Myths about the Transcontinental Railroad and the Building of the American West

Myths about the Transcontinental Railroad and the Building of the American West

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - 6:00 p.m.

The Commonwealth Club of California and the California Historical Society present:

Richard White, Professor of History, Stanford University; Author, Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

In conversation with David Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Emeritus

Event will be held at the Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco office, 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor

Cost: $20 standard, $12 CHS and CCC members, $7 students (with valid ID)

Drawing on extensive knowledge on the American West and 12 years of research on the railroads, Richard White will reveal the social and economic impact the transcontinental railroad has had on shaping the United States into what it is today. With an iconoclastic perspective, White recasts our understanding of the Gilded Age. Hop aboard as White explores 19th-century politics, greed, corruption, money, and corporate arrogance – and the America formed out of them after the Civil War. For questions or to purchase tickets, please call 415.597.6705 or purchase online at the Commonwealth Club website. If you are a member of the California Historical Society, be sure to enter or mention the coupon code: historicalsocietyforwhite.

New California Writing

Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 7:00 p.m.

New California Writing

Book Launch and Reception

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

Join us at the California Historical Society with Heyday publisher Malcolm Margolin, New California Writing editor Gayle Wattawa, and selected inaugural edition contributors for a night of readings, music, food, and celebration of our vibrant literary scene.

Heyday is proud to announce the release of the inaugural edition of a new annual series—New California Writing. This literary anthology collects fresh and thought-provoking writing about California that has been published in the previous year, with a special emphasis on Californian writers, publications, and publishers. Fast-fire readings by Katherine A. Bricetto, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Darla Hillard, Louis B. Jones, Andrew Lam, Joe Loya, Ruth Nolan, Rebeccas K. O'Connor, Jim Powell, Fred Serrerberg, and Tess Taylor. Space is limited. RSVP required by May 20 to kjacobson@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club

Here in our culturally rich South of Market neighborhood, May ushers in a season of Gertrude Stein, thanks to exhibits at two local museums, SFMOMA and the Contemporary Jewish Museum. To complement this abundance of Stein, we honor here Stein’s life partner, Alice B. Toklas – or rather the historic San Francisco Democratic Club named for her.

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Founded in 1971 - very early in the gay rights movement – the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club sought to bridge the gap between statements of political goals and the achievement of those goals. Early members included Mayor (now Senator) Dianne Feinstein, former Mayor Willie Brown and current San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey. The club, now known as the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, still thrives in San Francisco today. Thanks to the astute collecting acumen of CHS staff, and our recent California Ephemera Project, we’re able to share these tidbits of 1980s political life in San Francisco.

As for Alice herself, she outlived Gertrude, (d.1946), by over 20 years, but remains in her shadow yet today. Peer around the back of Gertrude Stein’s Paris headstone and there, in perpetuity, is where you’ll find Alice.

– Alison Moore, Reference Staff

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - New England to Gold Rush California: The Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix, 1849–1854

Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
New England to Gold Rush California: The Journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix, 1849–1854
Book Launch with Lynn A. Bonfield
Free Event @ California Historical Society

On July 29, 1849, after an eight-year courtship, two young schoolteachers were married in a small town in northern Vermont. Their story could easily have been lost to history, except that Alfred and Chastina Rix had the foresight to begin recording their observations in a joint journal. Their unique husband-and-wife account, which captures the turbulence of life and events during the gold rush era, is also a personal—and compelling—chronicle of a singular family’s separation and reunion. Join us at the California Historical Society for the book launch with editor Lynn A. Bonfield. The California Historical Society will display the original journal of Alfred and Chastina W. Rix from the collection, as well as other pieces special to this exciting work.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to 415.357.1848, ext. 229 or mailto:kjacoson@calhist.org

California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

Certificates of Residence

Last year the California Historical Society received a small but special gift: 17 certificates of residence for Chinese laborers, dated between the years 1894 and 1897. The collection was donated to CHS in the name of the late Mr. Frank V. Piraro, who discovered the cache in his cousin’s shed in downtown San Jose.

Now a rich source of historical and genealogical significance, these certificates represented the codification of nineteenth-century sinophobia: under the provisions of the 1892 Geary Act, which amended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, all Chinese and Chinese Americans in the United States were required to apply for, obtain, and carry a government-issued certificate of residence proving their legal presence in the United States. Any person of Chinese ethnicity discovered without such identification risked arrest and deportation. In other words, Chinese Americans were presumed guilty of an immigration offense – based solely on their ethnicity, as perceived by non-Chinese authorities – until proven innocent.

Each certificate includes the laborer’s name, local residence, and occupation; information about his height, eye color, complexion, and physical marks or peculiarities; and a photographic print. Reproduced here is the certificate for Ju Sing, contractor, age 34 years, of San Jose:

One hopes that these certificates will contribute to a greater understanding of the humanity, struggles, and contributions of Mr. Sing and other Chinese American workers in nineteenth-century California.
A complete inventory of the collection can be found on the Online Archive of California: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt858038qp/

– Marie Silva, Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian

Butchers' Union Drum Corps

I came across this wonderful photograph of the Butchers’ Union Drum Corps, circa 1910, in the San Francisco – Labor photograph files while collecting materials to reproduce for the Labor Archives and Research Center’s 25^th Anniversary Celebration on May Day:

The energy working people invested in the production, rather than the consumption, of culture in the Progressive Era continues to surprise and impress this modern worker.

