An Evening with Richard White, author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

Thursday, March 1, 2012, 6:00 p.m.


An Evening with Richard White, author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America 


Free Event at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco


Join us at the California Historical Society for an evening with Richard White when he will discuss his recent book Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. Railroaded is a new, incisive history of the transcontinental railroads and how they transformed America in the decades after the Civil War. With characteristic originality, range, and authority, Richard White shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success. RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

A Wild Flight of the Imagination: the Story of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has organized a region-wide celebration for the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. The California Historical Society opens a ground breaking new exhibition: A Wild Flight of the Imagination: the Story of the Golden Gate Bridge, featuring art, photographs, films and historic bridge artifacts.

It was Joseph Strauss, Chief Engineer of the bridge, and Michael M. O’Shaughnessy, San Francisco’s iconic City Engineer who coined the soaring phrase which inspires our exhibition title and carried the seemingly impossible job to its completion.

The exhibition will include a look back at the Golden Gate itself – one hundred years before the building of the bridge – as well as the building and historic opening of the bridge in 1937. It will also examine the bridge’s influence as an inspirational landscape for artists, writers, tourists, and people worldwide.

Learn what life was like for travelers before the spanning of the Gate – when ferry travel could still accommodate traffic between San Francisco and Marin County. Follow the media campaign and efforts of San Francisco Mayor James Rolph to win over a reluctant public, and the victorious telegram informing Rolph of the bridge’s approval by the federal government.

See works of art and photography by Maynard Dixon, Chesley Bonestell, Carleton Watkins and Dorothea Lange, along with spectacular architectural drawings by John Eberson and Irving Morrow from the collections of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, the California State Library and others. Some of his art will be out of storage and on view for the first time in decades.

Please join us on Sunday, February 26th at 2:30 pm for the opening reception of this exciting exhibition, which will be co-sponsored by the Art Deco Society of California.

Wear your best 1930s apparel, kick up your heels and celebrate with us on the 79th anniversary – to the day – of the groundbreaking of this world-renowned structure. The afternoon will be golden, drink will flow, and jazz will fill the air.

We hope to see you there! RSVP to 415.357.1848, ext. 229 or Wildflight.eventbrite.com.


A Wild Flight of the Imagination is on view Tuesday – Sundays from February 26 through October 14, 2012, 12:00 - 5:00 p.m. each day.

Open House at Breed Street Shul

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 , 5:00 p.m.

Open House at Breed Street Shul

Co- sponsored by the California Historical Society and Breed Street Shul Project, Inc.

Free Event at Breed Street Shul, 247 N. Breed Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033

Come celebrate the recently completed rehabilitation of the Breed Street Shul’s original 1915 building at this special event, which will include a reception, building tours, a dramatic reading of Josefina Lopez's play Boyle Heights by Casa0101 actors and musical entertainment by local artists.

RSVP to breedstreetshulopenhouse.eventbrite.com or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

A Wild Flight of the Imagination Opening Celebration

Sunday, February 26, 2012,  2:30 - 4:30pm


A Wild Flight of the Imagination Opening Celebration


Free Event at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco

Put on your party clothes and come help us celebrate the opening of A Wild Flight of the Imagination: the Story of the Golden Gate Bridge. On this day in 1933 San Franciscans celebrated the ground breaking for the Bridge, a symbol of hope in a devastated economy. Come kick up your heels to the band, gather around the classic cars parked outside, and learn the story of the Bridge.  RSVP to wildflight.eventbrite.com  or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.