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San Francisco,CA - 1869, 1874. 1895 - Sutro Collection: Gold Rush Book, White Border RPC, and Newspa

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
San Francisco,CA - 1869, 1874. 1895 - Sutro Collection: Gold Rush Book, White Border RPC, and Newspa
Adolph Sutro: A Brief Story of a Brilliant Life, written by Eugenia Kellogg Holmes and illustrated by Carl Dahlgren. Published by the Press of San Francisco Photo-Engraving Co. Original. Rare and in excellent condition. Measures 5” x 6.25.” Fifty-six pages. Six illustrations. Ten photographs. Reddish brown cloth cover with gilt engraving of a Dahlgren illustration on the front of an Adolph Sutro monument. The author, Eugenia Kellogg Holmes, is a mystery figure. Searching U. S. Census records of the time period yielded no results. Looking through San Francisco City Directories also yielded no results for her or the publishing company that published the book. Thus, the book must have been privately published. Since information is so hard to find on the author, the name might be a pseudonym. However, Carl Dahlgren was real. He was a famous illustrator who contributed six illustrations to the book, including the gilt one on the cover.

Included with the book is a special section of The Daily Independent---Supplement for Virginia City, Nevada, Saturday, 31 October 1874. J. D. Bethel managed the paper and John I. Ginn was the editor. Sutro, the financial backer of the paper, created it to back his senatorial campaign. The special section of the paper printed a Sutro lecture on “Mines and Mining” that Sutro gave at “Piper’s Opera House, Virginia City, and in all the principal, towns and mining camps in the state of Nevada.” Included on the first page is an illustration of a “Cross Section through Crown Point Shaft showing the East & West Ledges.” In the lecture, Sutro names people who were opposed to the Sutro Tunnel project in 1868. They were: William Sharon, Charles Bonner, John B. Winters, John P. Jones, J. W. MacKey, Thomas G. Taylor, F. A. Triple and Isaac L. Requa.

Lastly, a white border RPC showing men sitting in a horse-drawn wagon on tracks, leaving the Sutro Tunnel building. The tunnel was commenced on 19 October 1869. Written in white at the bottom of the photo card is “5 miles long, lode, 1800 ft.” Nothing is written on the back of the card. Most white border RPC’s were made in the 1910s for tourists to purchase. There is no way to date when the actual picture was taken.