R.J. Waters Company

Raper James (R. J.) Waters (1856–1937) was a commercial photographer active in California and Nevada whose studio produced a wide range of documentary and panoramic photographs around the turn of the 20th century. Waters opened a commercial studio in San Francisco in the 1890s and became especially known for panoramic city views and commercial photographic services. His photographs are held in significant collections, including those of the Library of Congress, the Getty, and the Metropolitan Museum, among others.

Aerial photos of urban landscapes were among the most common genres of images that R. J. Waters’s studio produced in the late 1910s. These include multiple aerial and panoramic images of cities like San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, and Sacramento. These prints were often made in large sizes for display and municipal record-keeping, and now form a valuable visual record of how California cities looked before the ubiquitous transformations of the mid-20th century.