Frank B. Rodolph Photograph Collection

Frank Bequette Rodolph (1843-1923) was a commercial photographer active in Oakland during the 1870s and 1880s. Born in Wisconsin, he and his family traveled overland to California in 1850. They settled first in Placerville and later operated a ranch on Cache Creek. Moving to Oakland in 1869, Rodolph attended business college and opened a stationery store on Broadway in partnership with his father. The store also sold school books and sheet music, and in the 1880s Rodolph began doing printing work as well. Many of his photographs were taken on his extensive travels throughout California.

The Frank B. Rodolph collection consists of 1254 original photographs taken by Rodolph and associates, including Isaiah W. Taber. The Taber photographs, primarily of Alaska, can be found in volume 14 (BANC PIC 1905.17159). Rodolph's subjects include a variety of cityscapes, residences and other buildings chiefly of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sonoma County, Santa Cruz and Monterey areas of California. Many of the photographs are of recreational and leisure activities, including outings of a Bay Area group of photographers (including Rodolph) who called themselves "the Merry Tramps."

 "For the Hay" - two men and equipment on a farm

  

 "Knowles" (a humble dwelling and several people in Sonoma County)

  

 "The Wringer" (two women at a washtub in the redwoods of Sonoma County)

  

 At Wrights Station, man and woman in a surrey

  

"The wood teams going home" Sonoma County

 

Source: California Digital Library