Panama-Pacific International Exposition
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The Grandeur of a Great Labor: The Building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

With highlights from the rich collections of The Bancroft Library, the exhibition examines the building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

OCT 21, 2015 TO FEB 26, 2016 • The Bancroft Library

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Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

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.

JUL 25, 2015 TO FEB 14, 2016 • de Young Museum

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Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

The Conservatory of Flowers’ newest garden railway exhibition celebrating the Centennial of San Francisco’s historic world’s fair!

NOV 12, 2015 TO APR 10, 2016 • San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

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Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture.

APR 02, 2015 TO APR 02, 2016 • Chinese Historical Society of America Museum

Learn More
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December 2014

  • Dec
    04
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Book Launch Event: San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915

    This "Whirlwind Tour of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition" will take the audience on an amazing tour of the Fair from its original concept in 1904 through its development and all the way to its gala opening in February 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    08
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • San Francisco's Jewel City
  • Jewel City: Marin Launch Party

    This "Whirlwind Tour of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition" will take the audience on an amazing tour of the Fair from its original concept in 1904 through its development and all the way to its gala opening in February 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND

January 2015

  • Jan
    22
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Panorama: Tales From San Francisco’s 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition

    Author Lee Bruno will present his new book "Panorama", a collection of essays on the Exposition's key players, celebrities, and guests. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jan
    26
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Sherry Hour with Laura Ackley: Discussions on the PPIE

    An illustrated talk by Laura Ackley, author of Jewel City and historian of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Hear fascinating tales of the fair with amazing photos. Learn More >
    Lecture • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jan
    28
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • A Whirlwind Tour of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    This “Whirlwind Tour of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition” will take the audience on an amazing tour of the Fair from its original concept in 1904 through its development and all the way to its gala opening in February 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND

February 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Mar
    31
  • Reuben Hale Family Collection Exhibit

    Mechanics’ Institute will present the family heirlooms of one of the members of the PPIE executive committee, Reuben B. Hale. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    01
    to
    Mar
    26
  • The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915

    The Oakland History Room will celebrate the centennial of this major cultural event with an exhibit, showcasing original programs, souvenir books, photographs, maps, and other ephemera. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    10
    06:30PM – 09:00PM
  • San Francisco’s Swedish Immigrants host the fair at their Pavilion

    Sweden’s Pavilion was first recommended by San Francisco’s Swedish immigrants, who took pride in their homeland, despite their Swedish emigration (1851-1930). Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    10
    07:30PM – 09:00PM
  • Illuminating the Jewel City: Spectacular Lighting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    This lecture will take us on a nighttime tour of San Francisco’s beautiful 1915 World’s Fair. We will explore how Illuminating Engineer Walter D’Arcy Ryan implemented groundbreaking lighting effects like The Great Scintillator and The Electric Kaleidoscope in the face of tremendous skepticism. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    12
    to
    Feb
    26
  • Swedish Films by Ruben Östlund

    In 1915 the Swedish Pavilion at PPIE presented a series of Swedish films to demonstrate their acumen in this new technology. In the century since, Sweden has become legendary for its films. Today we continue that tradition, with another film in that grand tradition by contemporary Swedish film director Ruben Östlund. Learn More >
    Film • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    12
    07:00PM – 08:30PM
  • Author Lee Bruno discusses Panorama: Tales From San Francisco’s 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition

    Author Lee Bruno presents an illustrated lecture on his book Panorama: Tales From San Francisco's 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    13
    to
    Apr
    18
  • Saratoga and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition—100 Year Centennial

    The exhibit will cover the PPIE exhibit and include information on Saratogans participating. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    14
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Celebrating Letterpress, Valentines, & the PPIE

    You are invited to experience letterpress printing on the library’s 1909 Albion handpress and take home a unique keepsake for your sweetheart. Our co-sponsors, the American Printing History Association’s NorCal Chapter, will provide the printing expertise. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • World’s Fair on Film: San Francisco 1915

    Less than a decade after the devastating earthquake and fire of 1906, San Francisco hosted the spectacular Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), signaling the city’s rebirth and setting the standard for World’s Fairs and theme parks to follow. Learn More >
    Film • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    20
    12:00PM – 02:00PM
  • 37th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Opening Event

    Celebrate the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition with the launch of the Rotunda Dance Series on the anniversary of the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    20
    12:30PM – 01:30PM
  • Write a Letter from the Panama-Pacific Exposition!

