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At a glance

Location

de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118

Price

First Tuesday of the month: Free (special exhibition fees still apply)
FAMSF members: Free
Audio tour: $7 ($6 FAMSF members)

Hours

Tuesdays – Sundays,
9:30am – 5:15pm
Closed Mondays and select holidays.

Contact info

415.750.3600
contact@famsf.org
deyoung.famsf.org
deyoung.famsf.org

Category

Exhibition

Options

  • Good for Groups
  • Good for Kids
  • Near MUNI
  • Parking Available
  • Indoors
  • No RSVP Needed

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Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

de Young Museum
Jul 25, 2015 to Feb 14, 2016

A fascinating though largely forgotten figure in the Bay Area’s rich photographic history, Willard Worden (American, 1868–1946) took up photography while serving in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars and later opened his first gallery near the Presidio in Cow Hollow. Within a few years, his stock list contained hundreds of views of his newly adopted city and its environs as well as sites as far away as Yosemite National Park.

This exhibition presents a survey of Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. A recurring subject for the photographer was the surviving entryway to a Nob Hill mansion destroyed in the earthquake of 1906 and relocated to Golden Gate Park in 1909. Called the Portals of the Past, the ruin served as both a monument to the city’s recent tragedy and a symbol of its perseverance.

Worden was at the height of his career at the time of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), the 1915 world’s fair held in San Francisco. As one of the exposition’s official photographers, he captured its spectacular architectural and sculptural creations by day and night. Art from the PPIE, including approximately 250 works by major American and European artists, is the focus of the exhibition at the de Young, Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, opening October 17, 2015.

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Joseph Raphael, Spring Winds, ca. 1914. Oil on canvas. FAMSF, museum purchase, Skae Fund Legacy, 41765

Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition

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Jewel City revisits the vital moment in the inauguration of San Francisco as the West Coast’s cultural epicenter. The landmark exhibition at the de Young reassembles a representative cross-section from the original display, including approximately 250 works by major American and European artists.
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Pacific Worlds

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City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

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After the fair closed, this ephemeral “city within a city” was all but erased from the landscape. The only building saved from demolition—and still standing in its original location—was the Palace of Fine Arts. Repaired in the 1930s, reconstructed in the 1960s, and recently restored, this beloved city landmark is one of architect Bernard Maybeck’s San Francisco masterworks.
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San Francisco’s Jewel City: An Illustrated Talk & Book Signing with Laura Ackley

Sep 28, 05:00PM – 07:00PM
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