H69.35.24

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c. 1900
Gift of Mr. Norris Nash
H69.35.24






Photograph of Cliff House. Description: photo affixed to cardboard mounting. Description of occasion printed on reverse. Made at night. Cliff House, San Francisco. A Japanese boy, noticing the approach of lightning and thunder storm, took the last car for the Cliff House at 10:30 p.m. The night was dark. He took up his position with his camera on the beach, and, patiently waiting until 2 o'clock a.m., was able by leaving his camera open to obtain this picture, the "flashlight" being Nature's own-the bright strokes of lightning at the moment. The patience of the "Oriental," together with his keen perception of the opportunity, give us this photographic rarity, thunder storms and lightning being rare occurences in the 'glorious climate of California."-Copyrighted.

Picture This Information

This artifact is part of the OMCA's Picture This website. More about the context and history of this artifact is available at Picture This.

About the Picture This web project: California's Perspectives on American History is a resource for teachers and students to learn about the experiences of diverse peoples of California by using primary source images from the Oakland Museum of California's collections. Organized into 11 time periods spanning from pre-1769 to the present, more than 300 photographs, drawings, posters, and prints tell stories from the perspectives of different ethnic groups. Historical contexts are provided to offer a framework of California's role in relation to American history.

The National Archives state that primary sources, "fascinate students because they are real and they are personal: history is humanized through them." Picture This invites students to examine the historical record, encouraging them to connect history with real people and explore how images tell stories and convey historical evidence about the human experience. History becomes more than just a series of facts, dates, and events.      

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