Chinese Steamer coming into San Francisco, California

The objectphotographed as held, uncropped

Catalogue description

A high vantage over rooftops and a long pier, looking out across the bay. A steamer under a heavy plume of smoke stands off in the middle distance, with smaller craft on the water and hills faint on the far shore. In the foreground the pitched roofs and board fences of the waterfront district run down toward the wharf.

The caption names the vessel by the people aboard it. “Chinese Steamer” was ordinary commercial usage in San Francisco for the Pacific Mail ships arriving from Hong Kong, and their arrivals were reported in the newspapers and, as here, photographed for sale.

What the card records is the moment before everything else in this collection: the crossing, and the point of entry. Everyone in the studio portraits and the street views arrived on a ship like the one in the middle distance of this frame.

Transcriptiontext on the object, as printed

J. J. Reilly, Photographer.
Views of American Scenery.
Chinese Steamer coming into San Francisco, Cal.

Historical context

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company began regular trans-Pacific service between Hong Kong and San Francisco in 1867. Arriving passengers were processed at the waterfront, and from 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act made those arrivals the site of an elaborate apparatus of documentary proof and interrogation.

What is not known

• Date inferred from photographer imprint and mount style; no date is printed.
• The specific vessel is not identified on the object.
• The exact vantage point has not been established.