Noticias de la Nueva California by Rev. Padre Fr. Francisco Palou (1874)

New in Special Collections is the 1874 California edition of Noticias de la Nueva California by Fr. Francisco Palou (San Francisco, Imprenta de Edouardo Boxqui y Cia, 1874). Ours is number 17 of 100 copies, numbered and initialed by John T. Doyle, who wrote the introduction. Printed in four parts, Special Collections’ copy is bound in two volumes. Noticias is a comprehensive source book on the histories of the California missions from 1767 to 1784.
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Part one, tipped in after page 192
Padre Francisco Palou, a Franciscan priest, missionary, and close colleague and friend of Fr. Junipero Serra, is called by some ‘the father of California history’ because of the depth and breadth of the primary sources that he gathered and reproduced in Noticias.
Most notable in this edition are the eighteen mounted albumen photographs and is one of only 21 California books illustrated with original photographs before 1890. Some of the photographs relate to San Diego and include a city view, San Diego Mission, Commercial Bank of San Diego, and olive orchard and palms at the Mission; others are of Mission Santa Barbara, Mission San Carlos, the old customs house San Francisco. The photographs were taken by prominent photographers, including Bradley & Rulofson, John R. Jarboe, E.J. Muybridge, and W.W. Stewart.
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Part two, tipped in after page 272