May 2024 ~ Presentations, Exhibitions and Collections
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month,
A celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States
Tenderloin grocery store owner Lany Wong, 1990. Tenderloin TimesPhotograph Archives
In Memoriam
Photo from "Rev. Warren Debenham," Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. II edited by V. Vale and Andrea Juno (San Francisco, 1993-1994)
Warren Debenham, our friend and one of the great collectors of comedy recordings, left us to pursue heavenly collecting on April 16, 2024. We knew him for his vast knowledge, his dry humor, his kindness, and his fabulous collection of comedy recordings (LPS, 45s, 78s, CDs, audiocassettes, and 8-tracks). Read more about Warren Debenham's comedy collection in Incredibly Strange Music, volume II. His important gift of the Debenham Comedy Recording Collection is now at Emerson College, Boston. We are also saddened to learn that his wife Sally departed on April 11th. We miss them both and will remember them always.
Do you have precious family photos and documents stored in your closet, basement, or even on your phone? What about family scrapbooks, albums, or bibles in the attic? Learn from SFPL conservators and librarians how to keep your collections safe so they can be enjoyed by you and your loved ones in the years to come.
We'll share tips for avoiding and addressing mold outbreaks, handling and storing damaged books, maintaining born-digital collections, and more. We'll have lots of handouts and resources to share, and there will be plenty of time for questions.
This workshop is presented by conservators from the SFPL Preservation Unit and librarians from the SFPL Digi Center in conjunction with Preservation Week 2024.
Join us for a presentation about the history of collecting calligraphy for San Francisco Public Library's Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering. Featuring calligrapher and teacher Judy Detrick and Andrea Grimes, Special Collections Librarian/Program Manager, Book Arts & Special Collections.
This conference will bring together presenters who will offer ways to discover how to tap into billions of records, including U.S. census data, historical newspapers, obituaries, government archives, city directories and captivating photo collections. Learn the art of repairing, preserving and digitizing your family's history book, cherished photos, records and personal letters. Don't miss this opportunity to delve into the past and create a bridge to your
Experience Corky Lee's Asian America at our book launch celebration! This new book features over 200 breathtaking photos celebrating the history and cultural impact the Asian American social justice movement. Join panelists Mae M. Ngai, Fae Myenne Ng and Curtis Chin as they remember Corky Lee's legacy and discuss his impactful work reshaping narratives.
Known throughout his lifetime as the "undisputed, unofficial Asian American photographer laureate," the late photojournalist Corky Lee documented Asian American and Pacific Islander communities for fifty years, breaking the stereotype of Asian Americans as docile, passive, and, above all, foreign to this country. Corky Lee's Asian America is a stunning retrospective of his life's work–a selection of the best photographs from his vast collection, from his start in New York's Chinatown in the 1970s to his coverage of diverse Asian American communities across the country until his untimely passing in 2021.
Collections Corner: The IGLHRC San Francisco Office Records
Anyone researching the fight for international human rights will want to visit the San Francisco History Center to use the newly processed IGLHRC Records. Pronounced eagle-hirk (it's a mouthful!) the acronym stands for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. IGLHRC's mission is advancing human rights for everyone, everywhere -- and to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The bulk of the records contain resource materials organized by country or region and cover the date range 1990-2002.
The sizable collection contains case files, correspondence, reports, publications documenting IGLHRC's efforts towards providing asylum, legal assistance, and awareness of human rights abuses in countries around the world. In 2008 IGLHRC closed their San Francisco office, and the collection is comprised of the archival records from the closed office. In 2015 IGLHRC officially changed their name to OutRight Action International. Explore the archives at the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library or visit on.sfpl.org/sf-history
From the Collection: Posters by David Singer
Poster designed by David Singer. San Francisco History Center.
"David Singer was the last of the great psychedelic poster artists to appear in the 1960s. A relative latecomer, he ended up designing more posters for concert promoter Bill Graham than any other artists, even though he'd never considered doing such a thing before abruptly landing a commission for a dozen of them.
