More example of advertising for the Sunnyside district in San Francisco newspapers in the first years, 1891-1892. (More wacky Sunnyside ads in the first post in this series.)
Note the frequent use of white space, clean-looking typefaces, and asymmetrically positioned text blocks, a bit ahead of their time–favorite features of midcentury advertisers decades later.
No bugs here!
“By the great horned spoon” was a mild oath from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Read more here.
As illustrated in the previous post about ads, word play was a feature.
That sun is in totally the wrong place! Peeping over Mount Davidson to the north. It may have been this graphic artist who drew this strangely flat Sunnyside.
In September 1891, there was a series employing translations of “sunny side” provided by local consulates.
The Sunnyside Land Company’s ads often stood out from the usual busy-looking clutter of late 19th century newspaper pages (below).
Sometimes the theme was more mainstream, with folksy sayings and drawings (below) in an age when a great many San Franciscans had came to the big city from rural places.
There were occasional information-filled half-page ads like this one, December 1891.
The following year, 1892, there was a return to more traditional-looking ad graphics.
But still there were glimpses of the unusual layouts from the first campaign.
(More wacky Sunnyside ads in the first post in this series.)
For the alternate approach of the real estate firm marketing lots in Sunnyside in later years, check out this post: 1909: ‘Beautiful Sunnyside in the Center of San Francisco’
Resources:
- San Francisco Chronicle archives available through the SF Public Library Articles and Databases – page down to San Francisco Chronicle (sign in with library card):
- San Francisco Call archives available through California Digital Newspaper Collection
- San Francisco Examiner archives available through Newspapers.com (Paid subscription; free trial available.)
