I See Beauty in this Life Curator's Walkthrough

Thursday, December 13, 2012 (Timed entry, Reservation required)

Walk through our exhibition I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer looks at 100 years of Rural California with curator Lisa M. Hamilton. She will give you insight into how she chose the historic images for the show from the extensive collections of the California Historical Society and share some of the stories behind her own photographs.

Over the past two years, writer and photographer Lisa M. Hamilton has been telling the stories of these rural communities in her multimedia work Real Rural. For this exhibition she has delved into the collections of the California Historical Society to connect these present-day stories with the past. Featuring roughly 150 photographs, I See Beauty in This Life is a combination of large-scale color prints by Hamilton and her selections from California Historical Society's vast photography collections—material dating from the 1880s through the mid-twentieth century, much of which has never been exhibited before. Led through CHS's vast collection of historic photographs by the Director of Library & Archives Mary Morganti, Hamilton has selected images that are not predictable views of pastoral windmills or heroic mule teams, but rather images that reflect her own keen interest in revealing the unexpected. Her approach to the Historical Society's collections is different from that of an historian in that her first priority was to choose images that are outstanding for aesthetic reasons. Taken by amateur and mostly unknown photographers, the photographs are remarkable for their beauty and unusual perspective. These press prints, snapshots, and publicity stills are also intimate records of struggle, celebration, community, and the endless work required to wrest a livelihood from the land. Together, they tell a complex—and sometimes humorous—story of the many different individual lives and landscapes comprising the vast mosaic that is the Golden State.

California Wool Growers Association finding aid

Cheryl Ann Holt, Miss Wool California, ca. 1968. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.002.tif.

The California Historical Society is pleased to announce the completion of the processing of the California Wool Growers Association photography collection and the publication of its finding aid on the Online Archive of California.  The sheep industry has long been an integral part of California’s rich agricultural history and the photographs in this collection demonstrate the California Wool Growers Association’s (CWGA) active role in the industry as advocates for sheep ranchers, proud sponsors of agricultural events such as livestock shows and symposiums, and promoters of wool and lamb products. 

The collection, dating from the early 1900s to the mid-1980s, contains photographs, negatives, slides, contact sheets, banquet camera photographs, transparencies, ephemera, correspondence, promotional materials, press releases, and newsletters collected by the CWGA for use in publication or possible publication in the association's journal California Livestock News.

The collection was processed in conjunction with the California Historical Society’s upcoming exhibit I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California.  Featuring roughly 150 photographs, I See Beauty in This Life brings together writer and photographer Lisa M. Hamilton’s large-scale color prints and her selections from California Historical Society’s vast photography collections, including many images culled from the California Wool Growers Association photography collection.

I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California will run from October 28, 2012 until March 24, 2013 in the California Historical Society galleries.  The finding aid for the California Wool Growers Association photography collection can be accessed through the Online Archive of California (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/) or you may search the California Historical Society’s online catalog (http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/).

African-American man sweeping wool, undated. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.015.tif.

  

Slim Pickens, guest auctioneer at Red Bluff bull sale, 1960. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.015.tif.

Les Bruhn, Bodega Bay, with “Queen”, won 2^nd place, 26^th annual Fox Western International Sheep Dog Trials at California Ram Sale, Sacramento, 1964. California Wool Growers Association photograph collection (PC 014), PC 014.002.tif.

--- Jaime Henderson, Project Archivist

The 1930s Scrapbook: Vintage Photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge

Saturday, August 18, 2012, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. 
(timed entry, reservation required)


Join us for a very special afternoon examining vintage scrapbooks and photograph albums chronicling the building of the Golden Gate Bridge.  In connection with our ongoing exhibition A Wild Flight of the Imagination: the Story of the Golden Gate Bridge, this event allows visitors to view the pages of albums featured in the exhibition and to view additional, rarely-seen material from the archives of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, San Francisco Public Library, and California Historical Society.  These intimate photographs provide firsthand accounts of the bridge under construction, many taken by the people who built it.  Historians and archivists from the participating institutions will be on hand to discuss the collections. Vintage photography enthusiasts and those fascinated by the bridge will enjoy this opportunity for up-close viewing.  Due to the delicate nature of the material, this event will have timed entry and requires a reservation.


Please register at scrapbook1930s.eventbrite.com for your selected viewing time.

