San Francisco fire of May 3-4, 1851, the ALTA survived as the only paper left standing and able to publish an edition the following day:

"San Francisco is again in ashes. The smoke and flames are ascending from several squares of our city, as if the God of Destruction had seated himself in our midst . . . . Here and there a brick building stands like a tomb among a nation of graves, yet even they in most cases have nothing but their walls standing . . . ."

By 1854, San Francisco citywide boasted a readership in support of twelve other daily newspapers, in addition to the DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA. For much of its later run, the ALTA assumed a more moderate and increasingly sedate tone and profile in contrast to rival papers like the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE and the DAILY MORNING CALL. Bonanza king James Fair owned the ALTA in its final years, and published the very last issue on June 2, 1891. The entire run (1849-1891) of the DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA is available for viewing on microfilm in the Fifth Floor Magazines and Newspapers Center of the Main Library. A bound collection comprising 1862-1891 can be found in the Sixth Floor San Francisco History Center. See also the California Digital Newspaper Collection for selected sample issues.

RAMPARTS Magazine

RAMPARTS was one of the most influential voices of the radical underground juxtaposed against an all-pervasive overground of mass market and establishment publications on the newstands of America from 1962-1975. From its beginnings in Menlo Park as a soul-searching Catholic literary quarterly as envisioned by publisher Edward Keating, this compelling title evolved into a forum for legendary muckraking and take-no-prisoners investigatory journalism and sweeping social commentary in the hands of San Francisco editors Warren Hinckle, Robert Scheer, David Horowitz, art director Dugald Stermer and the prolific contributions of many others.

Ramparts helped bridge a growing credibility gap between mollifying democratic rhetoric and polarizing social issues, Cold War certitudes, and geopolitical realities. Pro-civil rights, anti-war, and champion promoters of good, old-fashioned American dissent, Ramparts stood alone against the journalistic mainstream with deep political analysis, subversive commentary, alternative opinions, and divergent viewpoints. Armed with both the courage of moral conscience and an unswerving social commitment to the exercise of free speech, Ramparts found

"purpose as a magazine . . . to shatter that predisposition to treat the secret covenants of government and power as sacrosanct . . . ."-- Warren Hinckle, June 15, 1968

Recording the tumultuous cultural and political changes of its era while at the same time helping to instigate much of that same ferment, Ramparts went behind the scenes to expose U. S. government perfidy and genocide in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia; blew the whistle on CIA links to American universities, illegal domestic surveillance, and a lucrative overseas opium trade; revealed conspiracy and cover-up in the murder of President Kennedy; documented the blood vendetta of the FBI versus the Black Panthers; reported local and national environmental issues in depth; published first the Bolivian diary of Che Guevara, the recanting of ex-Green Beret Donald Duncan, the prison writings of Eldridge Cleaver, and much more.

The complete collection of Ramparts magazine is available to readers and researchers at the Magazines and Newspapers Center on the fifth floor of the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. For a special presentation on the life and times of this landmark San Francisco journal, you are invited to attend a live event with author Peter Richardson, A BOMB IN EVERY ISSUE: HOW RAMPARTS MAGAZINE CHANGED AMERICA. This library program will take place on Saturday, January 23rd at 11AM at the Main Library.

ALTA CALIFORNIA Battles Crime in the City

PART II - ALTA CALIFORNIA: CRIME IN THE CITY

Few of the historical publications in the Magazine and Newspapers Center microfilm collection have as storied a San Francisco past as the ALTA CALIFORNIA. Initially a reclamation project of publisher Edward C. Kemble and some fellow investors, the ALTA was forged from the remains of what had once been THE CALIFORNIAN and the CALIFORNIA STAR newspapers - victims, as much as anything else, of the Gold Rush itself (and the subsequent manpower shortage resulting from the mass exodus to the hills). The first city daily paper, the ALTA CALIFORNIA (1849-1891) itself shared - and made - much of the vibrant early history and events of San Francisco. It was a time of foundation building (and rebuilding), moralizing, retribution, and not a little sanctification - generated from scratch . . .

The ALTA's Edward Gilbert and associates took some strong editorial stands in their day. Commenting on imports in March 1851, the paper voiced a complaint that San Francisco merchants (amidst growing pains) would only repeat in succeeding years:

"Before, we could not get adequate

supplies from all sources; now we find

our markets broken down with merchandise

from the eastern states . . . ."

