Museum of the City of San Francisco
Encyclopedia
The Museum of the City of San Francisco, operated by the San Francisco Museum & Historical Society currently has exhibits at Pier 45 and San Francisco City Hall
. The Old Mint
is currently undergoing renovations to become the permanent home of the museum
.
The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco is a general multi-media website
featuring "the interesting, the amusing, and the unusual in San Francisco's history." It is separate from the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. The Virtual Museum website features major online exhibits on the California Gold Rush
, the 1906 earthquake and fire, and the Golden Gate Bridge
.
The Museum also supports a collaboration called Found San Francisco or FoundSF, which is a living, growing, web-based archive about the city of San Francisco, California
. The project's history
archive
provides access to the stories and people that make up the grassroots
history of the city. Both the content and the methods of collection fit the notion of grassroots: As a public collaboration, the wiki-style archive's material is neither edited nor filtered by the mainstream
interests which commonly determine what information is to be considered, and passed to future generations as, "true history." The project website refers to this content as the "lost history" of San Francisco and invites additional contributions of stories, photos, video oral histories
and other material. FoundSF can be browsed by decade, neighborhood, population or theme. Themes covered include common historical categories such as Architecture and Early San Francisco, but also include significant material, submitted by hundreds of users over many years on such specialized historical categories as Amusement Parks, Anarchism
, Crime, Dissent, Ecology, Gentrification
, Hippies, Homeless, Labor, Power and Money, Punk
, Racism, Riots, Situationism, Symbionese Liberation Army
, Transit, Underground press, White night riot and Women. Unlike Wikipedia
, FoundSF allows material to be sourced by the contributor's experience alone. FoundSF is a collaboration between Shaping San Francisco, San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, and the project's public users.
San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
. The Old Mint
San Francisco Mint
The San Francisco Mint is a branch of the United States Mint, and was opened in 1854 to serve the gold mines of the California Gold Rush. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved into a new one in 1874. This building, the Old United States Mint, also known affectionately as The Granite Lady,...
is currently undergoing renovations to become the permanent home of the museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
.
The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco is a general multi-media website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
featuring "the interesting, the amusing, and the unusual in San Francisco's history." It is separate from the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. The Virtual Museum website features major online exhibits on the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, the 1906 earthquake and fire, and the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
.
The Museum also supports a collaboration called Found San Francisco or FoundSF, which is a living, growing, web-based archive about the city of San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The project's history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
provides access to the stories and people that make up the grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
history of the city. Both the content and the methods of collection fit the notion of grassroots: As a public collaboration, the wiki-style archive's material is neither edited nor filtered by the mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
interests which commonly determine what information is to be considered, and passed to future generations as, "true history." The project website refers to this content as the "lost history" of San Francisco and invites additional contributions of stories, photos, video oral histories
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
and other material. FoundSF can be browsed by decade, neighborhood, population or theme. Themes covered include common historical categories such as Architecture and Early San Francisco, but also include significant material, submitted by hundreds of users over many years on such specialized historical categories as Amusement Parks, Anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, Crime, Dissent, Ecology, Gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
, Hippies, Homeless, Labor, Power and Money, Punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, Racism, Riots, Situationism, Symbionese Liberation Army
Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...
, Transit, Underground press, White night riot and Women. Unlike Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, FoundSF allows material to be sourced by the contributor's experience alone. FoundSF is a collaboration between Shaping San Francisco, San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, and the project's public users.
External links
- SF Museum & Historical Society
- Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco official website
- Found San Francisco official website