Seventeen year old Louis Monaco arrived in California from his native Switzerland in 1859. After a year or so working the mines in Lancha Plana, Amador County, he moved on to Gold Hill and Virginia City, Nevada. He was involved in several enterprises there including part ownership of a grocery store. In the late 1860s he became interested in photography and eventually established his first studio on C Street in Virginia City. He moved the studio to Eureka Nevada in 1871 and was soon acknowledged as one of the premiere photographers of that booming mining town. His younger brother, JB, newly arrived from the "old country" joined him there in 1875. The two brothers remained in Eureka through good times and bad until a severely declining Eureka economy prompted their move to San Francisco in 1888. Their original San Francisco location was at 1228 Market Street, where they remained for approximately two years before moving to 702 Market Street, just above Lotta's Fountain and across the street from the Palace Hotel. In 1902, five years after Louis' death in 1887, JB moved the business to North Beach where he remained until his retirement in 1937. The ensuing photographs in rough sequential order will present a synopsis of the Monaco years from 1859 to 1938. The images, both historic and personal, include the following: