A cache of mysterious Kodachrome slides found abandoned on a Mission District street corner are going to the San Francisco Public Library’s History Center — where they’ll join collections including Harvey Milk’s papers and the San Francisco Call-Bulletin photo morgue. 

More than 900 slides were found in 2020 by Donnie Weaver, a San Francisco artist and preschool teacher, who lent them to photo collector David Gallagher to scan. Gallagher began sleuthing to learn the identity of the photographer — contacting the Chronicle for help — before a story was published and the photographer’s family came forward. 

The photographer was identified as James Martin, a San Francisco Unified School District educator who took photos of San Francisco scenes as a hobby and used them for educational presentations. Martin died in 2019. The find made national news, including a story on NBC News with Lester Holt.

San Francisco History Center photo curator Christina Moretta said the gift was made jointly by Weaver, Gallagher and the Martin family, who want the images to be accessible to the public. 

Moretta said this collection is unique because it’s in color — most of the library’s 1960s images are black-and-white. 

You can read more in an article by Peter Hartlaub published in the San Francisco Chronicle web site at: https://www.sfchronicle.com/vault/article/san-francisco-mystery-photos-library-18409395.php.