– Marie Silva, Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian

Wednesday, April 27: Member Reception and Parkside Show-and-tell. Free Event

Collection of California Historical Society,
Chadwick & Sykes photograph album of engineering projects

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Parkside Show and Tell
Member Reception 5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Public Discussion 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Free Event @ California Historical Society

The California Historical Society recently acquired a set of photo albums documenting transit coming into the Parkside neighborhood of San Francisco. Join us for a show and tell about Parkside San Francisco. CHS staff members, Mary Morganti, Director of Library & Archives, and Eileen Keremitsis, Reference Staff and award winning historian, will talk about this recent acquisition to the collection. The evening will feature Woody LaBounty, founder of the Western Neighborhoods Project and author of Carville-by-the-Sea, San Francisco’s Streetcar Suburb, sharing some of the unique history of Parkside San Francisco. Space is limited. Please RSVP to 415.357.1848, ext. 229 or kjacobson@calhist.org

California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

Saturday, May 14th Bus Trip - A Tale of Two Cities: Larkspur and Corte Madera

LARKSPUR AND CORTE MADERA BUS TRIP: A TALE OF TWO CITIES IN CENTRAL MARIN COUNTY

Saturday, May 14th, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
$95 Members, $115 Non-Members. (Price includes transportation from CHS, guide, and admissions; lunch is not included). Tour led by Gary Holloway.

The native Miwok people lived along the gentle shores of Corte Madera Bay, in small villages. The Spanish divided the area into large ranchos of several thousand acres each, and began timber cutting and harvesting operations. Rancho Corte Madera was created to provide cut lumber for the mission and presidio of San Francisco. Corte Madera is Spanish for “cut wood.” Larkspur was established by a developer in the late 1800s, and mistakenly named by his wife who mistook the abundant lupine for larkspur. The town still retains much of its century-old heritage architecturally, and we’ll walk the downtown streets, and break for lunch here, at one of the many fine cafes and restaurants. Our walk will include the famous setting of some thirty years ago for the classic saying: “I want it all now,” as well as the site of famous dance and orchestra destination of the 1930s and 1940s, the Rose Bowl. On our Corte Madera portion, we will do some limited walking, and then drive around to see the two shopping centers which dominate the town’s landscape, as well as some diverse residential neighborhoods, many built of landfill over the decades. There are some minor uphill portions in Larkspur, but no stairs.

Space is limited, please RSVP to Kathy Jacobson at kjacobson@calhist.org or  415-357-1848 x 229

California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francsico, CA

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 Legends of California – Benefit Cocktail Reception 6:00 PM

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 
Legends of California – Benefit Cocktail Reception  6:00 PM

Join the California Historical Society
in honoring the 2011 Legends of California

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 • 6:00 PM
The St. Regis San Francisco -125 Third Street, San Francisco, California

Celebrating California’s Legendary Spirit of Innovation The Traitorous Eight – Founders of Silicon Valley

2011 Legends of California Honorees

Julius Blank* Jay Last*
Victor Grinich Gordon Moore*
Jean Hoerni Robert Noyce
Eugene Kleiner Sheldon Roberts**

*Attending
**Represented by son, Dave Roberts

Elegant Reception in Sculpture Room Followed by a Presentation in Gallery. Entertainment: Alex Conde Carrasco, flamenco jazz piano.

In 1957, eight brilliant men on the San Francisco Peninsula left the employment of Nobel Laureate William Shockley to found Fairchild Semiconductor. Over the next three decades, individually and together, they went on to found dozens of other companies, including Intel, Teledyne and Kleiner Perkins, to name a few. Their efforts spawned new industries, invented a global economy, and revolutionized the way that we live and work. In name they were Julius Blank, Gordon Moore, Jay Last, Sheldon Roberts, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, and Robert Noyce. In legend, they became known as The Traitorous Eight.

Join us in honoring these Legends of California and supporting the work of the California Historical Society. First presented to legendary California musician and humanitarian Carlos Santana in 2009, Legends of California honors those people who have envisioned, inspired, and forged the future of California, the nation, and the world. This year, we honor the Traitorous Eight, those singular visionaries who together first birthed and then nurtured the legendary technologies, new industries, dynamic economic engine, and spirited entrepreneurial culture that is now known as Silicon Valley—another California Legend.

Buy Tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets 

For more information or to purchase tickets please contact Angela Carrier 415-357-1848 x 215 

Tuesday April 19th, @ CHS - Eadweard Muybridge: Extensions

Tuesday April 19th, 2011 5:30 p.m. @ CHS - Eadweard Muybridge: Extensions
Free Event

The California Historical Society presents an evening with Eadweard Muybridge: Extensions, an opportunity to view selected photographs by one of the great pioneers of photography. Presented in tandem with neighboring SFMOMA’s current exhibit Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change, in which several photographs from the California Historical Society’s collection are on display, which offer a unique opportunity to experience Muybridge’s photographs. The selected photographs reveal Muybridge’s monumental role in capturing moments of history and the allure of California’s urban and natural landscapes. For this special evening, guests have the opportunity to stroll through the intimate selection and enjoy light refreshments. Noted California historian and bibliographer, Gary Kurutz, will offer comments on Muybridge’s life and work documenting California.

California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco CA