A LETTERPRESS MOVE TO SAN FRANCISCO

Olds, Arnold, Joanne & Marta

We Now Live in San Francisco [Mid-Century Moving Announcement]

A MID-CENTURY FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENT COMBINING SAN FRANCISCO PHOTOGRAPHY, MODERN TYPOGRAPHY, AND A NEW JOB.
A handsome mid-century moving announcement issued by Arnold, Joanne, and Marta Olds upon their relocation to San Francisco. The folded piece opens with a panoramic photographic view of the city waterfront captioned "We now live in San Francisco", while the interior announces that Arnold had begun a new position with Chas. R. Wood & Associates and invites friends to visit the family at their Kirkham Street address.

The restrained design—woven paper, generous white space, italic typography, and black-and-white photography—gives an ordinary change-of-address announcement the character of a small piece of mid-century graphic design.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: PHOTOGRAPHIC ANNOUNCEMENT ON TEXTURED PAPER.
+++ Single folded sheet of cream woven paper measuring approximately 12.5 by 7 inches unfolded and 6.25 by 3.5 inches folded. 
+++ Printed in black and gray with two photographic illustrations: a panoramic San Francisco waterfront view captioned We now live in San Francisco, and a smaller photograph accompanying the announcement of Arnold Olds's employment with Chas. R. Wood & Associates.
+++ The interior text gives the family's San Francisco address and telephone number and is signed in type Arnold, Joanne & Marta Olds. Exterior otherwise unprinted.

CONDITION: FINE. Clean and well preserved with light handling and minor age-related wear. Fold remains sound. The textured paper retains a fresh appearance, and the photographic illustrations and printing remain clear.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: MID-CENTURY SAN FRANCISCO IN MINIATURE
PERSONAL EPHEMERA AS SOCIAL HISTORY.
Moving and change-of-address announcements survive as small records of postwar American mobility, preserving details rarely captured in formal publications: employment changes, family relationships, residential neighborhoods, telephone exchanges, and the ways families presented important life changes to friends and acquaintances.

This example is particularly appealing for its visual presentation of San Francisco. Rather than simply announcing an address, the Olds family made arrival in the city the subject of the piece, opening with a panoramic waterfront photograph and the declaration We now live in San Francisco.

CHAS. R. WOOD & ASSOCIATES.
The announcement also provides a period reference to Chas. R. Wood & Associates. San Francisco directory evidence confirms that the company was operating in the city by 1958, with Francis J. Wood listed as president, Walter J. Wood as vice-president, and Lawrence W. Wood Jr. as secretary-treasurer.

SUBJECTS: San Francisco, California, Arnold Olds, Joanne Olds, Marta Olds, Chas. R. Wood & Associates, Moving Announcements, Change of Address, San Francisco Waterfront, Mid-Century Photography, Mid-Century Graphic Design, Social History, Family Histor, yPhotographic Ephemera, Mid-Century Design, Americana

Item #22463

Price: $18.00