"View of the Town and Harbour of San Francisco, California from the Signal Hill"

California's Gold Rush turned the sleepy town of San Francisco into a thriving metropolis within just a few years. By 1851 (the date of this lithograph), San Francisco’s population swelled to over 30,000 people. Miners, merchants, gamblers, and speculators from around the globe arrived daily with hopes for a better future. Empty ships, abandoned by sailors rushing to the gold fields, crowded the city’s waterfront. The demand for new buildings was so great that the hulls of some of these ships were even brought ashore and used as offices, stores or hotels. Identification Information: Ephemera Collection, California State Archives.