May 2, 1941. "Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. Exhibition hall." Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

        U.S. Government bought property of Curtis, Perry & Ward, assayers, for $335,000 and reconstructed building as fireproof three-story brick. Opened as U.S. Mint April 3, 1854. Old building razed 1874. New Sub-Treasury built 1875-1877, four-story pressed brick on granite sills. Building partially destroyed by fire and dynamited in 1906 earthquake ($13 million in gold saved in basement vaults). Restored as one-story building. Passed into private hands in 1915. —HABS, 1940

March 1940. "McCoy Label Co., old U.S. Sub-Treasury & Mint, 608 Commercial Street, San Francisco." Break time for the label-gummers. Photo by A.J. Wittlock for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size.

        UPDATE: Click here for another view.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Army car at Connecticut Avenue Bridge." A sort of Model T on steroids. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

1905. "R.H. Macy & Co., New York." The famous department store. Corner tenant: Lucio's, the jeweler whose pearls, rubies and diamonds "defy detection." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Boby's group, 1924." Happy Easter from Shorpy and his peeps! National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Back to my Uncle Albert in his office at the Foote, Cone and Belding advertising agency in San Francisco's Russ Building about 1954. Amid a fine selection of period office accouterments, including a space-saver phone and cigarette ashes, he's working on this ad. As Vice-President and Production Manager, he was in charge of layout, design, graphics and typography, and also for such accounts as Southern Pacific, Dole Pineapple and Pacific Bell.

Albert's interest in fine printing and typography led to his amassing a significant collection of manuscripts, first editions, prints and other art, much of which now resides at institutions like Stanford, UCLA and Berkeley. In particular, his collection of over 1000 books, drawings, etchings and correspondence of the English sculptor, printmaker and typeface designer (as in Gill Sans) Eric Gill is at the Gleeson Library of the University of San Francisco. View full size.

New York circa 1908. "Living on a skyscraper." An apartment building rooftop garden, with a small menagerie. Bain News Service glass negative. View full size.