2-889-647 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Street View in San Francisco, from a sketch by a correspondent, 1850. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of "forty-niners" to San Francisco. The population jumped from 1,000 in 1848, to 25,000 a year later. 'On one side of the picture is the beach; and in front are the extensive premises of Starkey, Brothers, and Co., including a large iron warehouse, the first erection of the kind in California. The motley population in the street includes Chinese labourers, Yankees, and natives driving bullock-carts; whilst on horseback is a Californian Mexican, in the rich and picturesque costume of the country'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.