Mills Building, San Francisco, California, 1890

black-and -white negative

PHOTOGRAPHS - GLASS NEGATIVES
Rosenfeld and Sons
USA, NY, New York
ca. 1923
emulsion on glass
overall: 3 1/4 x 4 in.;image: 2 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.

3 1/4" x 4" emulsion on glass negative copied by Rosenfeld and Sons. Image is a copy of a drawing of the exterior view of the building called the Mills Building of San Francisco, California and was commissioned by Darius Ogden Mills, one of San Francisco’s early financial tycoons. In 1840 he began the National Gold Bank of D.O. Mills & Company and helped form and became president in 1864 of the Bank of California. When Mills commissioned this building in 1891, he chose Burnham and Root of Chicago as the architects who designed the 154-foot, steel frame skyscraper. The Mills Building is San Francisco’s only remaining example of this Chicago School of architecture. The image is outlined with black paper and taped with red tape at the edges to a secondary glass piece to protect the emulsion. Object has a handwritten red and white paper caption glued along the right and a small, round, red dot in the lower left corner. Image is not original but copied by the Rosenfelds from possibly postcards, old books, etc. The Rosenfeld given numbers on each object corresponds with the dates of being copied as ca. 1923. The handwritten paper caption reads: "Mills Bld. 1890 San-Francisco. Burnham + / Root - Arch. / 18892 - Rosenfeld" and handwritten in red pencil, "23". CREDIT LINE: Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection.

2010.29.8

Mystic Seaport, Rosenfeld Collection