#PF68
Ca. 1915
Single albumen print panorama, ca. 127 x 93 cm (50 x 36 ¾ in). Left top corner of the print is scuffed, but otherwise very good.
Historically important panorama of a special thematic event at San Francisco’s 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) celebrating Slavic culture.
The camera is oriented westward, capturing the Tower of Jewels at the right and the Palace of Fine Arts prominently in the central background. Numerous banners identify social and fraternal organizations representing Eastern European immigrant communities, their flags displayed alongside the United States flag. In the foreground are prominent representatives of San Francisco’s civic and social elite, including Mayor James Rolph.
The panorama portrays notable immigrant organizations of the time, including the Slavonic Illyric Mutual Benevolent Society of San Francisco, Slovenian-American Beneficial Society, Dalmatia Assembly, Polish Society of San Francisco, and the Serbian-Montenegrin Literary Benevolent Society. Most participants, appearing in national costumes, were immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Overall, the panorama captures a unique demographic snapshot of San Francisco’s Slavic community. At a time when Russian and Ukrainian immigration was still minimal prior to the 1917 Revolution, other Eastern European groups (already deeply affected by the ongoing Great War) are represented here in significant numbers.
The only example of this photograph we were able to trace is at University of California, Berkeley.
