Negative files of the Fang family San Francisco examiner photograph archive, circa 1930-2000

Summary

Creators:

San Francisco Examiner (Firm)

Abstract:

Local news photographs taken by staff of the Examiner, a major San Francisco daily newspaper. The vast majority of the negative files record local persons and events in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Northern California. Included are all the topics typically found in local news coverage, including politics, state and local government, society, sports, visiting dignitaries and celebrities, fashion, the arts, crime, accidents, transportation, urban and suburban development, and human interest stories. The negative files are not limited to images that were published in the newspaper; most were never printed.

Extent:

3,600,000 photographs (approximately 3,600,000 photographic negatives in 3228 boxes)

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Fang family San Francisco examiner photograph archive negative files, BANC PIC 2006.029--NEG, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Scope and content:

Local news photographs taken by staff of the Examiner, a major San Francisco daily newspaper. The vast majority of the negative files record local persons and events in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Northern California. Included are all the topics typically found in local news coverage, including politics, state and local government, society, sports, visiting dignitaries and celebrities, fashion, the arts, crime, accidents, transportation, urban and suburban development, and human interest stories. The negative files are not limited to images that were published in the newspaper; most were never printed.

Original filing order has been maintained. The file system is based on filing code system used until 1981, and is chronological from 1981 until 2000.

This finding aid presents the archive's contents in simple box number order (1-3228). Descriptions of most boxes consist of "selected highlights" only; that is, material that stood out to Library staff as significant or unusual. These content notes summarizing highlight are supplemented, in some instances, by full listing of every news story (negative sleeve) found in the box. The majority of boxes have not had their contents listed at this sleeve level.

The following summary describes characteristics of various box number runs, broken down either by physical material type or by arrangement scheme. Formerly, physical media (glass plates, nitrate film, and safety film) were interfiled with one another by code. For safety and preservation purposes, media have been separated for storage, and are described here as separate series with overlapping file code runs. (Note that the highest box number is 3228 in spite of a larger over-all box count. Some box numbers have been divided into several physical boxes and re-numbered, for example, as Box 11a and 11b.)

• Accidents: boxes 2492-2547. (Filing codes between 12100 and 16612.)
• Aviation: boxes 2548-2559. (Filing codes between 20000 and 21013.)
• Examiner: boxes 2560-2610. (Filing codes between 24000 and 26087.)
• Fires: boxes 2611-2639. (Filing codes between 27000 and 27551.)
• Labor: boxes 2640-2664. (Filing codes between 30000 and 30364.)
• Military: boxes 2665-2691. (Filing codes between 33000 and 33546.)
• Society: boxes 2692-3011. (Filing codes between 38000 and 42999, A38000 and A38814, and 80000-80692.)
• Sports: boxes 3012-3155. (Filing codes between 43000 and 77378.)

Acquisition information:

Gift of the SF Newspaper Company, LLC, in consultation with the Fang family of San Francisco, former owners of the San Francisco Examiner.

Processing information:

Initial arrangement and housing were undertaken by Bancroft Library staff from 2007 to 2009, supported by grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Preservation efforts continued from 2009 through 2010 with the support of a Save America's Treasures grant. Additional description (now part of this finding aid) was supported by a Hidden Collections Grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), from 2009 through 2012.

After initial finding aid publication in 2010, additional sleeve descriptions have been added to selected series or box descriptions over the years. The finding aid structure was reformatted in ArchivesSpace in 2023, providing more Series and Sub-series divisions. The finding aid was republished in 2024.

Physical location:

Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.

Physical facet:

; safety film, nitrate film and glass

Dimensions:

: various film sizes, chiefly 4 x 5 in. and 35mm

Rules or conventions:

DACS

Related resources

Related material:

Fang family San Francisco examiner archive (BANC MSS 2006/160).

Separated material:

Received with approximately 1,200 linear feet of photographic print files, approximately 100 linear feet of publisher's correspondence, microfilmed clippings files, and over 900 volumes of bound copies of the newspaper. The photographic print files are accessed through a separate finding aid.

Other descriptive data:

Various photographers.

Title supplied by cataloger.

For the majority of the negative archive, this finding aid briefly summarizes the contents of each storage box. Contents notes are a list of "highlights" observed by Bancroft Library staff during arrangement and housing work. These selected highlights notes are subjective and are not complete lists of contents. For approximatley 500 boxes (of the 3,228 box total) additional descriptions at the sleeve (or news story) level have been added, providing a far more complete and detailed listing of the subjects present. The library hopes to continue sleeve-level descriptive work and add to this finding aid in future.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)--Pictorial works
Photographs
News photographs

Places:

San Francisco (Calif.)--Pictorial works
California--Social life and customs--20th century--Pictorial works
California--Politics and government--20th century--Pictorial works

Restrictions:

AVAILABLE BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. SOME PORTIONS RESTRICTED.

Boxes 1-218: Restricted due to handling and transportation hazards. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. For Boxes 1-30 and Boxes 70-96 a sleeve-level listing is available in the library.

Boxes 219-3198: Available by appointment only. Advance notice required for use.

Terms of access:

Copyright to photographs taken by staff photographers of the San Francisco Examiner in this collection has been assigned to the University of California Regents. Only the photographs created by these staff photographers in this collection are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The following attribution is required for all uses of these photographs: "Fang family San Francisco examiner photograph archive © The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license."

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Fang family San Francisco examiner photograph archive negative files, BANC PIC 2006.029--NEG, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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