A Wild Flight of the Imagination Curator Walkthrough

Thursday, April 12, 2012, 5:30 p.m. 


A Wild Flight of the Imagination Curator Walkthrough 

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

Walk through our exhibition A Wild Flight of the Imagination: the Story of the Golden Gate Bridge with the curator Jessica Hough.  She will give you insight into the show, welcome you into the Library to see other engaging objects from the CHS collection, and invite you to handle Bridge artifacts. RSVP to http://wildflightcurator.eventbrite.com/.

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.

Helen Hunt – Who do you think you are?

Watch the NBC broadcast of Who do you think you are? this evening to see Helen Hunt’s search for her roots. You get extra points if you catch the connection with the California Historical Society’s collection. (Hint: Scholle Brothers)

Images of the Pacific Rim: Australia and California, 1850-1935

Thursday, March 22, 2012, 6:00 p.m.


Images of the Pacific Rim: Australia and California, 1850-1935


Book event with author Erika Esau 


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


Join us as Erika Esau discusses her recent book, Images of the Pacific Rim: Australia and California, 1850-1935. Australia and California have shared aesthetic ideas through imported popular imagery for nearly two hundred years. From gold rush photography to Spanish-style houses, Images of the Pacific Rim tells the fascinating story of aesthetic exchange between two ‘cultures on the periphery’. The absorption of images into the everyday life of these ‘new’ Western societies, made possible by the development of mechanical processes of production, constructed distinctive cultural iconographies and helped to create a sense of place based upon a shared ocean and climate. Through photography, graphic art, architecture, and the ubiquitous eucalyptus, Erika Esau’s book reveals the source elements of what became a ‘Pacific Rim’ aesthetic. RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

Golden Gate Opus Preview Event with composer Rob Kapilow

Friday, March 23, 2012, 12 p.m.

Discussion and special viewing of select collection items

Co-Sponsored by the Marin Symphony

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

Join us for an afternoon discussion led by composer Rob Kapilow as he discusses his latest work for the Marin Symphony, Golden Gate Opus and talks about the creative process. View select works from the California Historical Society collection that aided in Rob Kapilow’s work as he composed Golden Gate Opus. Composer Rob Kapilow listened to the community’s stories and experiences about the Golden Gate Bridge. Kapilow asked, “What does the Golden Gate Bridge sound like?” He explained that there’s a symphony right there if you only listen to it, referring to the foghorn, the tires on the pavement, the wind and more. He joined forces with local media outlets, schools and non-profits to gather stories and feedback about the Golden Gate Bridge.  

Evening with the Collection: The History of the Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Café

Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 5:30 p.m.


Evening with the Collection: The History of the Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Café


Co-sponsored by the 9th Annual Crossroads Irish-American Festival


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


The California Historical Society will share its Buena Vista Café collection to tell the story of a true Irish American invention, Irish Coffee. The Buena Vista Café collection received by the California Historical Society in 1982 chiefly contains correspondence and clippings, plus a few photographs, documenting the introduction of Irish coffee to San Francisco. Original letters between Jack and Josephine Koeppler, proprietors, the Irish Consul in San Francisco, and various firms and whiskey distributors in Ireland, as well as correspondence from San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Stan Delaplane, begin in February 1954 and continues well into the 1970s with publicity and articles extolling the fame of Buena Vista’s famous Irish coffee. RSVP to rsvp@calhist.org or 415.357.1848, ext. 229.

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.