Manuscript Monday—Bill of Fare for the Steamer Sonora

This week we present another gem from the Society's Kemble Collection, a bill of fare for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's Steamer Sonora, dated circa 1858. The carnivorous traveler could choose from a variety of boiled, fried, stewed, and roasted meats—including beef, pork, chicken, ham, mutton, tongue, kidneys, and pigs' heads. The menu was printed by the Excelsior Steam Presses in San Francisco.

Pacific Mail Steamship Co's Steamer Sonora bill of fare, circa 1858, Kemble MS OV 1, California Historical Society

Type Tuesday - More Nelson C. Hawks and the Pacific States Type Foundry

Yesterday, my esteemed colleague shared with our audience the first extant diary of Nelson C. Hawks, typographer, creator of the typographic point system that would become the standard for both American and British type foundries, and head of the Pacific States Type Foundry. Although some of Hawks' work has already been featured in our Type Tuesday installments, I thought it might be a great time to share some more of our favorite Nelson C. Hawks' specimens set by his hand, along with some playful examples of offerings from the Pacific States Type Foundry.

Specimens initialed by "NCH" had been set by Hawks, although I believe his sense of humor might have also made its way into the bill heads and newspaper masts featured below. 

Jaime Henderson,
Archivist

Manuscript Monday—Nelson C. Hawks diaries

At the 48^th California International  Antiquarian Book Fair, held last weekend in downtown Oakland, CHS exhibited a few volumes from the diaries of the great San Francisco printer Nelson C. Hawks. Born in Milwaukee in 1840, Hawks came to San Francisco in 1874 as an agent of the Chicago firm Marder, Luse & Co. and was put in charge of the newly established Pacific Type Foundry. Hawks is most famous for inventing the American point system for standardizing types. (The French type founder Simon-Pierre Fournier actually originated the point system in 1734, but this system had not been implemented in the United States.) He also wrote very funny texts for type specimen books, as described by Alastair Johnston in his Type Tuesday post of September 10, 2013: http://californiahistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2013/09/type-tuesday-nelson-c-hawks.html

 

Hawks’ diaries form part of the Kemble Collections on Western Printing and Publishing. The opening salvo of his first extant journal, written in 1855 when Hawks was still a teenager, is extraordinary. Is it an early specimen of Midwestern deadpan or dead serious?

Nelson C. Hawks diary, v. 1, 1855, Nelson C. Hawks diaries, Kemble MS 3, California Historical Society

I, Nelson Crocker Hawks, was born in the city of Milwaukee, on the 21^st day of August, A.D., 1840. My early life was full of suffering. When I was a year old I had “dropsy of the brain,” in consequence of which, my head grew out of shape. When I was four year old, I had the “inflammation in the eyes,” and was perfectly blind. I continued so two years and then was afflicted with the “rheumatism.” I could not walk around much until I was eight years old. I then went to school. 

Marie Silva

Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian

Type Tuesday - Boston Type Foundry

These outstanding types were spotted in the recently catalogued 1892 type specimen of the Boston Type Foundry. 

These specimens of letter combinations are crying out for colorful tiles to bring out the best in their appearances!

Jaime Henderson
Archivist

Type Tuesday - Boston Type Foundry

Today we feature specimens from the oldest type foundry in New England, the Boston Type Foundry, established in 1817.

Boston Type Foundry agent John K. Rogers writes in the preface to the 1883 type specimen:

The Boston Type Foundry is not only the FIRST Letter Foundry in New England, having been established in 1817, but takes precedence also in the number and variety of its Faces, the quality of its Metal, the accuracy of its Bodies, and the general perfection of its manufacturers.

The Type-Casting Machine now in use all over the world, was developed and perfected at this Foundry in 1843, under the direction of Mr. David Bruce, the inventor.

Jaime Henderson,

Archivist

Manuscript Monday—Sir Dynamite!

