The Bouquet of California / San Francisco

Title

The Bouquet of California / San Francisco

Description

Representation of the city of San Francisco

ca. 1880

Artist

Adler

Historical Description

Originally, San Francisco Bay was settled by the Muwekma Ohlone Indian tribe. The Spanish conquistadors sent two expeditions to the north of America in the 16th century to explore the west coast. Hernán Cortés had discovered a "peninsula between the Gulf and the ocean" and named it California. But the official discovery did not occur until ten years later with Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. The elusive entrance to the bay was not discovered until 1775, although many explorers, including Francis Drake, explored the region as early as the 16th century. The first Europeans settled in the present city beginning in 1776, a century later. Spanish soldiers and missionaries founded what is now Mission Dolores Church on June 29 at a lagoon they named Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, as well as a presidio at Golden Gate to secure the mission. The town was later named San Francisco de Asís by the missionaries in memory of Saint Francis of Assisi, and in English it became Saint Francis. In 1792, 300 years after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the British explorer George Vancouver founded a small settlement near Yerba Buena (later downtown San Francisco). It became a base for European and Russian settlers, fur traders and pioneers.