San Francisco enjoys a reputation as one of the loveliest cities in the world, quite an accomplishment considering that it has, over the years, drawn consistently withering comments about its climate from noteworthy visitors.

After the death of her husband in 1848, Eliza Farnham came to California to settle his estate, bringing with her a group of unmarried women to civilize the frontier. She eventually settled in Santa Cruz, "that delightful spot" of which she wrote in her 1856 volume California, In-doors and Out. When it became necessary to travel to "that wretched place San Francisco," however, Farnham was moved to make a significant contribution to that city's climatological literature.

San Francisco, I believe, has the most disagreeable climate and locality of any city on the globe. If the winter be not unusually wet, there is some delightful weather to be enjoyed. If it be, you are flooded, and the rainy season closes to give place to what is miscalled summer—a season so cold that you require more clothing than you did in January; so damp with fogs and mists that you are penetrated to the very marrow; so windy that if you are abroad in the afternoon it is a continual struggle. Your eyes are blinded, your teeth set on edge, and your whole person made so uncomfortable by the sand that has insinuated itself through your clothing, that you could not conceive it possible to feel a sensation of comfort short of a warm bath and shower. . . . What sort of end the unfortunates, who spend their lives there, can expect under such circumstances, one does not easily foresee.

After six years, Farnham returned to the East, where she continued to write and to help women come west. During the Civil War she also nursed soldiers wounded at Gettysburg.

Audio Files | Script Index