Two albumen photographs by Isaiah West Taber of San Francisco appear on a single album leaf, one on each side, both titled and numbered in the printed caption strips along the lower margins. The Stanford residence view, catalog number B 35, shows the Nob Hill mansion in a three-quarter frontal perspective, its Italianate facade presenting arched ground-floor colonnades, ornate bracketed cornices, a balustraded second-story terrace, and a decorative roofline parapet. Gas lamp standards flank the iron entry gate, and the broader San Francisco cityscape recedes into the distance behind the left wing.
The reverse carries catalog number B 892, captioned "New City Hall, San Francisco," depicting the civic complex under construction or in its early years of use, with a horse-drawn streetcar crossing the foreground intersection, a lone pedestrian standing at the corner, and two flanking domed structures visible at left and right.
Leland Stanford's Nob Hill mansion was completed in 1876 and destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire; Taber's documentation of it remains among the most reproduced architectural records of Gilded Age San Francisco. Both captions read "Taber Photo., San Francisco." 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
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