1914 MUIR WOODS ROBBINS THROUGH FOREST AND FIELD TOURS SAN FRANCISCO HIKING TAG
Today we are pleased to offer this Muir Woods pictorial tour tag advertising Through Forest and Field Tours with Fred S. Robbins, an undated piece of San Francisco Bay Area hiking and travel ephemera estimated to date to circa 1914. Printed on pale green card stock, this small hanging card has a round suspension hole at the top fitted with a twisted green cord.
The advertising announces “Seventy-five Beautiful Walks in the Counties Bordering S. F. Bay,” identifies Muir Woods, and gives a printed price of 10 cents. The number 3011 is added prominently in red. Below the lettering is a black-and-white printed photographic illustration captioned A Crooked Place in Muir Woods, depicting railway tracks winding between the trees. The combination of woodland scenery, tour advertising, numbering, and attached cord gives the card a distinctive character.
Robbins’s related hiking guide, Through Forest and Field with Fred S. Robbins, was published in San Francisco in 1914 and identified him as “the Bulletin hike story writer.” Its subtitle likewise advertised seventy-five walks around San Francisco Bay. That shared wording provides the basis for the estimated circa 1914 dating of this card. This is a separate single-card item, not a copy of the hiking guide.
Muir Woods became a national monument in 1908, and its woodland walks formed part of an excursion landscape served by the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods railway. Visitors combined mountain train or gravity-car rides with outings on foot. The railway illustration and named walking-tour connection give this piece appeal across California tourism, Marin County local history, hiking memorabilia, and railway ephemera.
The card has light edge rubbing, small corner bumps, scattered surface marks, and faint discoloration around portions of the margins. A second, small irregular hole pierces the right-hand margin above the illustration, separate from the round suspension hole at the top; its edges are ragged, with localized paper loss. The cord has surface fuzzing and fraying at its loose ends. The attached green cord adds a natty finishing touch.
The printed face bears faint pencil figures in the upper-right corner and a few small spots in the surrounding blank areas. The unprinted reverse carries penciled notes, including “Not in Rocq” (Rocq, Margaret Miller, editor. California Local History: A Bibliography and Union List of Library Holdings. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Stanford University Press, 1970. 611 pages) and numerical references, together with light handling soil and scattered specks. The irregular hole falls outside the photographic illustration, and the main advertising text, red number, and scenic caption remain legible. For railway detail, the little woodland view is no slouch.
Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.
Single card, 2 sides, printed on the front only; 1 black-and-white photographic illustration; attached green suspension cord
This measures approximately 4 1/4 inches tall by 2 3/4 inches wide.
_gsrx_vers_1828 (GS 10.0 (1828))
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