    Kids and teens are invited to learn about the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, and hand-write a real, old-fashioned letter, decorate it, put a commemorative postmark on it, and mail it!
    Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    20
    09:00PM – 10:00PM
  • Palace After Dark – Friday

    Stroll the Palace grounds– experience what it was like to be at the Exposition and enjoy a film and light installation by Optic Flare in the Palace of Fine Arts Theater lobby. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Feb
    24
  • Chinese Pavilion of Fine Arts

    China was one of the active countries in the 1915 PPIE. To celebrate the PPIE100, the China Culture Art Global Propagation Committee has prepared a Chinese Pavilion of fine arts and cultural products in the San Francisco International Gift Fair at the Moscone Center from February 21 to 24, 2015. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    12:00PM – 05:00PM
  • The Exploratorium at Community Day

    Film, lectures and other activities by the Exploratorium. Learn More >
    Lecture, Film, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    12:00PM – 05:00PM
  • Community Day at the Palace of Fine Arts

    This day-long community event will honor the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and will kick-off a year of Centennial events. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Performance, Lecture, Film, Concert, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    03:00PM – 04:30PM
  • Uke-A-Thon!

    Come celebrate the historic launch of the ukulele’s popularity in the United States. Uke-a-thon is part of the opening festivities for the Centennial Celebration of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Join in and play where the ‘Uke’ craze began. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    23
    06:30PM – 09:00PM
  • The Panama-Pacific International Exposition: Its 100 Year Impact

    This year marks the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a world’s fair that historians say symbolized San Francisco’s transformation from a city devastated by earthquake and fire to an economic powerhouse poised to lead a social and cultural revolution. Learn More >
    Lecture, Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    25
    07:30PM – 09:30PM
  • Promises of Progress: PPIE

    Shaping San Francisco presents: On the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), Gray Brechin and others discuss the relationship of world’s fairs to the idea of progress over time. How did the presentations at PPIE in their early 20th century context boost now long-held assumptions about progress and development through technological innovation and economic growth? Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    12:00PM – 05:00PM
  • Double Centennial Celebration: 100th Birthday of M & H Type and 100th Anniversary of the PPIE

    Join us to celebrate a century of continued operation by the nation’s oldest and largest typefoundry, M & H (Mackenzie & Harris). Designated an “irreplaceable cultural treasure” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mackenzie and Harris was established with demo Monotype machines from the Panama Pacific International Exposition’s Palace of Machinery. These have been preserved as part of the historic foundry, still in operation on a full time basis, where handset and composition “hot metal” type is manufactured for Arion Press and other letterpress customers. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

March 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Mar
    31
  • Reuben Hale Family Collection Exhibit

    Mechanics’ Institute will present the family heirlooms of one of the members of the PPIE executive committee, Reuben B. Hale. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    01
    to
    Mar
    26
  • The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915

    The Oakland History Room will celebrate the centennial of this major cultural event with an exhibit, showcasing original programs, souvenir books, photographs, maps, and other ephemera. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    13
    to
    Apr
    18
  • Saratoga and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition—100 Year Centennial

    The exhibit will cover the PPIE exhibit and include information on Saratogans participating. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    01
    to
    Apr
    18
  • The Man Who Ran The Fair; the personal papers, scrapbooks and souvenirs of Charles C. Moore, President of the PPIE

