A reader alerted me to an amazing post that just popped up over at Laughing Squid.

See the two photos below? The first comes from a collection of vintage color snapshots of San Francisco — it’s the intersection of South Van Ness and Army, captured by Charles Cushman back in 1953.

The second one was snapped by Todd Lappin just yesterday — and at first glance, not much has changed in the last fifty years but the trees on the Bernal Hill and the price of gas!

San Francisco, South Van Ness and Army 1953 San Francisco, South Van Ness and Army 2008

And if you thought that was cool, here’s another small sample of the treasures over at the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection. Charles Cushman was an amazingly prolific amateur photographer (and Indiana University alum), who upon his death bequeathed 14,500 Kodachrome color slides to his alma mater. Hundreds of these shots were of San Francisco in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s — and the University has kindly placed the whole batch online.

san francisco cable car san francisco golden gate bridge san francisco fisherman's wharf san francisco russian hill

There’s tons of stuff there — Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, Pacific Heights — and I’d upload even more, but I haven’t yet made it through the whole site myself! That’s what I’m planning to do the second this post goes online.

Todd writes — and he’s not wrong — “Do not click this link unless you have at least an hour to burn.“

You’ve been warned.

original post: Todd Lappin @ Laughing Squid
thanks for the tip: Arnold Sandoval

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