Last year, a private collector gave a vast photography collection to the Western Neighborhoods Project—around 100,000 historic images of San Francisco from the 1850s to the 1970s. The WNP has recently put 10,000 of the images online on a dedicated website, and they are so fascinating we can't wait to see the rest. SFist and Richmond District Blog report all will eventually be scanned and posted.
The WNP is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the history and culture of SF's west side. However, as SFist points out, this large project touches on nearly every era and corner of the city.
The well-organized website, OpenSFHistory, shows images of a vastly different skyline, a city devastated by the 1906 earthquake, and everyday street scenes. The city portrayed in the shots is very different, and we can't stop looking.
· Trove Of Historical SF Photos Now Available For Your Browsing Pleasure [SFist]
· WNP launches opensfhistory.org – new website with thousands of (new) historic SF photos from private collector [Richmond District Blog]
· OpenSFHistory [Official Site]
· Western Neighborhoods Project [Official Site]