Ron Henggeler, a chronicler of local ephemera in his newsletter, happened upon a 1975 volume of illustrations harkening back to Old Frisco by Albert Tolf, and you should take a look. The historical cartoons, titled "This Was San Francisco," which appeared in The San Francisco News in 1956-1958, are really a delight both for their storytelling and their aesthetic. They can all be found here, where Henggeler has digitized and restored them. It took him days, he writes, to repair the yellowed paper.

The weekly feature of Tolf's, which he calls "escapes into the city's past" was "one rewarding and happy experience."

"There is still more gold in the hills to be discovered," he writes in his introduction, "so there is more history in the enchanted hills of San Francisco to be found. And it is all free. It just needs panning out." Well, this might be one such discovery!

Related: Trove Of Historical SF Photos Now Available For Your Browsing Pleasure

via Ron Henggeler