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Choris, Louis; Garnett, Porter (Translator) : San Francisco One Hundred Years Ago; With Illustrations from Drawings made by Choris in the year 1816, to which are added Certain Views of San Francisco at the present day

A. M. Robertson, San Francisco, CA, 1913

First Edition of this translation. Original publisher's beige paper-covered boards with gilt lettering on front cover and spine. Printed by Taylor, Nash & Taylor. 5" x 7 1/4." Twenty pages, complete. Black-and-white plates, complete. Pages are virtually pristine and intact except for light age toning throughout. Covers are very clean and intact except for slight wear to extremities, slight darkening, and a few wrinkles to the paper on front. A Fine copy. This book comprises the first English translation of one chapter from Louis Choris's work, Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde, avec des Portraits de Sauvages d'Amerique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des Isles du Grand Ocean; des Paysages, des Vues Maritimes, et Plusieurs Objets d'Histoire Naturelle (1822). This chapter was translated by Porter Garnett. In the chapter, Choris describes multiple aspects of San Francisco and California while he was visiting the coast of California in 1816 aboard the Russian ship, Rurik. At the time, Choris was employed on the Rurik as an artist for the Romanzoff expedition led by Otto von Kotzbue. Kotzbue's goal was to find a northwest passage. Much of Choris's writing in this chapter gives a description of the different Indigenous tribes of Northern California from a Western perspective. He discusses the lifestyles of the Indigenous people who spent part of the year at the missions and the other part of the year in the mountains. Choris also writes briefly about other parts of Spanish history and the sea otter fur trade in early California. Interspersed among the text are full-page black-and-white plates showing reproductions of Choris's art and comparatively modern printed photographs of San Francisco in the year 1913. Most of Choris's artworks depicted herein show portraits of Indigenous people and aspects of their culture such as their clothing, playing games, hunting, and dances. In a brief Translator's Note, Garnett discusses the life of Choris. Louis Choris (1795-1828) was a German-Russian painter and explorer. During the 1816 expedition to California, Choris documented the culture and lives of the Ohlone people at the San Francisco missions through his art. Choris also spent time in France. In 1827, he embarked on a journey from France to South America and Mexico. Sadly, Choris was killed by robbers in 1828 while en route to Vera Cruz, Mexico. The printer of this book, Taylor, Nash & Taylor, was a noted printing firm based in San Francisco. The company was founded by brothers Edward DeWitt Taylor and Henry H. Taylor at the turn of the century. John Henry Nash joined the Taylors' firm from 1911-1915 to form Taylor, Nash & Taylor.. Book. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Hardcover

First Edition of This Translation

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