San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue

Between 1966 and 1969, the San Francisco Examiner donated two libraries of photographs --what news staff call “morgues”-- to the San Francisco Public Library. The combined gift of the morgues from the San Francisco News and Hearst’s San Francisco Call-Bulletin was an estimated 2 million photographs. The San Francisco News-Call Bulletin Photo Morgue represents the working files created and used by the newspapers’ staff between the 1920s and September 1965. The collection consists primarily of photographs from news agencies and wire services depicting local, state, national and international events and people; filed together with photographs by local staff photographers, studio portraits, and promotional photographs supplied to the newspapers by families or agencies. Political, social, and cultural leaders, crime victims and suspects, celebrities, athletes and sporting events, accident scenes and victims, street scenes, shipping and waterfront views, and buildings are among the common subjects. Upon receipt of the collection, San Francisco places and portraits of local, famous individuals were separated and formed the base of the San Francisco History Subject Collections. The online collection represents significant San Franciscans as well as national/international celebrities.