Third Thursdays in Yerba Buena

Third Thursdays in Yerba Buena

Yerba Buena Third Thursdays is a monthly night out in a unique downtown San Francisco neighborhood that’s rich with arts and culture. Come join us! 

This event, which occurs throughout the year on the third Thursday of each month, involves galleries and museums extending their hours throughout the neighborhood to create a lively atmosphere of arts and interaction, then converges at one location—a different one each month—where the YBCBD will host a series of low-cost ticketed guest lectures, performances, and screenings.

The California Historical Society offers extended hours to 7:00 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month and presents guided tours of A Wild Flight of the Imagination: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge exhibition every half hour from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/HUpjN5.

Golden Gate Bridge: History and Design of an Icon

Golden Gate Bridge: History and Design of an Icon

Thursday, June 14, 2012, 6pm

Book Talk and Signing with author Donald MacDonald

Free event, please RSVP at http://dmdggb.eventbrite.com/ to ensure that you will have a seat.

Continuing our celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, Donald MacDonald will speak at the California Historical Society. Donald McDonald is the only bridge architect to have worked on the Golden Gate Bridge since Irving Morrow - the bridge's original architect. In addition to the Golden Gate Bridge, Donald MacDonald's design work is also evident in such Bay Area landmarks as the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.  Join us this evening as Mr. MacDonald discusses the Golden Gate Bridge’s design history and looks at how the bridge is ever being tweaked, from seismic upgrades to current proposals for suicide prevention measures. This is a fascinating program for those interested in the story of the Golden Gate Bridge, architecture, design, or anyone with a soft spot for the Golden Gate.

Spanning Space and Time: The Golden Gate Bridge and the Transformation of the Bay Area

Thursday, May 31, 2012, 6:00pm

$8 admission for California Historical Society, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, or National Trust members

$12 admission for the general public

San Francisco Architectural Heritage, in partnership with the California Historical Society and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Western Office, will hold a symposium to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. Panelists Gray Brechin, Catherine Powell, and Dick Walker will explore themes such as art, commerce, labor, and demographics that are typically overlooked in standard accounts of the Golden Gate Bridge, which have traditionally focused on the bridge’s importance as an engineering feat (one of the modern “Wonders of the World”). The symposium will be moderated by John King, urban design critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. A Q&A will follow the program and light refreshments and wine will be served. Click here to but tickets for Spanning Space and Time.

About the panelists:

Gray Brechin
Dr. Gray Brechin became an environmentalist when he first read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring on its publication in 1962. Prior to receiving his Ph.D. from the UC Berkeley Department of Geography in 1998, he covered environmental and urban issues as a columnist and television producer in San Francisco. His published dissertation, Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin, spent 16 weeks on the San Francisco Chronicle’s best-seller list and is considered a classic of urban studies. He is the founder of the Living New Deal project and a Visiting Scholar at the UCB Department of Geography where the Living New Deal is based.

John King
John King is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Urban Design Critic, a post he created in 2001, and the author of “Cityscapes: San Francisco and Its Buildings,” published in May 2011 by Heyday. His work also has appeared in Dwell, Metropolis, and The American Scholar. He is an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and recipient of awards from the California Preservation Foundation and the state chapters of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects.

Catherine Powell
Catherine Powell is the Director of the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University.  She currently serves on the executive board of the California Faculty Association and is a delegate the San Francisco Labor Council and chair of its Law and Legislative Committee. She is also coordinator of the Bay Area Labor History Workshop and a board member of the Fund for Labor Culture and History. Catherine is co-editor of The San Francisco Labor Landmarks Guide Book: A Register of Sites and Walking Tours.

Richard Walker
Richard Walker is professor of geography at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught for 35 years. Walker has written on a diverse range of topics in economic, urban, and environmental geography, with scores of published articles to his credit. He is co-author of The Capitalist Imperative (1989) and The New Social Economy(1992) and has written extensively on California, including The Conquest of Bread(2004) and The Country in the City (2007).   He is also PI of the Living New Deal Project to inventory all New Deal public works sites in the United States.

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

As hundreds of thousands of admirers of the Golden Gate Bridge begin to converge on the San Francisco Bay area to celebrate the 75^th Anniversary of the world-renowned icon, the California Historical Society has released its first multi-media eBook for iPads that captures the rich history and amazing story of the Bridge through a selection of rarely seen artwork, photographs, video, memorabilia, stories, images and much more.