Thus addressing the problems of over-supply in imported merchant goods, the ALTA would subsequently foresee a peaking gold production and a diminished growth in mining, and would point (early on) to the need for a more diversified and sustainable economy for Californians.

Dramatic historical events link the DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA most closely to the phenomenon of crime and vigilantism in frontier San Francisco, for the paper took a strong, outspoken, and active participatory role in the local struggle for the establishment of law and order. The ALTA came down early on crime, beginning on January 1, 1851:

"There are some three hundred thieves in this city, who live by their profession, and prefer to live so rather than work . . . ."

and continuing in this vein in late February 1851:

"No place seems safe from outrage, no person secure, even in his own dwelling . . . the floodgates of crime, which seem opened by the devil's hand and flowing from his infernal abode through our very midst . . . ."

Crime in Gold Rush San Francisco plagued the populace to alarming degrees, in the predominant forms of assault, battery, larceny, criminal arson and murder. The ALTA, as did other local newspapers, blamed Australian (and later Chinese) immigrants at large for much of early San Francisco's rampant vice and lawlessness in the February 25, 1851 issue:

"The state of California has been made the grand rendezvous for the transported felons of Great Britain, who have either managed to escape or have been assisted in their embarkation from the penal colonies."

TO BE CONTINUED

EARLY SF NEWSPAPERS - ALTA CALIFORNIA

SECOND IN A SERIES

The Magazines and Newspapers Center of the San Francisco Public Library offers a wealth of archived historical resources pertaining to the entire tumultuous day-by-day frontier saga of our city - as told within the pages of the rough-and-tumble newspapers of the 1800s - all in our microfilm collection on the fifth floor.

The early newspapers of San Francisco faced many obstacles between printing press and distribution. Hearty and resourceful publishers faced periodic paper shortages, battled catastrophic fires (between 1849 and 1851, the entire city managed to burn itself to the ground a good half dozen times), opposed labor insurrections, outrode economic turbulence, and competed in an increasingly volatile newspaper market that struggled to establish itself under crude and frontier conditions. Some titles came and went in a very short time. One such paper was the CALIFORNIA STAR. Other publications survived to chronicle a great deal of the daily lawlessness, fear, adventure, and extraordinary courage of San Francisco's early trailblazers.

The populist, independent, and influential ALTA CALIFORNIA was originally issued three times per week (beginning January 4, 1849) - by a crew of eleven printers using handset type - before eventually becoming the first ever daily paper in San Francisco, by January of 1850.

Publisher Edward C. Kemble was a determined and visionary printer with strong entrepreneurial interests. Having noted the frenzied activity and heightened interest citywide that seemed to surround the various San Francisco port arrivals and departures, Kemble initiated the first ALTA CALIFORNIA steamer edition on April 9, 1849. These were high-demand, special export press runs of the ALTA (transported by sea vessel) that covered local affairs and California news for readers along the faraway Atlantic Coast.

Wide distribution and a growing local readership made Kemble's ALTA the top journal in early San Francisco.

By the end of 1850, the ALTA CALIFORNIA (along with four other city newspapers) found itself reeling in the bitter conflict between management and house printers over fluctuating wage rates. A number of organized printers had formed the San Francisco Typographical Society in June of 1850. Publishers had fought back with the formation of the Associated Press of the State of California, which was born at an August 8-13th, 1851 statewide convention of editors and reporters. Amongst the publishing concerns (which included newspaper men from as far away as San Diego, Sacramento, Sonora, and San Joaquin) on hand were representatives from San Francisco's EVENING PICAYUNE, the MORNING POST, the SAN FRANCISCO HERALD, and of course the ALTA CALIFORNIA.

The AP convention established a standardization of general advertising rates, those for auctioneers, and prorated charges for "political, religious or benevolent notices".

Wage proposals for printers were parried and discussed with members of the San Francisco Typographical Society, along with accompanying efforts to establish standard cost rates for printing posters, circulars, deeds, consignment works, and the like.

