The First Real San Francisco Directory
A Black Tulip of Californiana
"One of the most sought-after of all directories published in North America"
The Dead Letter Clerk's Copy
First edition of the first real San Francisco directory, based on an actual canvassing of the residents. There is some debate as to what constitutes the true first San Francisco directory. Many authorities declare the present Kimball directory, dated September 1, 1850, as the true first directory. Earlier productions by Campbell & Hoogs and Bogardus, issued earlier in 1850, were strictly business directories. The main directory listings of somewhat over 2500 names" (Sabin) and addresses ends on page 120. The remaining sections contain a range of useful information, including a brief comment on the street layout, listings of city government officials, police officers, court officers, post office employees (see below for the po.stal connection of the present example), business advertisements, express offices, newspapers, and the like. The Directory itself was was published in late September of that year by the Journal of Commerce, a newspaper which ran only from January 1850 to January 1851
Charles P. Kimball self-styles the production as the first directory of the city and states in his preface:
It is not to be expected, in a City like this, where whole streets are built up in a week and whole squares swept away in an hour - where the floating population numbers thousands and a large portion of the fixed inhabitants live in tents and places which cannot by described with any accuracy, that a Directory can be got up with the corrections that they are in older and more established cities.
Greenwood points out the key issue point to distinguish the true first edition from the two reprints made in 1870 and 1898: "The original can readily be distinguished from the reprints by looking under the entry Albion House on page 6 where Broadway is spelled in full whereas in both reprints it is spelled B'way."
Given the important history of the city - before, during and after the gold rush - and its extreme popularity throughout the U.S. and the world, this first general directory of San Francisco is one of the most sought-after of all directories published in North America - Quebedeaux.
Provenance: The Dead Letter Clerk: Francisco B. de las Casas
This example is notable for the interesting ownership inscription on page 1: "F. B. Casas, Jr. Post Office, San Fco." F. B. de las Casas, Jr. is listed on page 124 as the mailing clerk at the Post Office at Clay & Dupont Streets. De Las Casas was still listed as a post office clerk in LeCount & Strong's 1854 San Francisco Directory, and by 1856 he was noted in another directory as the "dead letter clerk" at the Washington Street Post Office. It makes perfect sense that the dead letter clerk, charged with attempting to deliver misdirected or improperly addressed letters, would need all the recent directories of the city in order to carry out his job. It would also explain how this copy might have lost its original printed wrappers and titlepage (though the retrofit of the 1870 reprint titlepage and the replacement pale yellow wrappers are quite expertly incorporated into the book structure) - through heavy daily use. It is truly remarkable that such an example could have survived at all!
Rarity
Wright Howes, the famous mid-20th century Chicago antiquarian bookseller, designated this first edition directory as a "d" in his idiosyncratic rarity gauge of U.S.iana, a level only superceded by his "dd" designation, the latter reserved for "almost unobtainable" rare books. Another indicator of rarity is the fact that Thomas Streeter, a collector who owned other early San Francisco directories and sought out Americana "firsts" to build his renowned collection, apparently never owned Kimball's 1850 San Francisco City Directory.