Clik here to view.
Pioneering Black Urbanites in San Francisco and Los Angeles
In the 1850s the new medium of photography, along with written and oral transmissions sent all over the United States, began to shape impressions of the new state of California and its two most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reading Pictures
“Stare. It is the way to educate your eye and more. Stare, pry, listen, eaves-drop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” —Walker Evans, ca. 1960 Looking is hard work. For many of us, sight is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California Historical Society's Recently Cataloged Maps
Among the 5,000 to 6,000 maps in the California Historical Society’s collection are many examples of rare and unique titles. Below is a sampling of a few recently cataloged items: 1. An interesting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Glimpses of Paradise
There is a church a block away from where I live. I go there to visit a tree. One of its branches has descended upon the earth, bending heavily from its weight; a forked stick helps support it and hold...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching California at California Council for the Social Studies conference 2019
On March 15th, California Historical Society Reference Librarian (and super colleague) Frances Kaplan and I traveled to the annual California Council for the Social Studies (CCSS) conference to promote...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Celebrating the start of two railroad exhibitions with our San Francisco...
One hundred and fifty years ago, the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in North America signaled the closing of the American frontier and the ability to travel from coast to coast...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Life of Elaine Black Yoneda, In Her Own Words
The concept for Women’s History Month was born in California, beginning as a local, week-long celebration in Santa Rosa in 1978. The idea quickly spread across the country as other communities adopted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Railroads Public Programs Preview: 5 Not-to-Miss Exhibition Related Events at...
With each new exhibition comes a flurry of public programs designed to help guests dive deeply into the core concepts within them. Each exhibition provides new opportunities for conversation and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Photographing Disaster: Depicting the Aftermath of the 1906 Earthquake
This blog post originally appeared in California History Journal, Vol. 96 No. 1, Spring 2019An earthquake is a visual event. Photographs taken in San Francisco in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Children’s Voices from the Archives: Remembering the 1906 Earthquake and Fire
The 1906 earthquake and fire was a defining moment in San Francisco history. It was a disaster that changed the city’s social, economic, and cultural fabric, and to this day we often think of it’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Photographing Disaster, Part 2: Notre Dame
“There can be no image that is not about destruction and survival...” —Eduardo Cadava, “Lapsus Imaginis: The Image in Ruins”[1]On Monday, I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Phoenix Rises: Art Goes On
We are once again upon the anniversary of the Great Earthquake that erupted underneath San Francisco in the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, with an estimated 7.7 to 7.9 magnitude. Along with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Curating Overland to California: Commemorating the Transcontinental Railroad
When I set out to curate a visual history of the railroads in California, the majority of the materials I found had been produced by the railroad companies themselves. From brochures and guidebooks to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California Historical Society's 2019 Gala, Featuring the Honorable Edmund G....
The California Historical Society celebrated forty years as the State’s official historical society at its annual Gala, with more than 200 guests coming together to honor the person responsible for its...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Behind the Scenes with Research Librarian Frances Kaplan
Recently we sat down with California Historical Society’s Research Librarian, Frances Kaplan, to discuss the rich stock of resources available to the public through the North Baker Research Library.The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Spotlight on Japanese American History
Brocade of Sacramento Valley, 1911; Vault 13061; California Historical Society. Translated Title: Japanese in California: A pictorial history. By Nichei Bei Times, 1911; California Historical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History’s Imprint on the Land: Mark Ruwedel and Wesward the Course of Empire
Last month, organizations throughout the West celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first transcontinental railroad in North America. The California Historical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Not to Miss: PRIDE Month at CHS
Part of the work of public programming is to level with the fact that there are always gaps in the narrative, always stories that have not been shared with your audiences, whether they be a result of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Children's voices in the Archives : El Joaquin Newspaper
Children’s Voices in the Archives is a series of posts brought to you by CHS’s North Baker Research Library.Reading through the historical newspaper issues of El Joaquin is a strange experience. El...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Transcontinental Railroad, African Americans and the California Dream
A pivotal moment for the era and a monumental industrial infrastructure achievement in the history of the United States, the transcontinental railroad completion in 1869 had a profound effect on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our Time Has Come
We’ve just added two new collections to CHS’s digital library: the Gay and Lesbian rights movement ephemera collection, and the Joe Altman Photographs of the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade - the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Teaching the Important, Honest, and Troubling History of Native California
This blog is reposted from the California History-Social Scient Project's blog. The original post can be found here. --Editor's Note: As we travel around California, one of the most frequent concerns...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Uncovering remarkable documents through Teaching California
The California Historical Society often relies on scholars in the field to illuminate new areas of collection and research. When exploring primary sources for our new Teaching California project, we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peoples Temple Publications Department photographs now available online
The California Historical Society is pleased to announce that 4,467 slides and negatives from the Peoples Temple Publications Department Records have been digitized and are available for public viewing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mug Shots and Railroad Mythologies
In the early 1900s, the San Joaquin Valley—California’s geographical and agricultural center—was marked by the growth of community and opportunity brought about by the Southern Pacific Railroad’s...
View Article