1962 Rambo Signed Pictorial Historical View of San Jose and Environs, California

This is a lively 1962 F. Ralph Rambo pictorial historical view of the Santa Clara Valley, including San Jose, the southern portion of the San Francisco Peninsula, and much of today's Silicon Valley. Recounting numerous incidents and characters from local history, the view is characteristic of Rambo's style, and is accentuated by the maker's signature at the bottom-right.

A Closer Look

Oriented roughly towards the northeast, this view covers the Santa Clara Valley and environs from Palo Alto and Stanford University at left to New Almaden at right. Dozens of illustrations fill the sheet, thirty of which are numbered and explained further at right, and all of which relate to local history, lore, and the environment. Near center is the San Jose Electric Tower, a fascinating but ultimately unpopular effort to illuminate the city's downtown in an era before in home electric lighting was widespread. To its left (north) is the Mission Santa Clara de Asís, which along with the Pueblo de San Josè de Guadalupe (both founded 1777) was the first non-indigenous outpost in the area, with the pueblo being the first civilian settlement in California. Other local landmarks such as the Winchester Mystery House and the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton are easily recognizable. Many of the illustrations have a humorous edge to them, even if the humor is a bit passé for today's tastes.

The couple that appear on either side of the title cartouche at bottom-right are Rambo's own parents, Francis Howgill Rambo (1853 - 1929) and his wife Dora B. Rambo (née Butler, 1865 - 1934). This example is signed by the artist in the bottom-right margin with a symbol containing his initials and resembling a cattle brand, along with the words 'Happy Hunting,' echoing the line at the bottom of the index 'There more, - if you have a magnifying glass and a long memory' (below this line, Rambo illustrated himself, looking beleaguered).

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by Francis Ralph Rambo in 1962. It was related to and may have appeared in a 1964 book by Rambo titled Almost forgotten - cartoon pen and inklings of the Old Santa Clara Valley, which was published in several editions in the following years (it is unclear if all editions included a map). There are two printings of this view, the present two-tone black and red ink printing and a likely later edition adding more colors for the landscape, water, and buildings. In any event, the view is independently cataloged with Santa Clara University, the Santa Clara County Library, and the University of California Berkeley in the OCLC, and is also held by the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, while the entire book in its various editions is more widely distributed in institutional collections.