1963 Cavagnaro / Holub Pictorial View of Yosemite Valley, California

Milton David Cavagnaro (January 26, 1913 - December 18, 1993) was a graphic designer, painter, jeweler, creator of 'mass produced items,' and mixed-media artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cavagnaro was raised in Oakland, California and his family owned a ranch in Jackson, California in the Sierra Nevada foothills where he spent considerable time as a child, an important influence on his later work. He earned a degree in secondary education at the California College of Arts and Crafts in the early 1930s and afterwards studied with Rudolph Schaeffer (1886 - 1988) at the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Rhythmo-Chromatic Design in San Francisco, where, among other influences, Cavagnaro became interested in Asian art. Around this time, he met Mayreece (neé Hagland), and the two married in 1937, having two children shortly thereafter. Cavagnaro taught at several Bay Area institutions (the Schaeffer School, the California School of Fine Arts, San Jose State) in the following years and worked as a shipfitter and foreman with the Marinship Corp. in Sausalito during the Second World War. Cavagnaro's artistic output in several media was often difficult and esoteric, with eclectic influences and a strong streak of Surrealism; although some critics liked his paintings they did not sell. Similarly, his jewelry was displayed in 1948 at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor but did not lead to any lucrative commissions. After the war, he turned down teaching opportunities at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the California School of Fine Arts (today the San Francisco Art Institute) to instead found and lead Design Development Inc. along with fellow artists Ruth Gerth (1897 - 1952) and photographer Leo Holub (1916 - 2010). Cavagnaro mostly focused on jewelry for most of the 1950s, living with his family and operating a shop in Marin County. Like Holub, he befriended Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984) and bonded with him over a shared love of California's natural beauty. In the late 1950s, Cavagnaro shifted his focus to landscape design, having kept his own highly-regarded bonsai garden for years. Gaining some formal training as a landscape designer, Cavagnaro and his family moved to Sonoma County in 1961 and he began work in landscape design. More by this mapmaker...

Leo Millard Holub (November 25, 1916 - April 28, 2010) was an American designer and photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in landscapes (especially of Yosemite) and architectural photographs. Born in Decatur, Arkansas, his family gradually moved westwards in his childhood, eventually settling in Oakland, California, where he attended school. Holub worked odd jobs as a youth, including as a printer's devil and a blacksmith's apprentice in a gold mine. He eventually was able to save enough money to attend the Art Institute of Chicago in 1935, but returned to California after one year and attended the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). There his studies ranged widely, including learning industrial design from Joseph Sinel (1889 - 1975). Around this time, Holub met fashion illustrator Florence Mickelson, and the two married in 1940, having a son in 1942. Unable to stop taking pictures of the baby, Holub was inspired to make a career out of photography, but was waylaid by the Second World War, when he served as a ship's rigger in the U.S. Navy. After the war, Holub worked as an illustrator, designer, and publisher for a variety of commercial firms in the Bay Area and taught at his alma mater, while also attending workshops in Yosemite with Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984), with whom he became a lifelong friend. In 1960, Holub began a job with the Planning Office at Stanford University, and in 1969 founded the university's photography program in the Department of Art, teaching there for several years afterwards. In the early 1980s, he left Stanford to pursue several projects, including an extensive project of photographing contemporary artists with their works, now held by the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford. Learn More...

Henry Smith Crocker (January 31, 1832 - July 18, 1904) was an American printer, publisher, and railroad investor active in northern California in the middle to late 19th century. Crocker followed the Gold Rush to California, settling in Sacramento in the 1850s. He established his printing concern, H. S. Crocker, in 1856. Apparently his first office was little more than a tent with a small sign. Crocker relocated to San Francisco in 1871. He became extremely wealthy almost overnight by leveraging his ties to the Central Pacific Railroad, which is brother, Charles Crocker (1822 - 1888) founded. In 1885, Crocker constructed a large five-story printing factory, powered by his own private steam plant, then the largest and most sophisticated printing concern on the west coast. Crocker's prosperity continued and by the time he died in 1904, he was the head of a large and wealthy family. Although Crocker passed on, his company, H.S. Crocker, continued to operate and remains active to this day. Learn More...