Name/Title
Print, PhotographicEntry/Object ID
1998.003.0014Description
B/W photo of painting of proposed span over Carquinez Strait, signed "V Nahl Studios SF" lower right. Appears to be Vallejo at left, Crockett at right. "125" lower left. Photographer's stamp on back.
Signed: Virgil Nahl Studios; photograph by P E. Brooks, commercial photographer, 185 Stevenson, SF.
Virgil Theodore Nahl (1876-1930) was the son of another artist, Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl (1833-1889). H.W.A. Nahl was the half-brother the more well-known painter Charles Christian Nahl (1818-1878). Virgil Nahl was primarily a newspaper illustrator, joining the staff of the SF Examiner in 1898. He also provided illustrations for other newspapers and magazines, such as Sunset and Motorland.
The Carquinez Strait Bridge was dedicated May 21, 1927. Virgil Nahl was not an engineer; perhaps he was commissioned to do an "artistic" rendering of a technical engineering drawing? That the artwork is identified as "proposal" is I assume because the painting does not resemble the bridge as built?Collection
Special Collections