I was delighted to discover this anarchist broadside, with mysterious manuscript notations, in the California Historical Society's Kemble Collection on Western Printing and Publishing. Described by Gary F. Kurutz as the "jewel in the crown of the Society's Research Library," the Kemble Collection comprises an extraordinary diversity of materials related to printing and publishing history, including books, periodicals, type specimens, labels, and manuscript collections. Our local Type Tuesday correspondent presents gorgeous typographic specimens from the Collection each week.

Dated from the 1880s, this broadside was published by Patrick Joseph Healy's Antiquarian Book Store and Song Factory at 104 O'Farrell Street. Healy, to whom an entire chapter is dedicated in Robert Cowan's Booksellers of Early San Francisco, is one of the most fascinating (and endearing) characters in the colorful book history of San Francisco. An Irish immigrant and labor activist, he earned the animus of his comrades by vigorously defending the rights of the Chinese during the sandlot riots. He opened his first bookshop in 1883 at the address above. His shop (later known as "the Tunnel" because of its narrow dimensions) became a sort of informal, democratic salon for political discussion and debate.

The song reproduced here is laden with Messianic expectation, as is typical of the radical discourse of the period:

The weary slave in mill or mine, 
The peasant and toiling herd,
Through the ages awaited the "coming sign,"
And died from "hope deferred."
"How long, oh, Lord!" they cried, "how long,"
Must we toil, and weep, and slave?"
But an answering cry for their cruel wrong
At length the heavens gave, 
In a new Messiah, to loose the bands
That chained down the sons of earth;
Send joyous tidings o er sea and lands
To cheer the poor toilers' hearth.
Let all proclaim his glorious name,
Who comes, man's wrong to right,
A terror he brings to the heart of Kings—
Puissant Sir Dynamite!

In 1905, Healy and Ng Poon Chew, the editor of a Chinese daily newspaper, co-authored A Statement for Non-Exclusion, an impassioned polemic in defense of Chinese rights. This work can also be found in the Society's collection.

Marie Silva
Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian
msilva@calhist.org

Type Tuesday - Typothetæ and Platemaker

Today we feature another selection from the Kemble Collection's outstanding holdings of periodicals on printing and typography. 

Typothetæ and Platemaker was a journal “devoted to Printers, Engravers and Electrotypers” and featured beautifully illustrated, brightly colored covers.

The California Historical Society's Kemble Collection holds the full run of Typothetæ and Platemaker, from January of 1898 to December of 1900. January of 1901 marked a name change for the journal to The Progressive Printer, which the California Historical Society also houses.

Visit the California Historical Society's North Baker Research Library to view these (and many other) gorgeous journals available in our Kemble Collection on Western Printing and Publishing. 

Jaime Henderson

Archivist

Manuscript Monday—Guyana Emergency Relief Committee

Guyana Emergency Relief Committee press release, 1979 January 18, Donneter Lane papers relating to the Guyana Emergency Relief Committee, MS 3792, California Historical Society

The Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society comprises over twenty collections of diverse archival materials, including organizational records; government documents; official and personal correspondence; newspapers and other publications; research materials; photographs; film and video tapes; audio recordings; and three-dimensional artifacts. Thanks to the generous donations of journalists, scholars, former Peoples Temple members, families, and friends, the collection has grown considerably since 1983—when the California and Guyana courts first deposited the Peoples Temple Records at CHS—and continues to grow, providing the most comprehensive archival record of the organization, from its origins in Indiana to the aftermath of the deaths of November 18, 1978.

Among these collections is a small but significant body of records maintained by Donneter Lane of the Guyana Emergency Relief Committee. The Guyana Emergency Relief Committee (GERC) was formed on November 28, 1978, by members of the San Francisco religious community in response to the deaths of over 900 people at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Composed of representatives of the San Francisco Council of Churches, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, the Committee had a two-fold purpose: to assist with the expeditious return of over 500 bodies from Dover Air Base, Delaware, to California for proper burial; and to provide counseling, pastoral services, and material assistance to grieving families.