The free iPad eBook, A Wild Flight of the Imagination: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge, can be downloaded through the California Historical Society’s new, dynamic and image-rich website at www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.  The app is also available on Apple's iTunes App Store as a free download under the name “GG Bridge.” 

Published by the California Historical Society and produced by Sol Editions and Wild Blue Studios, the eBook was funded through a grant provided by United Healthcare.

“The story of the Golden Gate Bridge is a remarkable one, captivating millions of people around the world with its themes of promise, innovation, perseverance, and artistic inspiration,” said Dr. Anthea Hartig, Executive Director of the California Historical Society. “This eBook will help share that story and bring the amazing history of this California icon to life in an interactive way.”

The eBook’s title is drawn from the exhibition of the same name currently on view at the California Historical Society galleries. The phrase is borrowed from a 1921 promotional prospectus for the Golden Gate Bridge in which the authors, chief engineer for the bridge Joseph Strauss and San Francisco city engineer M.M. O’Shaughnessy, used inspirational language to set a tone for the enormously ambitious engineering feat.

The interactive multimedia app extends the reach of the California Historical Society’s exhibition and makes over 350 historic objects, including dozens of photographs, letters, journals, reports and other ephemera from its own holdings and 19 other collections available to readers of all ages.

Highlights include photographs by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, paintings by Maynard Dixon, Ray Strong, and Chesley Bonestell, and architectural drawings by Irving F. Morrow and John Eberson, the two architects who worked on the bridge design. Audio highlights include the heroic and poignant voices of men who built the bridge and an opening music selection from composer Rob Kapilow’s “Chrysopylae,” A Golden Gate Opus, written with contributions from sound designer Fred Newman.

Readers of all ages can also watch a short film of Chief Engineer Strauss speaking to a reporter on the bridge during construction, examine the family scrapbook of Fred Dummatzen, one of the workers who tragically lost his life when a scaffold collapsed, and even view some of the proposed bridge color schemes that were ultimately rejected.

“This exciting new format allows us to bring the richness of our historic collections to a much larger audience, including teachers and students, and will allow many more people around the world to share in the Golden Gate’s 75^th Anniversary, even if they cannot be here in person,” Hartig said.

The Golden Gate Bridge: Icon, Metaphor, Inspiration

Friday, May 25, 2012 from 6:00 PM

The Golden Gate Bridge: Icon, Metaphor, Inspiration


Free Event at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, but RSVP required at http://johnkingggb.eventbrite.com/

Kick off Memorial Day weekend by joining us at the galleries of the California Historical Society for an evening with John King, urban architecture critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. As part of continuing programming around the exhibition on display in the California Historical Society galleries through October 14 and the upcoming anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, King will offer his musings on the majestic bridge. "We take the Golden Gate Bridge for granted, but what if it had never been built? Look past the marvelous architecture, wondrous engineering, and geographic splendor of the bridge, and another facet emerges. The Golden Gate Bridge is a cultural touchstone that allows us to contemplate how the risks taken by one generation reshaped the Bay Area in enduring ways." Although this event is free to the public, please RSVP to ensure that you will have a seat. 

A Wild Flight of the Imagination Family Afternoon

Saturday, April 14, 2012, 2 p.m.

A Wild Flight of the Imagination Family Afternoon

Co-sponsored by Museum of Craft and Folk Art

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

Bring the kids and come for a special curator-led tour of the exhibition.  We will learn about the Golden Gate before the Bridge, how a bridge is built, and what materials are used.  Children and adults will be invited to handle iron worker tools and Bridge artifacts. Families will also have the opportunity to work on a Golden Gate inspired craft project together.  RSVP to http://wildflightfamily.eventbrite.com/ 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.

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.

Real Rural Launch Party

Tuesday, January 31, 2012  5:00 – 7:00pm


Real Rural Launch Party

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

The Bill Lane Center for the American West and Roots of Change are proud to announce the launch of journalist and photographer Lisa Hamilton's innovative multimedia project "Real Rural" — bringing California's rural life to the state's urban public. Hamilton's portraits of people and places, along with surprising, provocative quotes from the subjects, will be featured on BART trains throughout the Bay Area beginning in late January, and on an interactive web site.  The California Historical Society will mount a related exhibition this fall of Hamilton's photographs shown in conjunction with relevant materials from the California Historical Society's vast collection.  Join us to see a preview of the project and meet Lisa Hamilton. RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

Working Landscapes, Working Waterscapes: Appropriate Uses on Public Lands

Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 6:00 p.m.

