Title:

Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) in the Spring of 1837. This is the first known print taken on the site of which San Francisco now stands. Only one frame building was in existence then. At this time the Presidio and the Mission Delores [Dolores] had been erected 55 years by the Spanish discoverers under Portola, and the residents were practically all Mexican with barely a few "whites" as they were called. At that time California was known as Alta California, and was still under the sway of a Spanish Governor, the Capital seat being Monterey, then the most important settlement in Northern California. Some half dozen Boston trading vessels visited this out of the way harbour annually. Rarely was any coin exchanged in this trade. The few Spanish inhabitants, all of them living about the presidio or the mission, bartered their tallow hides and other native products for coffee, tea, sugar, blankets, beads, knives and Yankee gewgaws. (Lithograph copyrighted July 31, 1867, by J. J. Du Prat. From a photo of the original in the possession of Phil B. Bekeart.)

Contributing Institution:

The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.