Q. What is the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection?

Approximately 45,000 images owned by San Francisco Public Library are available to view and download from the Library’s website. These photos represent the most popular subjects from the San Francisco History Subject Collections. The subjects include streets, buildings, people, earthquakes, fairs, neighborhoods, bridges, parks and more. See San Francisco History Center Subject Collections for a complete list of subject headings. Images from our collection are continually being added to the Web site.

While the San Francisco History Subject Collections is the primary focus of the digitizing effort, some materials from our other photo collections have also been scanned and are available online. New collections are added to this section as they are scanned.

The Library has focused on putting popular images of San Francisco scenes and personalities in its photo database. We have not started digitizing our California photos that feature images from counties outside San Francisco.

In addition, the Library owns the photo morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, a daily newspaper that covered the time period from the 1920s to 1965. Much of the San Francisco History Collection comes from the News-Call Bulletin morgue. However, the morgue also includes national and international subjects that have not been digitized or cataloged. Also, other photographic collections, including significant ones from city departments, such as the Department of Public Works and the San Francisco Assessor’s Office, are partially available online. See the List of Photo Collections for more information about these collections.

Finally, the Library also owns many other forms of visual material including postcards, lantern slides, glass plate negatives, panoramic photographs, cabinet cards, and stereographs.

Any of the visual materials that are not available online can be requested during the Photograph Collection's open hours.

Anyone can browse the online photo database from a computer with Internet access. Start your search on the San Francisco Digital Collections page. There are both browsing and keyword options for searching on this page.

 I am looking for photos of my building?

Please use our online guide How to Find Photographs of a San Francisco Building.  Begin your search with the San Francisco Digital Collections. Then use the guide to explore what has not been digitized. Visit the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection in person to view the non-digitized visual materials.

We recommend using our San Francisco Digital Collections.

To access the Class Image Database, if your computer or computer network is behind a firewall (security software), then it may be blocking access to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Please ask your network administrator to allow access to 82 (San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection).

The database is currently not available using the Safari browser. Please use Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox browsers to access the image database.

The staff at the Photo Desk of the San Francisco History Center, located on the sixth floor at the Main Library, is available for assistance with the photograph collection. The Photo Desk hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Yes. You are welcome to print or download the jpeg images in the online database for personal, educational, or scholarly use for free.

There are a number of options available to make reproductions of the images in the collection. See Order Images for more information. However, photocopying the photos is not possible. Check with the Photo Desk staff about using a camera for a photo shoot while at the Library.

Higher resolution scans are available for purchase as TIFF files (see Order Scans), as are photographic reproductions. See Order Images for more information.

If you plan to publish or exhibit photographic images obtained from the Library, there is a commercial use fee of $15 per image per use. See Permissions for more information.

Prints can also be made from scans ordered from the Library. You can enlarge the scans to the desired size and print them yourself or have it done professionally.

Commercial fees will apply.

Rush orders are available at an additional charge; double the scan fee. We deliver images using the Library's Hightail account.

Payment is made by a check, money order, cash, wired funds or credit card. At this time the credit card payment option is in-person only at the Main Library.

No. Payment must accompany the order.

Most of the photos and other forms of visual materials have been donated to the Library by individuals, companies or government agencies.

Visit the Photo Desk on the sixth floor of the Main Library located at 100 Larkin Street, Tuesday and Thursday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., call the San Francisco History Center, 415-557-4567, or email sfphoto@sfpl.org.