    Charles C. Moore is often given the lion's share of credit for the success of The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    03
    05:30PM – 07:00PM
  • Historic Relighting of the Ferry Building

    Celebrate the ceremonial re-lighting of the Ferry Building in honor of the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition this year.
    Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    03
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • SWEDEN-TNT: Indie Game Changers reception @ SPUR

    In 1915 the Swedish Pavilion at PPIE presented some of its most famous enterprises with worldwide reputations. This event is a continuation of our Sweden-TNT series of updates on enterprises and entrepreneurs today. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    03
    06:30PM – 07:30PM
  • Author Laura Ackley

    Immediately following the ceremonial re-lighting of the Ferry Building, join author Laura Ackley for a presentation on her book San Francisco’s Jewel City. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    04
    12:00PM – 01:00PM
  • People of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco’s Jewel City, will present her audio-visual program on the "People of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition." Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    09
    to
    Mar
    20
  • Bohemian Rhapsodies

    Designed to coincide with the SFAI seminar Bohemian Rhapsodies: 1871–1915, the program presents an exhibition of projects inspired by the artistic community that established itself leading up to the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    09
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Claiming Citizenship: Ethnic and Racial Communities at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Dr. Abigail Markwyn will discuss the varied ways that Bay Area racial, ethnic, and religious groups used the PPIE to claim their stake in American society. Learn More >
    Lecture • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    10
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Women, the City and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Panelists Abigail Markwyn, Sarah J. Moore, and Jessica Ellen Sewell will examine the complicated politics around women and gender in 1915 San Francisco and at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    10
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Author Laura Ackley at Books Inc Marina

    Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco’s Jewel City, will give an illustrated presentation of the PPIE and sign copies of her book. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    11
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Spectacle, Identity, and Citizenship: Bay Area Ethnic and Racial Communities at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    The San Francisco History Center invites you to join historian and author Abigail Markwyn for a talk on San Franciscans participation in the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    12
    06:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Bohemian Rhapsodies Opening Reception

    Designed to coincide with the SFAI seminar Bohemian Rhapsodies: 1871–1915, the program presents an exhibition of projects inspired by the artistic community that established itself leading up to the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    12
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • San Francisco’s Jewel City: Author Event with Laura Ackley

    A richly illustrated panoramic tour of the PPIE from its historical inception to grand opening featuring its magnificent architectural and technological features, thrilling exhibits, diverse cultural dioramas and events, and the extravagant spectacles that drew hundreds of thousands of attendees over 10 months. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    14
    01:00PM – 03:00PM
  • The Man Who Owned The Sky: Beachey Day

    On March 14, author and researcher Frank Marrero commemorates the 100th anniversary of Beachey's demise and celebrates the incredible achievements of Lincoln Beachey, the Man Who Owned The Sky Learn More >
    Lecture • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    17
    04:00PM – 08:00PM
  • The Shamrock Isle: Images of Ireland at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    The California Historical Society in partnership with the Irish-American Crossroads Festival presents an evening exploring the Irish presence in San Francisco in 1915 and their connections to the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Lecture, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    21
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • California’s Midwinter Fair and its Legacies to San Francisco and to History

    The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 was the first, smallest, and least remembered of San Francisco’s three world’s fairs. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    22
    11:00AM – 02:00PM
  • Annual luncheon of the Sonoma County Historical Society

    Author Laura Ackley, an architectural historian who has spent many years delving into the joys and mysteries of the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915, will be the guest speaker at the annual awards banquet of Sonoma County Historical Society. Learn More >
    Other • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    28
    11:00AM – 03:00PM
  • San Francisco Bay Area Postcard Club Annual PPIE Program and Exhibit Meeting

    Join the San Francisco Bay Area Postcard Club at its annual PPIE Program and Exhibit meeting! Learn More >
    Exhibition, Lecture, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

April 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    13
    to
    Apr
    18
  • Saratoga and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition—100 Year Centennial