Discussion with beverages and hors d’oeuvres served.

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

The panel will reflect on the Drake's Bay story and controversy over the Oyster Farm’s continuation, but more importantly use it as a way to think about a larger question: how can we build a consensus, a movement even -- across sectors -- that could change the ways we think about and manage cultural and working landscapes within parks, natural areas, and wildernesses? Is there a fundamental shift in the ways we think about nature, people, ecology, and environmental history coming and how do we conceptualize it and solidify it to become better stewards of our public lands?  The panel will be moderated by award-winning journalist Jon Christensen, currently the Executive Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University with panelists Richard Walker, author of The Country in the City: The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area, and Kelly Cash, Environmental Consultant; along with invited representatives of the National Park Service. RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

Story of an Oyster

Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.


Oyster farming discussion


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


Ever wonder what it takes for an oyster to make it to your plate? Join us for an evening with Nancy and Kevin Lunny, owners of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company. They will share the many facets of oyster farming in Drakes Estero, including its history, culture and ecology, research and education at the farm, and the ABCs of how an oyster is grown. For the story of the oyster after it leaves the farm, Christian Caiazzo, chef and owner of Osteria Stellina in Point Reyes Station, will share his perspective as a chef and commitment to using local and organic ingredients at his restaurant.  RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

Oyster Farm exhibition extended through January 31, 2012

The California Historical Society hosts the exhibit Oyster Farm: Photographs of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company, featuring the documentary photography of artist Evvy Eisen. Discussing Oyster Farm, Evvy Eisen explains, “I set out to photograph the workers at the Drakes Bay Oyster Company because they are part of our community, though few of us have ever seen them or understand what they do. They stood before my camera, with dignity and patience. Their portraits communicate information specific to these individuals, but also illuminate essential aspects of the universal human condition.” Eisen’s photographs are accompanied by pieces of ephemera and other materials from the rich collections of the California Historical Society. 


The California Historical Society's gallery is open from 12pm to 5pm, Wednesdays through Saturdays. The gallery will be closed on December 24th and December 31st.  

Oyster Farm Opening Reception

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

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

Join artist Evvy Eisen at the California Historical Society for a reception celebrating the new exhibit, Oyster Farm: Photographs of the Drakes Bay Oyster Company. Drink and hors d'oeuvres will be served.  Oyster Farm features the documentary photography of artist Evvy Eisen. Evvy Eisen’s photographs are accompanied by pieces of ephemera and other materials from the rich collections of the California Historical Society. The exhibit will be on view through January 19. Please join us for the opening reception with artist Evvy Eisen on November 16.  RSVP to 415.357.1848, ext. 229 or rsvp@calhist.org.

Century of Landscapes Closing Reception & Yerba Buena Gallery Walk

Tomales is Golden. J. Le Grue

Century of Landscapes Closing Reception & Yerba Buena Gallery Walk

Saturday, October 15, 2011, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

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

Meet artists and enjoy the closing reception for A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club. You may also take a walk around our gallery's Yerba Buena neighborhood and visit the many participating galleries during the Fall Yerba Buena Gallery Walk. The Gallery Walk will feature free admission and refreshments, along with ample opportunities to experience art. The participating galleries offer a diverse look at contemporary, emerging, and established artists working in a variety of mediums.

A Century of Landscapes

A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club

At the dawn of the twentieth century, California became home to a legion of artists who came to paint the state’s awe-inspiring natural landscapes “en plein air,” an Impressionistic style in which painters worked outdoors in order to capture the ephemeral moment of natural lighting across a landscape. The California Art Club was established in 1909, by artists, patrons, and visionaries for the sole purpose of capturing the beauty of California’s landscapes in their paintings. The California Art Club is recognized as one of the oldest, largest and most active leading professional art organizations in the world. A unique aspect of the organization is that it includes among its members nationally renowned artists, art students, hobbyists, art scholars and art enthusiasts, in order to interject different perspectives into the dialogue about traditional art.