"Although there were many artists producing terrific work (including Graham's future wife, Bonnie MacLean, who also did calligraphy in some of her posters), the SF poster scene came to be dominated by five young men from different parts of the country: Wes Wilson, Alton Kelley, Stanley "Mouse" Miller, Rick Griffin, and Victor Moscoso, soon known as 'The Big Five.' Their illustrative references were eclectic, to say the least, but the lettering's original sources were primarily Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession, early 20th-century sing manuals, and the flavor and mixture of styles of 19th-century wanted-poster typography, but filtered through the vision of energetic artists using the mind-expanding drugs of the day. It quickly evolved into flowing, spidery-serifed, original forms made densely difficult to read by multiple outlines, 3D shades, and rebel exploitation of color theory, its forms taking on the melting and undulation of the psychedelic experience to augment themes surreal, mysterious, irreverent and, again, eclectic to the nth degree. Legibility -- when not treated like opposing counsel presenting a hostile witness -- was low on the list of priorities.
"David's innovation in this wild form of lettering, once he hit his stride, came from the start, unadorned clarity of its presentation while retaining his own version of that psychedelic flow."
The San Francisco History Center holds a large poster collection, which includes the work of San Francisco poster artists of the Sixties. This month we feature David Singer's later posters. Read more about this poster artist’s singular style in "The Sixth Five: The Lettering of David Singer" by Carl Rohrs, Alphabet: The Journal of the Friends of Calligraphy, vol. 49, no. 3
(Spring 2024).
From the Collection: Original Calligraphy by Archbishop Nitten Ishida
Archbishop Nitten Ishida. Fuku ju. Long life, good fortune. Original calligraphic scroll.
Celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month! On display for the month of month, original Japanese calligraphy by Archbishop Nitten Ishida, Sixth floor, Main Library. Archbishop Ishida (1901-1996) established San Francisco's Nichiren Hokke Buddhist Temple in San Francisco's Western Addition in the early 1930s, after moving to the United States from the town of Fukuyama in Japan's Hiroshima prefecture. He carried out his priestly duties in Japantown and extended community for more than sixty years. To foster better relations between the United States and Japan after World War II, he helped form a relief organization to send donations of food and clothing to Japan to aid the impoverished people there. His major work for the Japanese American community arose out of his recognition for housing for the aged, resulting in the development of Nihonmachi Terrace and Hinode Tower, a senior and low-income housing center.
In addition to his religious and community service, Archbishop Ishida founded the Japanese Cultural Institute for the teaching of traditional arts such as calligraphy, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, and shigin (traditional Japanese chanted poetry). He taught calligraphy for many years, including the period of his incarceration at Crystal City and other interment sites during the war. Through his teaching he fostered artistic, personal, and spiritual growth in others; he leaves a legacy of students who have carried on his work.
Archbishop Nitten Ishida's family donated twenty-seven of his original scrolls and framed Japanese calligraphy to the San Francisco Public Library, which are now held in Book Arts & Special Collections. Many of these delicate scrolls will receive archival housing in the Library's Preservation Department. The calligraphic scrolls on display are examples of Archbishop Ishida's graceful rendering of classic Japanese words and phrases. A finding aid to the collection will be available soon.
A Tourist’s Guide to the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor
April 1, 2024 - May 31, 2024
Book Arts & Special Collections Exhibit Space - 6th Floor
Bon Voyage! We're off to bookish adventures far and wide through the pages of the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor. Join us for an armchair trip around the world as we visit unfamiliar and exotic sights; get lost in translation; take guided tours with favorite children’s books; and of course, visit our favorite destination -- San Francisco!
Ralph Chessé was born in 1900, the literal beginning of the 20th century, in New Orleans. He died at 91, just shy of a full hundred, and the turn of the millennium. The bulk of his life was spent in the San Francisco Bay Area, and his artistic endeavors -- painting, sculpture and notably, marionette production and performance -- reflected numerous touchstones of the Bay Area's cultural and social life, from WPA, theater, television and rock and roll.
At every turn, his life was fueled by creative endeavors, exploring different styles of art, as well as theatrical pursuits. He has a notable mural in Coit Tower and worked for the rights of artists. His expressive, exquisitely carved puppets enacted everything from Shakespeare's tragedies to the animal kingdom educator Brother Buzz, the main character of a beloved children's show that ran from 1953-1969 on mainstream television and was syndicated nationally. At every turn, Chessé's life and work continue to offer a
wonderful world of surprises.
The Posters of David Singer
San Francisco City Hall Centennial, 2015. San Francisco Poster Collection (SFH 730)
San Francisco
History Center,
Book Arts &
Special Collections 100 Larkin St. San Francisco, CA 94102 415-557-4400sfpl.org/bookarts