Eadweard Muybridge and the Photographic Panorama of San Francisco, 1850-1880

With essays by David Harris and Eric Sandweiss. Preface by Phyllis Lambert. These photographs from the CCA collection and other private and public collections document one of the supreme technical and conceptual achievements in the history of architectural photography. On July 14, 1877, Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) announced in the San Francisco Chronicle the publication of a set of photographs, Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill. It was available in two formats: as a set of albumen prints mounted on cabinet cards, and as an album of 11 albumen prints. Approximately one year later, Muybridge rephotographed the view, this time using a mammothplate camera. The result, a breathtaking 360-degree panorama measuring more than 17 feet in length, was published as an album, comprising 13 albumen prints. This book documents Muybridge's panoramas of a now-vanished San Francisco, and also discusses the antecedents of his work, thereby placing it within its historical context.