Circa 1855

Thomas A. Ayres, artist; Kuchel & Dresel, lithographer; Britton & Rey, printer; James M. Hutchings, publisher. The Golden Gate—Entrance to the Bay of San Francisco: Sunrise. Color lithograph on paper: overall print 16 ¹¹/₁₆ x 26 ¹³/₁₆ in.; color image 14 x 25 ³/₄ in. Reproduced by Anchor Brewing Co., San Francisco, courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. BANC PIC 1963.002:1402--FR.

On June 1, 1855, aspiring publisher James Mason Hutchings (1820–1902) wrote in his diary: "Spent the evening in pleasant conversation with Mr. Ayres on pictures, artists and drawings—he has some beautiful views. I ordered one view of his sketching of The Golden Gate (entrance to San Francisco Bay) for which I am to pay $75—and have the right to publish it." Hutchings and Thomas Almond Ayres (c. 1816–1858) journeyed to Yosemite together that summer. Ayres’s historic sketch of Yosemite Falls, published by Hutchings that autumn, is the first published image of Yosemite. Ayres traveled throughout California during the 1850s, sketching cities, landscapes, and mining scenes with what Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper called his "magic pencil." On April 24, 1858, after completing a sketching trip to southern California, Ayres boarded the Laura Bevan, en route to San Francisco. The schooner went down in a storm—with no survivors. Ayres’s view of the Golden Gate extends from the newly built lighthouse at Point Bonita past the Point Lobos telegraph station, which signaled the arrival of news, cargo, and passengers from back east. In the foreground, a pilot schooner hastens away from a broken mast and an ominous trio of gulls. On August 31, 1851, the extreme clipper Flying Cloud completed the first of its six voyages from New York to San Francisco. Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy and his navigator/wife, Eleanor, made the trip in record time: 89 days, 21 hours, anchor to anchor. John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852) was president of the Panama Railroad (completed in 1855). His nautical namesake—a commodious side-wheel steamer—first appeared in San Francisco on April 3, 1853—just 14 days, 4 hours from Panama. Although "sketched from nature," Ayres's dramatic scene is a maritime conflation: this clipper and steamship never arrived in nor departed from San Francisco on the same day. Yet its imagery vibrantly evokes the overlapping eras of sail and steam—and the exhilaration of arriving in the city by the bay.

Reproduced courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

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