7 Ladies and The Great Horned Spoon: More Sunnyside advertising

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.)

SF Examiner, 27 Aug 1891.
SF Examiner, 27 Aug 1891.

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.

1891Aug30-b-Examiner-Sunnyside-AD
SF Examiner, 30 Aug 1891.

No bugs here!

SF Examiner, 26 Jul 1891.
SF Examiner, 26 Jul 1891.

“By the great horned spoon” was a mild oath from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Read more here. 

1891Oct11-Examiner-Sunnyside-AD
SF Examiner, 11 Oct 1891.

As illustrated in the previous post about ads, word play was a feature.

SF Examiner, 28 Aug 1891.
SF Examiner, 28 Aug 1891.

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.

SF Examiner, 28 May 1891.
SF Examiner, 28 May 1891.

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).

1891Sep06-c-Examiner-Sunnyside-AD
SF Examiner, 6 Sep 1891.

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.

SF Examiner, 16 Jul 1891.
SF Examiner, 16 Jul 1891.

There were occasional information-filled half-page ads like this one, December 1891.

1891Dec13-Examiner-Sunnyside-halfpage-AD
SF Examiner, 13 Dec 1891.

The following year, 1892, there was a return to more traditional-looking ad graphics.

1892Mar06-Examiner-Sunnyside-AD
SF Examiner, 6 Mar 1892.

But still there were glimpses of the unusual layouts from the first campaign.

1892May06-Examiner-Sunnyside-AD
SF Examiner, 6 May 1892.

(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’ 


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