12th Annual Valentine’s Day Broadside Printing Event
The 12th Annual Valentine’s Day Broadside Printing event was supercharged with over 100 people printing their very own broadside on our 1909 Albion Press. Thanks to our superhero printers (Li and...
View ArticlePICK UP YOUR PEN!
Cursive handwriting makes a return in 2024 to classrooms in California schools, and since the Richard Harrison Collection is all about beautiful writing we thought we would introduce readers to some of...
View ArticleYou Have Our Heart: The Calligraphy of Hunter Saxony III
Hunter Saxony IIIPreliminary design for Blanket III (2022)Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering The Book Arts & Special Collections Center is the happy recipient of original...
View ArticleGuest Blogger: Frightwig , feminism, and the riot grrrl movement of the 1990's
The Cecilia Kuhn Frightwig Collection is completed and available to researchers! A big thanks to Mac, our spring intern, who was a huge help getting this collection processed. Here are Mac's thoughts...
View ArticleGuest Blogger: An Intern's Look at the Early San Francisco Punk Scene through...
We are thrilled to report that processing has begun on the San Francisco Punk Archive! Mac, our Spring intern from Cal State East Bay, has been working with the punk fliers and helping describe the...
View ArticleResearching a San Francisco Building: Online Resources
Want to learn more about your home or apartment building? Do you walk down the street and wonder what businesses were there 100 years ago? Researching a San Francisco building is one of our more...
View ArticleGreatest Hits of 2019: Most Popular Digital Content from the Archives
Last week (and last year already), we shared our most popular archival collections in 2019. We are switching from analog to digital this week. To be on the upside for the highlights of 2019, we ran a...
View ArticlePopularity Contest: Most Requested and Researched Archival Collections in 2019
Librarians and archivists like data. With over 7,000 cartons of archival materials, there's something gratifying about closing out the year with statistics which document our work in providing access...
View ArticleA Holiday Gift from Book Arts & Special Collections
The Book Arts & Special Collections Center is thrilled to present this holiday gift to San Francisco: The Juniper Von Phitzer Miniature Books Library On view through Friday, January 10, 2020 Book...
View ArticleGuest Blogger: An Intern's Behind-the-Scenes Look at Exhibit Curation and...
With the season of school semesters, the San Francisco History Center has interns in the department working on special projects. What's on the 6th Floor? asked Carolyn, San Francisco Historical...
View ArticleSYMPOSIUM Price Reduced: “Memory Lives On: Documenting the HIV/AIDS Epidemic”
Rest Stop, 1989(Jeannie O'Connor AIDS Self-Portraits Collection)The San Francisco History Center and the LGBTQIA Center are pleased to announce an interdisciplinary symposium exploring and reflecting...
View Article"Lady Death" Visits the Bay
Available in print at SFPLand eAudiobook via HooplaIn 1941, Lyudmila Pavlichenko joined the Red Army to defend the Fatherland from invading Nazis. She didn't enlist as a secretary or nurse, rather she...
View ArticleA New Deal for San Francisco: WPA San Francisco Scale Model
Pieces of San Francisco Scale Model, 1938. San Francisco Dept of City Planning Records, San Francisco History Center.San Francisco is returning to San Francisco! A 1:100 wood model of San Francisco was...
View ArticleSeasons Greetings!
If anything puts us in the mood for the holidays, it's Edward Bawden's glorious artwork for Fortnum & Mason, purveyors of tea, biscuits, chocolate, gifts, and hampers full of goodies since 1707. A...
View ArticleIt Came From the (Photo) Morgue: Where Neptune Struck and Failed
April 4, 1928Karl Bersnak, Seaman and mascot aboard storm battered lumber schooner, Nettleton.The Jane Nettleton, a steamer loaded with lumber entered the San Francisco Bay on April 4, 1928. It had...
View ArticleVISUAL POETRY: A LYRICAL TWIST
The Book Arts & Special Collections Center is pleased to present Visual Poetry: a Lyrical Twist, featuring Thomas Ingmire’s unique modern and expressive calligraphy in the creation of collaborative...
View ArticleToday, We Remember….
The SFPL Staff would like to acknowledge the November 22nd passing of Mr. Charley Brown, artist, husband and business partner of Mark Evans. While Evans & Brown are known internationally for their...
View ArticleEradication: Second Outbreak of Bubonic Plague in San Francisco
Eradicating Plague from San FranciscoUntil September 15, the San Francisco History Center is hosting an exhibition documenting the bubonic plague in San Francisco. The exhibit, Quarantine &...
View ArticleGuest Blogger: Amy Lippert -- Look Closer: Reexamining the Visual Primary...
The San Francisco History Center is pleased to present author and historian Amy Lippert speaking about her new book, Consuming Identities: Visual Culture in 19th Century San Francisco, on Thursday,...
View ArticleHysterical? Yes. Comic? Yes. Funny? No.
The Works: Drugs, Sex & AIDS(Randy Shilts Papers (GLC 43), Box 129Folder: IV (intravenous) Drug Abuse)The San Francisco History Center is presenting the exhibition Quarantine and Eradication:...
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