[CROATIAN-AMERICANS - CALIFORNIA] TORNICH, P.P. (photographer)

Three large-format photographs documenting a gathering of the Hrvatski Sokol [Croatian Club] of San Francisco, 1922

[San Francisco: P.P. Tornich, ca 1922]. Three vintage silver-gelatin prints, approx. 7-1/2" x 9-1/2" (one slightly smaller) on commercial mounts, ca 11" x 14." The prints show mild surface wear but are clean and retain excellent contrast; moderate soiling to mounts; Near Fine. One mount printed with the photographer's address (110 Congo Street, San Francisco) at lower right; one image captioned in the negative ("Croatian Club Banquet / Feb 11 - 1922 / P.P. Tornich photo"), with photographer's embossed stamp at lower left; third image unsigned but clearly from the same (or a similar) event, and in a mount of similar style and date.

Three excellent portraits documenting a meeting of the San Francisco branch of the Hrvatski Sokol, a Croatian nationalist membership organization founded in Prague in 1862. The Sokol was modeled on the German turnverein, emphasizing gymnastics and physical culture while promoting nationalist sentiment and military preparedness. In the United States, the sokols persisted as a means for Croatian immigrants to retain their national identity against the intense pressures of assimilation they faced in their adopted homeland.

The photographs - all group portraits - depict banquet attendees in various costumes ranging from conventional business attire to traditional hunting outfits including feathered caps. In one photograph, the group's banner is prominently displayed hanging over a long banquet table, the traditional Croatian hawk surrounded by the words "Hrvatski Sokol / San Francisco Cal."

Of the photographer P.P. Tornich, we can discover little regarding his professional activities. The Bancroft Library records one holding for an album of Tornich photographs dated 1933, published by the Portola View Company, of the first convention of the Slavonic Alliance of California; we find no other institutional records of work by this artist. However, Tornich appears to have been a prominent figure in Slavic-American circles in San Francisco, serving for at least fifteen years as an officer of the Slavonic Illyric Mutual Benevolent Society, for at least three of which he was the Society's President (based on advertisements in the San Francisco Call, 1897-1912).

Price: $300.00

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