I See Beauty In This Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California

(Left) Lisa M. Hamilton, Jesús, Junior Livestock Show, Alturas, Modoc County, 2011
Courtesy Lisa M. Hamilton
(Right) Charles C. Pierce, Young Chemehuevi Indian Man Holding a Coyote, c. 1900
Courtesy California Historical Society

"I always wanted people to understand what was going on in the rural routes. And that there certainly should be some regard for the people there. Because I see beauty in this life, I don’t think it is lonesome. And I don’t think it is dumb." 

- Modoc County rancher and poet, Linda Hussa, 2011

How do we make history relevant? One way is by engaging in a dialogue with the past. Curating California, a California Historical Society initiative, invites artists and scholars to collaborate with our extensive collections and curate some aspect of the Golden State’s history.

Since 2012, CHS’s inaugural Curating California exhibition I See Beauty in This Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California has been traveling the state, bringing a dialogue about rural California and its impact on California to exhibition venues in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Riverside, and now Merced (opening August 9th at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center). In curating the show, Lisa M. Hamilton, a writer and photographer, has drawn from her multimedia project, Real Rural—a photographic investigation of the state’s rural areas — and historic photographs from the CHS photographs collection. 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.

Photographer unknown, California License Plate, c. 1960
Courtesy California Historical Society, California Wool Growers Association Photograph Collection

The following image groupings reflect not how the photographs appear in the exhibition but rather this author’s own interpretation of the show’s visual dialogue between past and present. 

Joe Rosenthal, Jack Roddy Bulldogging, c. 1969 

Courtesy California Historical Society

Lisa M. Hamilton, Ashley, Riata Ranch Cowboy Girl, Tulare County. 2011 

Courtesy of the artist

 

 

Lisa M. Hamilton, Bella, Citrus Fair. Cloverdale, Sonoma County, 2011

Courtesy of the artist

Photographer unknown, Renee Cotta, Kings District Fair, Received a Red, 1966 

California Historical Society 

Lisa M. Hamilton, Michael Preston. Winnemem Wintu Tribal Land, Shasta County, 2011 

Courtesy of the artist 

Charles C. Pierce, Paiute Indian Acorn Cache or Granary in Yosemite Valley, c. 1901

California Historical Society Collections at the University of Southern California 

Lisa M. Hamilton, Dennis Leonardi. Ferndale, Humboldt County, 2011 

Courtesy of the artist 

Photographer unknown, Les Bruhn, Bodega Bay, with "Queen," won 2nd place, 26th annual Fox Western International Sheep Dog Trials at California Ram Sale, Sacramento, 1964 

Courtesy California Historical Society

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Visit the Exhibition

Curated by Lisa M. Hamilton

August 9, 2016 – October 1, 2016
Merced Multicultural Arts Center
645 W. Main Street, Merced, CA 95340

Opening reception: August 12, 2016

The California Historical Society and the California 4-H Foundation thank the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation for its support in bringing this exhibition to the Merced Multicultural Arts Center. This exhibition was originally mounted at the California Historical Society in 2012 and is made possible by the following CHS sponsors: Stephen and Barbara Hearst; Sherwin-Williams; California Department of Food and Agriculture; California Rangeland Trust; Bill Lane Center for the American West; and Julie and Craig McNamara.

The Sound of Rural California

This event takes place on Thursday, February 28, 2013, 6:00pm 

Reservations are required

Free event at the California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco 

What does rural California sound like?  What makes up the days, and what's on the minds, of people who live in the state's small towns? And how can reporters convey that accurately and evocatively to an urban audience? To complement the California Historical Society exhibition I See Beauty in This Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California, five public radio reporters will share audio from across the state and discuss the joys and challenges of  reporting in rural California. A panel discussion will be moderated by I See Beauty curator and writer/photographer Lisa M. Hamilton.

Lisa Morehouse is an independent public radio producer.  Stories from her project After The Gold Rush: The Future of Small Town California air on KQED's The California Report and NPR's Latino USA. Julie Caine is an independent journalist whose work is regularly heard on KALW, where she is currently the lead producer onAudiograph, a project documenting sound-rich stories from the nine Bay Area counties. Michael Montgomery is a producer-reporter with the Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting and a regular contributor to KQED and American RadioWorks. Molly Samuel is a multimedia producer at KQED, where she reports on science and environment. Dan Brekke is a reporter and editor with

Please RSVP at ruralsounds.eventbrite.com and we look forward to seeing you! 

