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The
Western Neighborhood Project keeps San Francisco history alive through articles, videos and photos; scroll through their site and you'll see images of Playland at the Beach, the Sutro Baths during their glory days, and the progress of sandy dunes turning into neighborhoods.
And now, after extensive work of organizing and uploading, they've shared a treasure trove of 1182 old San Francisco photos, courtesy of a private collector — and they're amazing.
"Early in 2013 he [the private collector] approached us about taking stewardship of his collection, to catalog, digitize, preserve, and make it available to the public, both physically and online. We were shocked and excited. The collection amounts to thousands of images in many forms," according to the
WNP site.
As you can image in, getting thousands of photos online is an extensive task, and after receiving the first box of photos in early 2014, they set up a system; according to their site: "We would sort, rehouse, catalog, digitize, and put online this first installment, then step back to assess the effort, costs, and rewards."
They're nearing the end of the first phase of the project — but there are still many more photos to upload. If you've undertaken something of this size before and may have tips, tricks, or can help, you can
contact them through their site.
In the meantime, start scrolling through
the photos that are already online and take a peek at San Francisco's past.
