"SILVER WEDDING." THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO. CELEBRATED WEDNESDAY, JULY 29th, 1874.

[San Francisco]: [Brown, Grafton Tyler]:

Edité par [San Francisco]: Spaulding & Barto, 1874.

A scarce California imprint celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the First Congregational Church of San Francisco, illustrated by mounted photographs of church leaders and lithographs by accomplished African-American artist Grafton Tyler Brown. The Church was founded by Timothy Dwight Hunt in 1849, fresh off of a four-year tour in Hawaii for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Meeting first in the city's small schoolhouse, the congregation grew steadily with its surroundings until an elaborate new edifice was completed in 1872. The Church's "Silver Anniversary" two years later served as much to celebrate the new space as the congregation's history, and the building was praised in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin as "the finest in design and the most complete and beautiful in its interior ornamentation and appointments of any in this city." The text lists the officers of the church as of 1874, offers a "historic sketch," and provides a narrative account of the anniversary festivities (including a feast, speeches on the history of the congregation, and the text of sermons). The work is illustrated by mounted photographs of Hunt and other former pastors. As is often the case with 19th-century photographically illustrated books, the exact portraits and number of images used appear to differ between copies. The illustrations also include lithographs accomplished by Grafton Tyler Brown of the various buildings the congregation inhabited over the years, and exterior and interior duotone lithographs of the grand new church (which would not survive the great earthquake and fires of 1906). Brown (1841-1918) was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to free African-American parents. He arrived in Sacramento in 1858, where he became a hotel steward while honing his skills as an artist in his spare time. Brown's work caught the attention of the Sacramento Union newspaper in 1859, and in 1861 Brown moved to San Francisco to begin working as an illustrator for the famed lithographer Charles Kuchel. Eventually, Brown was able to purchase a steam-powered press, hire a staff of eight, and travel throughout the Northwest on commissions. "His success [was] all the more remarkable because Brown was an African American working at a time when racial prejudice barred most blacks from entering skilled professions. Brown obliterated this stigma in the 1860s by passing as white" - Chandler. A scarce and attractive piece of San Francisco history, featuring two lithographs by one of California's pioneering Black artists. Robert J. Chandler, San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown (Norman, OK, 2014), p.15. Original gilt cloth, ruled in blind, a.e.g. Front joint cracked, cloth chipped at joints and spine extremities, light shelf wear. Internally clean. Very good. In a modern marbled paper slipcase with printed paper label. N° de réf. du vendeur 67695

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : "SILVER WEDDING." THE TWENTY-FIFTH ...
Éditeur : [San Francisco]: Spaulding & Barto, 1874.
Edition : Edition originale