What the Associated Press convention did not resolve was the ongoing scale dispute regarding printer's wages, the most contentious issue dividing printers and publishers. For its part, the ALTA CALIFORNIA opposed the unionized typographers with a wholesale (though temporary) layoff of affiliated members, declaring editorially in the October 28th, 1851 issue:

"We bore their tyranny as long as it could be borne,

and until we could free ourselves from it . . .

having paid them for their services . . .

we can afford to let them take their own course."

The San Francisco Typographical Society became the Eureka Typographical Union in late 1853; two years later affiliated members forged Local No. 21 of the National Typographical Union. The ALTA was the first of the San Francisco papers to utilize a steam printing press. The resourceful typographers not only thrived alongside this innovation, but successfully adapted to the linotype (typesetting) machine in the 1890s. And yes, Local 21 proudly lives on today.

The ALTA CALIFORNIA rose from the ashes of the dying CALIFORNIA STAR and the CALIFORNIAN, and from the start, tirelessly advocated for the establishment of civil organizations as a prelude to prospective statehood. In its very first issue, the ALTA cast itself as self-appointed arbiter, conscience and clarion of unimpeachable veracity on January 4, 1849:

"The unenviable position which this sheet at present occupies of being the only paper printed in California renders it imperatively necessary that it should be independent and fair."

The ALTA was an active participant in the creation of a provisional government, and for some years afterward, furnished a public voice and print oracle for municipal reform in San Francisco. On a statewide level, the paper reported in detail the September-October, 1849 Monterey constitutional state convention, led a successful campaign to retain United States Army headquarters in San Francisco (by strenuously opposing the erstwhile plans of military authorities to relocate operations to Benicia), and the ALTA reported (October 19, 1850) the arrival of the steamer Oregon, bearing official notification of the admission of California as the 31st state of the Union.

Next: the ALTA CALIFORNIA battles crime in the city

A History of San Francisco's Tenderloin District

St. Ann's Valley

The Magazines and Newspapers Center will present a program—A History of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District--hosted by Peter Field, City Guide leader of many popular walking tours through the Tenderloin.

Join San Francisco City Guide Peter Field, leader of many popular walking tours through the Tenderloin, for a slide show tracing the colorful, seldom-explored history of the district.

Known to early San Franciscans as St. Ann’s Valley, this once-placid piece of real estate provides us with a fascinating microcosm of urban history as we follow its turbulent passage from quiet respectability to entertainment center to vice-ridden “mean streets,” to its present reinvention of itself as a restaurant district.

Mr. Field worked in the Tenderloin as a community mental health worker for more than a decade, and has since spent several years researching its history and volunteering with San Francisco City Guides.

- Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)
- Location: Main Library, Koret Auditorium
- Event Date and Time: Saturday, April 4 (10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)

EARLY SF NEWSPAPERS - CALIFORNIA STAR

FIRST IN A SERIES

The Magazines and Newspapers Center of the San Francisco Public Library offers a wealth of archived historical evidence tracing the tumultuous saga of our city – as told in the rough-and-tumble newspapers of the era – in our microfilm collection on the fifth floor.

The living legacy found in the early newspapers of San Francisco provides a one-of-a kind contemporary written record of the origins and development of a city that made itself great, as well as the settlements of Northern California and the entire Bay Area community. These roaring, rousing, and often opinionated publications documented the partisan zeal, political corruption, political demagoguery, lurid headlines, defamatory editorials, partisan feuds, moralistic essays, slanted sermons, heroic tales, stubborn individualism, proud independence, patriotic fervor, and oftentimes libelous pronouncements that galvanized readers and influenced public opinion and civic direction. San Francisco and the gold mines were a point of entry for men and material, a clash of moralities old and new – and the financial center of a rapidly acquired - and very vast, wealth.

Based in Monterey in August 1846, THE CALIFORNIAN claimed the title of being the first California newspaper, yet THE CALIFORNIAN (after relocating in May 1847) became just the second paper published in the village of Yerba Buena.

The first paper in San Francisco was the Sam Brannan-owned CALIFORNIA STAR (published 1847-1848), self-described in the April 1, 1848 issue as “a weekly journal, devoted to the liberties and interests of the people of California, published by Samuel Brannan and edited by Edward C. Kemble.” Brannan and a group of Mormon settlers had arrived in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) in 1846 with the city’s first printing press, setting up shop on Clay Street, upstairs from a mule-powered grist mill. Kemble had accompanied the Brannan party voyage to Yerba Buena on board the Brooklyn (six months out of New York) on July 31, 1846, and became the (18-year old) boy editor. Brannan and Kemble began their modest enterprise with a No. 4 Washington press Star printing machine. According to Kemble,

“The name of the intended paper had been cut in wood six months before in the city of New York. We had half a dozen pairs of cases of old Long Primer and Brevier type, and two or three small fonts of job type. These, with the press, were set up in the loft of the mill, and the first printing office on the Bay of San Francisco was ready for business.”

