ABSTRACT
The most popular theme of this particular school of ceremonial urban art in San Francisco was the California miner, the legendary Forty-niner of the gold rush. The civic image of the Forty- niner represented what Michael Grant has called "para- history," the creation and manipulation of a historical narrative which is meant to rationalize contemporary predicaments rather than trace "real" historical developments. Having been exposed to endless tales concerning the cosmopolitan complexion of gold rush San Francisco, Amy Bernardy had expected to find an exotic and idiosyncratic urban center in this remote corner of American expansion. Bernardy's disappointment derived, in part, from her scant acquaintance with the frontier tradition of tall tales and the superlatives of American boosterism. Before analyzing the image of the Forty-niner in civic art during the period of urban consolidation from 1880 to 1915, we need to define the mythic traits of the miner as they emerged during the height of the gold rush.