The California Art Club is marking its historic 100th anniversary by paying tribute to a century of landscape paintings with a series of art exhibitions to be held at museums and historic sites throughout California, including the California Historical Society’s San Francisco gallery.The California Art Club’s centennial exhibition, A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club is on view July 14 through October 15,  2011. Join us for the opening reception on July 14 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

The California Historical Society is the only Bay Area venue for this exhibition celebrating the one hundred year legacy of the California Art Club. The juried exhibition of works from current members will be supplemented by pieces of art and other materials from the rich collections of the California Historical Society.

Among the artworks made by California Art Club members and held in the California Historical Society’s Collection is Norman Stiles Chamberlain’s 1923 painting San Juan Capistrano, which is one of the most famous missions of California. George Demont Otis’ view of Chinese Shrimp Camp, Hunter’s Point, ca. 1920s documents early shoreline industry and a way of life and serves as counterpoint to the vibrancy of Esther Anna Hunt’s ChineseTemple Scene, San Francisco, 1915.

The California Historical Society collection also holds multiple works by one of the California Art Club’s earliest members, Charles Albert Rogers. The painting, Fernside, Alameda, California, was painted in 1905 and shows a rural landscape before the influx of 1906 earthquake survivors from across the Bay. Beyond the shadows to the right is a sliver of the Oakland estuary, and further in the distance behind the trees are the Oakland Hills. In stark contrast, his paintings, San Francisco―City Hall, 1906, shows the aftermath of the devastation and After the Fire, 1906, a finished study of steps and concrete walls at the base of a destroyed Nob Hill house.

View these and other fascinating works in A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club on view at the California Historical Society through October 15, 2011. For more information about this exhibition visit www.californiahistoricalsociety.org. For more information about statewide California Art Club centennial exhibition sites, visit www.californiaartclub.org.

Images above:

George Demont Otis (American, 1879-1962), Chinese Shrimp Camp, Hunter’s Point, ca. 1920s, Oil on canvas, gift of Kathleen Tamony; Estate of Peter Tamony, California Historical Society, 87-3-1

Charles Albert Rogers (American 1848-1918), After the Fire, 1906, Oil on canvas, Gift of Genelle Relfe, California Historical Society, 94-3-5

Norman Stiles Chamberlain (American, 1887-1961), San Juan Capistrano, 1923, Oil on canvas, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Earl Bubar, California Historical Society, 83-9-1

Charles Albert Rogers (American 1848-1918), Fernside, Alameda, California, 1905, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Desky, California Historical Society, 81-19-1

Friday and Saturday - Last Chance to View Think California

Think California

What comes to mind when you think of California? Beaches, the Gold Rush, freeways and road trips, cultural diversity, agricultural abundance, earthquakes, Hollywood? Indeed, there are many spectacular stories in California’s history. The California Historical Society presents Think California, an exhibition highlighting the colorful history of California through the institution’s remarkable collection of artwork, artifacts, and ephemera. This ambitious exhibition asks the question “What do you think about when you think of California?” Here you see both common and little known facts of the Golden State’s fascinating history, as well as the myths and realities that are the lore of California. 

Think California will  be on view through Saturday, July 2, 2011 from 12:00 - 4:30 pm in the galleries of the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco.

A Century of Landscapes Exhibition Opening Reception

Thursday, July 14, 2011, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club

Exhibition Opening Reception

Free Event @ California Historical Society, 678 Mission St., San Francisco

Join us at the California Historical Society for the opening night celebration of our newest exhibition, A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club. From July 14th through October 15th, the California Historical Society will host the California Art Club’s centennial exhibition. At the dawn of the twentieth century, California became home to a legion of artists who came to paint the state’s awe inspiring natural landscapes “en plein air,” an Impressionistic style in which painters worked outdoors in order to capture the ephemeral moment of natural lighting across a landscape. The California Art Club was established in 1909, by artists, patrons, and visionaries for the sole purpose of capturing the beauty of California’s landscapes in their paintings. The California Historical Society is the only Bay Area venue for this exhibition celebrating the one hundred year legacy of the California Art Club. The juried exhibition of works from current members will be supplemented by pieces of art and other materials from the rich collections of the California Historical Society. We hope you can join us for the opening night reception. Please RSVP to kjacobson@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.