Squeezebox Stories: Rural music, immigration, & the accordion

This event takes place on Thursday, January 24, 2013, 6:00pm

Reservations are required

Free event at the California Historical Society

678 Mission Street

San Francisco

Squeezebox Stories: Rural music, immigration, and the accordion in California's Central Valley

When Carlos Mendoza immigrated to California from Oaxaca in the 1980s to work in the fields outside Madera, he brought his beloved Chilena music along with him. Now a full-time musician, Mendoza will play some of these traditional Oaxacan songs and talk with producers Julie Caine and Marié Abe about the role the accordion has played in carrying culture to a new land.

Squeezebox Stories is an award-winning public radio documentary that uses the rich history of the accordion to tell immigration and migration stories to California.  Produced by radio journalist Julie Caine and Boston University ethnomusicologist Marié Abe, this project is supported by the California Council for the Humanities and the Arhoolie Foundation.

During this event, we'll hear the story of some of rural California's newest residents, and learn how their journey north has given new life to traditional music that embodies cultural pride in a new land. The most recent wave of Mexican immigrants to California are mostly indigenous people from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca–many of whom don’t even speak Spanish as their first language, and who are often discriminated against within mainstream Mexican culture for their indigenous heritage. We hope you can join us for this special event. Light refreshments will be served. 

Please RSVP at squeezeboxchs.eventbrite.com and we'll see you there!

100 Years of Rural California in Print

Saturday, January 12, 2013, Timed entry at 1:30pm, 2:15pm, 3pm, 3:45pm, reservations required

$5 general admission (includes gallery admission), Free for California Historical Society members

Join us for a special afternoon in the library of the California Historical Society where you will have the opportunity to hold history in your hands. Our archivists and librarians will gather an array of printed materials from the Collection – including commercial catalogs for farm implements, tack and saddlery, and seeds and nursery stock, as well as books, pamphlets, periodicals, and printed ephemera from counties, businesses, and organizations throughout the state that document various aspects of life in rural California – and make them available on tables in the library for visitors to look at up close. This event organized in connection with our ongoing exhibition I See Beauty in This Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California, helps to expand upon our understanding, and image, of rural California over the past 100 years. Due to the delicate nature of the material, reservations are required and can be made at ruralcaliforniainprint.eventbrite.com.

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.

An evening with Matt Garcia, author of From the Jaws of Victory

Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 6:00 PM at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco

RSVP at http://jawsofvictory.eventbrite.com/.

 

Join us for an evening with author Matt Garcia. His book, From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement is the most comprehensive history ever written on the meteoric rise and precipitous decline of the United Farm Workers, the most successful farm labor union in United States history. Based on little-known sources and one-of-a-kind oral histories with many veterans of the farm worker movement, this book revises much of what we know about the UFW. Matt Garcia’s gripping account of the expansion of the union’s grape boycott reveals how the boycott, which UFW leader Cesar Chavez initially resisted, became the defining feature of the movement and drove the growers to sign labor contracts in 1970. Garcia vividly relates how, as the union expanded and the boycott spread across the United States, Canada, and Europe, Chavez found it more difficult to organize workers and fend off rival unions. Ultimately, the union was a victim of its own success and Chavez’s growing instability.

From the Jaws of Victory delves deeply into Chavez’s attitudes and beliefs, and how they changed over time. Garcia also presents in-depth studies of other leaders in the UFW, including Gilbert Padilla, Marshall Ganz, Dolores Huerta, and Jerry Cohen. He introduces figures such as the co-coordinator of the boycott, Jerry Brown; the undisputed leader of the international boycott, Elaine Elinson; and Harry Kubo, the Japanese American farmer who led a successful campaign against the UFW in the mid-1970s. Copies of From the Jaws of Victory will be available for purchase at the event. 

I See the Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California - Opening Party

Sunday, October 28, 2012, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

I See the Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California - Opening Party

$5 suggested donation
California Historical Society members are always free

RSVP at iseebeautyopening.eventbrite.com

Join us for the opening celebration of I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California. This exhibition was curated by writer & photographer Lisa M. Hamilton, the first visiting scholar in a new series Curating California. 

About the exhibition:

            In many people’s experience, California consists of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and the highways that connect them. In reality these urban centers make up only a fraction of the whole; according to the 2010 Census, geographically the state of California is more than 94 percent rural. Surprise Valley, Lost Hills, Raisin City, Mecca—these are the communities that make up “the rest” of California.

            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 and 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.

            I See Beauty in this Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California is on view from October 28, 2012 through March 24, 2013. The California Historical Society Gallery is open Tuesday through Sundays from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day.