Quarto album (ca. 28,5x22,5 cm or 11 ¼ x 9 in). 43 card stock leaves. With ca. 330 mounted original gelatin silver photos, including four large ones, from ca. 16x21,5 cm (6 ½ x 8 ½ in) to ca. 12x16,5 cm (4 ½ x 6 ½ in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 9,5x14 cm (3 ¾ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 5,5x7,5 cm (2x3 in) and 3x4 cm (1 ¼ x 1 ½ in). Ca. 110 photos with period ink captions and/or dates on the margins; three images are captioned in negative. With 10 mounted printed postcards, all ca. 8,5x13,5 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ¼ in), all with printed captions on the margins. Period brown soft sheep covers fastened with a string; paper label of the “Ideal Specialty Co., Chicago” mounted on the inner side of the rear cover. Covers rubbed and slightly stained, with tears and chipping on extremities, rear cover with tears on the hinge, two photos previously removed,a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album of strong interesting photos.

Historically significant private album from the estate of Frank Elisha Browning, who “was city clerk of Alameda from 1907 until 1913, resigning in April of the latter year to enter the hardware business in Phoenix, Arizona. After his return from the south, the family located in Oakland where they have since been living, Browning for a time engaging in the automobile business [Flemming & Browning]. Previous to Browning’s appointment as city clerk of Alameda he served as a deputy county clerk under Frank Jordan, now secretary of the State of California. <…> [Browning] was a member of Alameda Lodge, No. 1015, B.P.O.E., Apollo Lodge, No. 396, F.A.M., and Aahmes Temple of the Mystic Shrine, Oakland. <…> Browning was a native of Michigan and 51 years of age. His father, the late Jacob Browning, was proprietor of the Browning Draynage Company” (Frank Browning Dies Suddenly// Alameda Times-Star, 26 October 1917, p. 1). “Browning was one of the best known men of the county. At the time Alameda adopted her first charter, he was appointed city clerk and served in that capacity through the terms of Mayor E.K. Taylor and Mayor W.H. Noy. He was removed from office when the political opponents of the first two mayors were successful at the polls” (Frank Browning Called by Death// Oakland Enquirer, 28 October 1917, p. 8).

Interesting images include several photos of Alameda: “Browning home, Alameda Cala.,” a boat at the pier of “Encinal Yacht Club, Alameda, Cala.,” a portrait of “Fire Chief Fred Kranth and F.E. Browning, City Clerk of Alameda, Calif.,” a scene with three officials at a construction site, captioned “Matching the bricks” (one of the depicted man is identified by the compiler as “Postmaster Tom Stoddard of Alameda, Cala.”), &c. There are also two lively views of a military parade in San Francisco (one of the photos shows Market Street with the Old Chronicle building on the far right), a night view of a street, most likely in San Francisco (a billboard on the left reads “Columbia Threatre. Mr. Clay Clement”), a photo of a “Masonic lodge, Hopi Point, Grand Canyon – 1913,” and a portrait of a group of middle-aged men on a “sight-seeing trip to San Quentin prison.” A series of thirteen images show a group of friends or colleagues posing on the streets of Truckee (Nevada County) in January 1913.

The album also contains twelve photos (including three large images) of the destruction of San Francisco after the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. The images show ruined Old City Hall, the Call Building, the Palace Hotel on fire, damage on “Howard and 19th streets,” ruined streets and fires over the city, a large crack in the pavement, firefighters on a burning street (the building on the right has a sign of “Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company”), &c. More views of the San Francisco fire are shown in eighteen magazine clippings (Palace Hotel, Mason Street, a view from Holliday Heights, Business district, Fairmont Hotel, Majestic Theatre, the Crocker Home, St. Francis Hotel, Wholesale District, Union Square, the Emporium, Prager’s Department Store, refugees’ camp, &c.).

The remaining photos are mostly portraits of Browning, his family and friends – posing in a car during a “hill climbing contest near Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 1910,” in a car “on way to football game, Nov. 1910,” “at Alameda boat club, 1903,” during “yachting trip, S.F. to Los Angeles, July 1909,” on the “World’s Fair grounds, Aug. 1914,” at the “Elks’ reunion, Los Angeles, 1909,” during car excursions around Arizona (Granite Reef site on the Salt River, Theodore Roosevelt Dam, an ostrich farm in Phoenix), next to their residences, travelling around California (Paso Robles, San Leandro, Lake Chabot, ) &c. Among the portrayed people are Browning’s second wife Nita, his son Lt. George N. Browning of the U.S. Army, daughter Ella (later Mrs. Raymond Shaw of Fresno), father Jacob Browning and “mother Browning” (née Zeruah Smith), and others. Ten printed postcards show the exterior and interior of the “Elks Shack” and “Elks Club” in Alameda, where the Alameda Elks fraternal organization was based.

Overall an interesting album with unique snapshot photos of San Francisco, California and Arizona from the estate of the first city clerk of Alameda.