San Francisco Bay.

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Probably no geographical feature is represented more across the spectrum of the CHS collections than San Francisco Bay. Posters, books, ephemera, manuscripts, photographs, and other formats capture the bay in its many functions--as California's first major port and as transportation hub, strategic military site, industrial mecca, fishery, scenic backdrop to cities, bridges, and ballparks, and complicated and critical element of the region's ecosystem. The prominent and vital role the bay plays in California's history ensures a ubiquitous presence in the CHS collections.

During the nineteenth century, a variety of commercial vessels transported cargoes to and from harbors and ports around San Francisco Bay. This photograph depicts the ship Portia docked at Alviso, the former boating and ship ping port of San Jose that was the transportation center for travel from the Santa Clara Valley to San Francisco in the years prior to the railroads. Located in the southernmost part of the bay, Alviso is one of many locations featured in CHS's exhibition "Curating the Bay: Crowdsourcing a New Environmental History" (April 7-August 25, 2013), a cultural and environmental history of San Francisco Bay.