Two albumen photographs by Isaiah West Taber of San Francisco appear on opposite sides of a single album page, together forming a vivid record of the city in the 1880s. The front view, numbered 3374, captures Market Street looking north from Lotta's Fountain, with the ornate cast-iron fountain itself prominent in the foreground. The reverse, numbered B 3245 and dated 1887, documents a crowded public gathering at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Both prints are mounted directly to the album leaf rather than to individual card mounts.

On the Market Street view, horse-drawn streetcars and cable cars share the cobblestone roadway before a massive Second Empire commercial block, while dozens of pedestrians in dark wool coats and hats crowd the sidewalk and intersection. The Golden Gate Park image shows tiered wooden bleachers filled with spectators carrying parasols, the white Victorian glass-and-wood Conservatory visible behind a dense planting of agave and mature trees.

Taber operated his San Francisco studio from 1871 through the early twentieth century and is among the most important photographers of the American West, his numbered series documenting the city's streetscapes, parks, and landmarks extensively. Lotta's Fountain, cast in 1875 and given to the city by actress Lotta Crabtree, remains a Market Street landmark today and became the gathering point for survivors after the 1906 earthquake.

Imprint on the Market Street view reads "Taber Photo, San F[rancisco]"; the Golden Gate Park reverse reads "Taber Photo, San Francisco, Cal. 1887." Catalog numbers 3374 and B 3245 are printed in the lower margins of their respective images. The album page measures 8 1/2 by 12 1/4 inches, with each image approximately 4 3/4 by 7 1/4 inches.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer