Have you used this map to find historic photos of your SF neighborhood?

A woman posing against brick wall, with 1192 Haight in the background. Photo courtesy of OpenSFHistory. A woman posing against brick wall, with 1192 Haight in the background. Photo courtesy of OpenSFHistory. Photo: OpenSFHistory/Courtesy Photo: OpenSFHistory/Courtesy Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Have you used this map to find historic photos of your SF neighborhood? 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

San Francisco has changed. A free digital map lets you turn back the clock.

OpenSFHistory, a subgroup of the Western Neighborhoods Project, compiled thousands of historical images accumulated over 40 years by an anonymous collector. All the public knows about "The Private Collector" is that he or she possesses a passion for San Francisco history and the images that depict it.

The collection expanded through the purchase of original negatives and photographs, as well as the copy of negatives and prints from other collections. It therefore "includes images that intersect with virtually every other San Francisco historical image collection," according to the OpenSFHistory site.

The compilation of photographs, taken by commercial and amateur photographers, provide a nostalgic overview of San Francisco from the 1850s through the 1970s. Wedged between pivotal moments in the city's history – the great earthquake of 1906, the burning of the Cliff House – are depictions of quiet moments in Golden Gate Park and snapshots from the World's Fair.

Horse-drawn buggies on Ocean Beach are a click away from kids huddled on the corner of Clay and Kearny. These reticent snapshots of daily life become elevated to historical moments of their own when viewed with the curious eyes of a contemporary San Franciscan.

One could easily get lost in the sheer magnitude of photographs, so OpenSFHistory anchored many of the images by location on an interactive map. It even lets you search by address.

An investigation of my Mission District street returned images of a quaint village. My local dive bar is a patch of dirt, my brunch spot the same. On the roadway where cars now zoom stands a lone horse.

After gazing upon these images, it will be difficult to return to my slice of the Mission without experiencing a sense of awe for what was once here, and what has become of it.

Give it a try yourself at OpenSFHistory.org. Or glance through some of the sample photos in the gallery above.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.