In order to obtain funds for the interment of unidentified or unclaimed bodies from Peoples Temple assets, the Committee participated in proceedings held in the Superior Court of California for the winding up and dissolution of Peoples Temple (Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ v. The Attorney General of the State of California) as an Amicus Curiae ("friend of the court"). The Superior Court ordered that a portion of Peoples Temple assets be set aside to pay for burial expenses, and approved the Committee's plan for the removal, transportation, and burial of the bodies.

Cooperating closely with the State Department, the Committee communicated with family members (representing over 547 Jonestown victims) by telephone and letter. On a case by case basis, the Committee ascertained the wishes of family members regarding the burial of loved ones, arranged for the shipment and interment of remains, and helped family members obtain reimbursement for burial expenses. On May 10, 1979, the first 50 unidentified bodies were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California.

The collection at CHS documents the Committee’s early and diligent efforts to ensure dignified burials for Jonestown victims. In an interview for the book The Need for a Second Look at Jonestown (edited by Rebecca Moore and Fielding M. McGehee III), Rabbi Malcolm Sparer, one of the principal organizers of the Committee, recalled that only fifty members of the community attended a memorial service for the Jonestown victims organized by San Francisco Council of Churches and held the Sunday night before the assassination of Mayor Moscone. Despite the winds of fear and violence that swept over San Francisco in the terrible final months of 1978, the members of the Guyana Emergency Relief Committee resolved to pursue a course of pastoral care, cooperation, and healing.

The collection is currently in process and will be available for research use soon.

Marie Silva

Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian

msilva@calhist.org

Type Tuesday - The Merrymount Press

Today we feature type specimens from the Merrymount Press. 

The press was founded by Daniel Berkeley Updike in  Boston, Massachusetts and remained active from 1893-1941.

The Merrymount Press is considered to have printed books that best represent the Arts and Crafts movement in American book arts.

The press' archives are housed at the Boston Athenaeum.

Jaime Henderson,

Archivist

Mojo Navigator Rock & Roll News

The wild going-ons of San Francisco’s psych rock scene were recorded in the West Coast’s first rock & roll magazine Mojo Navigator R&R News. Its premier issue, published by teenagers David Harris and Greg Shaw on August 8, 1966, includes a colophon stating the Mojo Publishing Company, at 2707 McAllister Street, San Francisco, would publish weekly. The mimeographed, stapled zine did not stick too closely to this arduous weekly schedule - presumably its young editors were busy attending the many musical performances, light shows, be-ins and happenings that Mojo Navigator covered in its gossip and events columns. Instead, only fourteen issues were published beginning in August of 1966 and ceasing sometime in 1967. But these fourteen issues included interviews with bands that would come to be known as seminal rock & roll artists, and the short-lived zine would be considered a major influence for the creation and publication of Rolling Stone magazine.  

Harris and Shaw attended high school together in a Bay Area suburb. Harris had been a rock & roll fan, listening to Berkeley’s KPFA Midnight Special radio show, which featured local artists such as The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin playing live music and attending shows at the Longshoreman’s Hall, the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium. Shaw was more interested in print – writing and publishing two fanzines. The first, Entmoot, was devoted to the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, and the second, a sci-fi fanzine called Freemwlort. What Shaw might have lacked in knowledge of the San Francisco rock & roll scene, he more than made up for with his zine making skills, including a keen talent for stenciling and being particularly handy with the mimeograph machine.  

  Young Greg Shaw at his mimeograph machine.

Courtesy rockandrollreport.com/book-review-bomp-saving-the-world-one-record-at-a-time/

Just out of high school, Harris, Shaw, and Geoff Evans, Mojo Navigator’s art director, moved to McAllister Street, nearby Golden Gate Park’s Panhandle, where the Diggers distributed free food to any person who was hungry and held rallies and happenings for the hippies that proliferated in the Haight neighborhood. From their apartment, Harris and Shaw began work on the first issue of Mojo Navigator R&R News. Published Tuesday, August 8, 1966, the typed, four-paged zine contained gossip and news about Bay Area artists such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and R&B artists such as Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley; Shaw’s record reviews of The Peter, Paul and Mary Album (“Don’t expect much from this record if you do buy it”) and the Byrds Fifth Dimension (“every song is flavored strongly with originality and performed flawlessly”); and a special report on radio DJ Wolf Man Jack, based out of Chula Vista, California, who could be heard in the Bay Area on XERB 1090 from 9 pm to 3 am. One hundred copies of the inaugural issue were printed and made available in local stores, such as Cosmo’s Grocery Store, the Psychedelic Shop and City Lights Bookstore.

As Mojo Navigator’s popularity grew so too did its print runs and distribution. The burgeoning San Francisco rock & roll scene created a fan base that yearned for a smart, hip and in-the-know music magazine that featured news and criticisms about the bands they were listening to. The teen magazines such as Teenbeat and 16 wouldn’t touch the long-haired, drugged out, heavy guitar bands, instead still focusing on teenybopper pop and American Bandstand hit makers. Music journalist Mick Farren noted: “A new and serious breed of rock fan required a publication that could be trusted to clue them in on all that was happening as original music – from A to Z, from The Animals to Frank Zappa – poured from every creative orifice....  An embryonic rock magazine would need to have the grit of the street and a delinquent iconoclasm.”

Short on the heels of the publication of East Coast writer Paul Williams’ Crawdaddy - the earliest rock & roll fanzine - Mojo Navigator R&R News provided its San Francisco Bay Area readers with reviews, gossip, and interviews with bands producing the acid-infused, psychedelic sounds of the local scene, while also keeping its hip readers in the loop about happenings such as the San Francisco Calliope Company’s dance parties and the Diggers' Love Pageant Rally, where participants gathered together to ingest LSD on October 6, 1966. Farren notes that Mojo Navigator’s writing was “smart, and yet still manage[d] to retain the disturbed and disturbing subversion of the street.” 

During Mojo Navigator’s just-over-one-year, fourteen issue run, Harris and Shaw managed to interview the heavyweights of  rock & roll, publishing possibly the first interview with the Grateful Dead in August and September of 1966 (before the release of their self-titled first album in 1967); and interviews with Big Brother and the Holding Co., Country Joe and the Fish, and the Doors. The magazine ceased publication in 1967, not before providing a major influence to fellow San Franciscan Jann Wenner, who began publication of Rolling Stone magazine in November of 1967.

In 1970 Greg Shaw introduced Who Put the Bomp in response to the "mainstream" music press. The magazine published the early writings of rock music journalists Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus and Richard Meltzer, and grew into an independent record label, BOMP!, with the 1974 release of the San Francisco-based band Flamin' Groovies' single "You Tore Me Down." BOMP! Records has released innumerable influential artists in the garage, punk and power pop genres. The label continues today under the guidance of Suzy Shaw, ex-wife and life-long friend and partner to Greg, after his death in 2004. 

The California Historical Society holds four of the fourteen issues of Mojo Navigator R&R News, including the rare first issue, and the issues featuring the two part interview with the Grateful Dead. We will be featuring our holdings of Mojo Navigator R&R News, along with other rock & roll ephemera and posters from the CHS vaults in an open house as part of our program Creating a Lasting Cultural Community: The 50^th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead, featuring author Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead archivist Nicholas Meriweather and Peter Richardson, author of No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead, on Thursday, January 22, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Vault materials will be available for viewing in our library from 5:30 to 6:00, so be sure to get there early to check them out! Grab your ticket for the event here!

Works cited: 
Shaw, Suzy and Mick Farren. BOMP! Saving the World One Record at a Time. American Modern Books, 2007.

Jaime Henderson

Archivist