Dana Studio

[ShoeMan]

Does anyone have any information on the history of Dana Studio?
So, many great photos and post cards of fighters and fights and there seems to be very little written about them.

[sthoemke]

Dana Studio was established by Edward Cary Dana in Brooklyn, NY.

Here is a short biography:

http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/li...et&app_id=2691

[ShoeMan]

Thank you for your addition.
I do not think the Dana Studio of San Francisco was an extension of the Dana Studio on the East Coast.
The Dana Studio of San Francisco took their famous fight/fighters images in the early 1900's. I have to think their most famous images are of the Johnson vs Jeffries fight in 1910.
Also keep in mind that Edward Dana died in 1897 and the devastating San Francisco earthquake took place in 1906.

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by ShoeMan

Thank you for your addition.
I do not think the Dana Studio of San Francisco was an extension of the Dana Studio on the East Coast.
The Dana Studio of San Francisco took their famous fight/fighters images in the early 1900's. I have to think their most famous images are of the Johnson vs Jeffries fight in 1910.
Also keep in mind that Edward Dana died in 1897 and the devastating San Francisco earthquake took place in 1906.

I stand corrected.

Try researching "Charles Percy Dana"

[ShoeMan]

Thank you. I have searched and found very little. I was hoping someone in our community would have more details on the man and his studio.

[sthoemke]

Does anyoone know if there is a known address of Dana Studio of San Francisco?

[John1941]

Originally Posted by sthoemke

Does anyoone know if there is a known address of Dana Studio of San Francisco?

I searched for Dana Studio in San Francisco on newspapers.com. Results for it run from 1910 to 1915. It seems to have moved around a bit: its address was listed as 1354 Fillmore from 1910 to 1912, as either 344 Kearny St. and 933 Market in different parts of 1913, and as 1003 Golden Gate Ave. in 1915.

The San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Bulletin credit pictures from Dana Photo and Percy Dana Photo between 1904 and 1908, but I found no corresponding ads for Dana Photo like I did for Dana Studio.

This may be related: there was a P.F. Dana who ran McKinley's photo at 632 Market St. in 1901.

Also, on 1914-12-04 the San Francisco Chronicle said that Dana was managing the boxer Bill Sloane.

[John1941]

I found a picture of Dana in the Bulletin, 1906-12-03. At the time he was in Tonopah, on assignment to take pictures of the Gans-Herman fight.

Also attached are pictures he took for the Bulletin, presented 1906-8-22.

[sthoemke]

Originally Posted by John1941

I searched for Dana Studio in San Francisco on newspapers.com. Results for it run from 1910 to 1915. It seems to have moved around a bit: its address was listed as 1354 Fillmore from 1910 to 1912, as either 344 Kearny St. and 933 Market in different parts of 1913, and as 1003 Golden Gate Ave. in 1915.

The San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Bulletin credit pictures from Dana Photo and Percy Dana Photo between 1904 and 1908, but I found no corresponding ads for Dana Photo like I did for Dana Studio.

This may be related: there was a P.F. Dana who ran McKinley's photo at 632 Market St. in 1901.

Also, on 1914-12-04 the San Francisco Chronicle said that Dana was managing the boxer Bill Sloane.

Found a reference that he was also located at 1487 Ellis St., S.F in 1906.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...05P2zFiSxb-vYE

[ShoeMan]

This is all good information.
I am still going to work on finding out more about the man himself and his business.
I found a few pictures of the Dana Building or what was the Dana Building at 212 Stockton Street after the earthquake. I don't know if they are related.
The earthquake could be a reason his business moved around ....just a theory.

[ShoeMan]

With some help from a good friend.

In the 1901 San Francisco city directory there's a "Percy F. Dana", a "photo. engraver" residing at 620 Market Street. The California death index has a Jan 5, 1929 death of Percy Dana, age 68, in Lassen County, California. (A day before Tex Rickard passed away)

On the findagrave website someone put a profile for "Percy Francis Dana" who died Jan 5,1929 in Susanville, Lassen County, California, who is buried at Honey Lake cemetery in Lassen County. That profile has his wife as Elizabeth N Jordan who died in San Francisco on June 13,1905. The findagrave profile for Elizabeth says she "married Percy Francis Dana (1862-1929). He and his brother Parsons owned the Dana Studio, which specialized in boxing photos, in San Francisco". The Honey Lake Cemetery states on its site that 'Percy Dana is interred there, but his grave site is not marked'.

But the June 14,1905 obit for Elizabeth N Dana in the San Francisco Examiner says she was the wife of PARSON Franis Dana.

The hunt continues

[ShoeMan]

I thought I would update you as some of the information we found early on was wrong.

Charles Percy/Parson Dana was born in either Missouri or Kansas around 1873.
He worked for magazines and newspapers, particularly sports and daily papers, and was credited frequently in San Francisco newspapers for his photographs. He is described in Bay Area newspapers as one of the city’s leading photographers and as the official photographer for all the larger fights.
His studio seemed to have moved around a lot throughout San Fransico. I have 4 addresses in a 10- year period.
He was a member of the Photographers Association of California as well as a member of the Indoor Yacht Club.
For a time owned a Nickelodeon.
He died in 1950 at the San Clara County Home for the Aged.

Still looking for more information.

[sthoemke]

Percy Dana was the Official Photographer of the Indoor Yacht Club.

https://archive.org/stream/mainsheet...7indo_djvu.txt

[Philadelphia Shamrocks]

Thanks for this interesting post on Percy Dana. So many great boxing photos from this man around the turn of the 20th Century. It appears that you found some source material on him through the San Francisco Library Historical Collection. Since I live here in SF, I will make it a goal of mine to get in to the library and hopefully view some of their collection in person. I found a short piece on him at Foundsf.org, and I've added the address/link below.

http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?tit...g_Photographer

[sthoemke]

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SRPD1913...ra+Perz-------

[ShoeMan]

Thank you all for you interest and assistance.

I have spent some time on this and with the help of a friend I have put some of the information together in a PDF along with some of his work. If you are interested feel free to PM me and I will send you the file.

What's crazy to me is his photos are legendary. He helped to pioneer a photographic technique utilizing glass negatives to record exquisite images.

How is it that the man how took portraits of Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries, was friends with Battling Nelson, covered all the major ring battles in the early 1900’s in the San Francisco area when it was the Mecca of boxing has:
No known articles written about his life or work.

No Wikipedia page

The International Boxing Hall of Fame had a file labeled with his name, but it was empty with material. (until we provided it)

“Boxing Memorabilia” a book written by Boxing Hall of Fame manager and renown collector Bill Cayton and Robert Obojski includes a chapter on Dana’s work. The chapter titled “Rare Charles Dana Glass Plates Recover by Cayton and Jacobs Long after San Francisco Earthquake. His contributions are praised, but they cite his name as Charles, not Percy!”

Percy has received so little respect that even the website findagrave.com misidentifies his grave site.

Ultimately, he deserves to be in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
He needs to be recognized and remembered for the artwork he produced.