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Focus Gallery was founded by Helen Head Johnson (1916-1989) in 1966 on Union Street in San Francisco. The gallery exhibited and sold primarily art photographs and other contemporary art.
Helen Head Johnston believed that photography deserved its own exhibition space. As stated in the gallery's first press release, "in seeking to encourage print collecting it (the gallery) offers not only a show place but also a market place for photographers." While retaining an emphasis on Bay Area photographers, the gallery's exhibitions soon became international in scope, featuring little known and well-established photographers through both solo and group exhibitions. With few exceptions, the gallery's policy was to feature an artist only once. To help keep the gallery going in its early days, Johnston started a bookshop mail-order business. At the time of its closing in August 1985, Focus Gallery was the longest continuously operating photography gallery in the country. The bookshop continued in another location for an additional two years.
The collection is arranged as 8 series
- Series 1: Administrative records, 1963-1985, (Box 1 8 folders)
- Series 2: Correspondence, 1966-1987, undated (Box 1-2 1 linear foot)
- Series 3: Exhibition files, 1966-1985 (Box 2-10 8.5 linear feet)
- Series 4: Artists files, 1966-1978, undated (Box 10-11, 9 folders)
- Series 5: Financial and Legal files, 1966-1987 (Box 11 6 folders)
- Series 6: Sales and Inventories, 1966-1987, undated (Box 11 11 folders)
- Series 7: Printed Materials, 1966-1987, undated (Box 11 and Hol 12 7 folders)
- Series 8: Guest Books, 1966-1985 (Hol 12-13 6 folders)