The weekly STAR debuted on January 9, 1847. The January 23 and 30 issues of 1847 ran the military government order proclaiming San Francisco as the town name, replacing thereafter Yerba Buena

"....in all official communications and public documents or records appertaining to the town...."

The January 16, 1847 issue of the STAR detailed the still-unfolding story of

"...a party of emigrants from the United States, who were prevented from crossing the mountains by an early fall of snow...."

The ill-fated travelers, it was revealed on February 13, had traveled overland from the Missouri River, and,

"…After wandering about a number of days bewildered in the snow, their provisions gave out…..”

These first accounts of the Donner party ran even as San Franciscans frantically raised money to purchase supplies for the proposed rescue of the unlucky group of settlers, trapped in the Sierra snows.

The CALIFORNIA STAR attempted a census of the “Statistics of San Francisco” in the August 28th, 1847 edition. Besides noting a total population of 459 hardy souls living in “the town of San Francisco (Yerba Buena),” the STAR described the ethnicity of inhabitants, as well as their occupations (including 26 carpenters, 20 laborers, 13 clerks, 11 agriculturalists, 4 tailors, and 6 printers). The STAR census also mentioned that

"...there are two weekly newspapers printed in this place....THE CALIFORNIA STAR and THE CALIFORNIAN....and though of small size they are deserving of the support and confidence of the community. They are both printed in English with an occasional article and advertisement in Spanish."

News traveled slowly en route to and from Alta California; San Francisco readers waited weeks to learn of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the end of the war with Mexico, and the annexation of California by the United States Government. The STAR was one of the first in San Francisco to fleetingly report on the discovery of gold in California (some two months after it was first found along the American River). On March 25, 1848, the CALIFORNIA STAR reported in a rather obtuse fashion,

“….So great is the quantity of gold taken from the mine recently found at New Helvetia that it has become an article of traffic in that vicinity….”

The short-lived STAR ran a Marine Journal each week, listing Port of San Francisco arrivals and departures. The STAR booster edition (or “Express Extra”) comprised an overland shipment of some 2500 copies, carried by mule train to the Mississippi Valley – a vivid and effective method of attracting settlers from the East – with a first edition date of April 1, 1848. This title ceased publication with the June 14, 1848 issue – after editor Elbert. P. Jones found himself without a staff; the erstwhile members of his newspaper office crew had unceremoniously abandoned journalism for a try at the gold fields. Some months later, Sam Brannan sold his interest in the by-then idle CALIFORNIA STAR. Purchased initially by Robert Semple, the STAR was later combined with rival paper THE CALIFORNIAN in 1849. Publisher, editor, compositor, and printer Edward C. Kemble (Sam Brannan’s former partner) added two new investors and renamed his property the ALTA CALIFORNIA.

Positive Change Magazines

According to an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle (http://tinyurl.com/2mcnmx), new wave progressive magazines that promote “positive change” such as Body and Soul, Ode, Utne Reader, and Yoga Journal have attracted mass appeal. The following represent sample titles owned by the San Francisco Public Library in the Magazines and Newspapers Center:

Body and Soul – A magazine devoted to maintaining balance in a busy world, articles cover topics such as holistic living, medicine, natural foods, self-help psychology, contemporary mysticism, and green politics.

Ode – Covers articles and feature stories on people and ideas changing the world.

Utne Reader – Covering insightful analyses of art and media from diverse perspectives, this magazine reprints articles published from over 2000 alternative and independent media sources, focusing on the latest ideas trends emerging in our culture.

Yoga Journal – A San Francisco based publication founded in Berkeley in 1975, this magazine concentrates on yoga, holistic health, New Age consciousness, meditation, and eastern and western spirituality.

For additional current and past issues of magazines, newspapers, and journals in a variety of topical subject areas, come by and browse the collection in the Magazines and Newspapers Center.