Before there was such a thing as “California,” there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make California. Rather, the lives and legacies of the people native to the land shaped the creation of […]

Oldest San Francisco focuses on the institutions that have helped make San Francisco San Francisco, featuring brief histories of its oldest restaurant (Tadich), oldest bakery (Boudin), oldest scientific institution (the Cal Academy). It speaks of civic fabrics—the oldest extant blue jeans (held in a vault at Levi’s) and first rainbow flag (exhibited at the GLBT Historical […]

Join historians and authors Mike Phipps and Don Holmgren in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the cable cars in San Francisco. Phipps and Holmgren illuminate Hallidie's journey to California, his wire rope use in the gold mines, plans for the Clay St Hill cable car and subsequent involvement in the patents, and Pacific Cable […]