    The exhibit will cover the PPIE exhibit and include information on Saratogans participating. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Mar
    01
    to
    Apr
    18
  • The Man Who Ran The Fair; the personal papers, scrapbooks and souvenirs of Charles C. Moore, President of the PPIE

    Charles C. Moore is often given the lion's share of credit for the success of The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    01
    to
    May
    31
  • Woman’s Board of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With their success, the Woman’s Group was formally recognized by the PPIE Board of Directors as the hostesses of the Exposition who would see to the comfort, housing, entertainment, and safety of the PPIE visitors. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    01
    to
    Apr
    23
  • California Invites The World

    The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the golden age for the great world’s fair expositions. The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) was no exception. Before there was Disneyland, there was an earlier “magic kingdom.” Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    01
    to
    May
    17
  • Engineers of Illumination: A Projected Light Project by Optic Flare

    Six light-based artists will show an after-dark artwork in the CHS gallery's front and side windows, each running for approximately six weeks. View the installations from Mission Street or Annie Plaza. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    01
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915: a look back

    To mark the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, architectural historian Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco's Jewel City, will present a talk and slideshow on this remarkable world’s fair and its cultural signific Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    09
    12:30PM – 01:30PM
  • San Francisco’s Jewel City

    In 1915, a miniature city was built in what is now San Francisco’s Marina District, hosting an array of exhibits and events highlighting the wondrous possibilities of the 20th century. 100 years later, the new book San Francisco’s Jewel City examines how the Panama-Pacific International Exposition enabled a city devastated by disaster to rise from the ashes and begin reshaping its future. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    11
    11:00AM – 03:00PM
  • History for Half Pints

    Join us for our monthly family program, History for Half Pints: Arts and Crafts and help us celebrate a year of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) with crafts, art, and music. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    11
    02:00PM – 03:30PM
  • Fair, Please! Transportation to and through San Francisco’s 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition

    The San Francisco History Center invites you to a talk by Grant Ute, author and historian, on transportation to the Exposition.
    Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    11
    04:00PM – 06:00PM
  • Movie People of the Jewel City

    The San Francisco History Center invites you to a showcase of films in relation to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Film • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    11
    08:00PM – 10:00PM
  • Symphonic A Cappella: Grand Repertoire for Voices

    We continue our SwedenTNT series by recreating the experience of 1915. In 1915 the Swedish Pavilion at PPIE presented concerts by the Union of Swedish Singers, from many parts of the US. Choral singing (both a cappella and accompanied) is a great tradition in Sweden. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    12
    09:30AM – 04:00PM
  • Take a Ride on the Swanton Railroad with PPIE Overfair Railway Steam Locomotives

    Steam train rides with the original Overfair Railway locomotives from the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exhibition with a barbeque lunch, live music, and more at Swanton Pacific Ranch. Learn More >
    Other • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    14
    03:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Laura Ackley at the Wells Fargo History Museum

    Laura Ackley, author of Jewel City, will take us on a “Whirlwind Tour of the PPIE,” her illustrated presentation of the 1915 World’s Fair. There will be a reception with refreshments and a book signing to follow and “Wells Fargo at the PPIE,” a special exhibition at the museum, will be on view. Learn More >
    Reading • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    04:30PM – 07:00PM
  • A Night at the State Library: People of the Panama-Pacific Expo 1915

    Join the California State Library and the California Capitol Museum for a very special event, Wednesday, April 15, 2015 - A special exhibit and presentation on the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    16
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Before PPIE – The Mechanic’ Institute and the Development of San Francisco’s “Fair Culture” (1857 – 1909)

    Between the years of 1857 and 1899 the Mechanics’ Institute hosted thirty one Industrial Expositions that displayed and promoted the products of local entrepreneurs and inventors. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    18
    02:00PM – 03:00PM
  • New Technology at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    "New Technology at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition" Author Laura Ackley, and noted PPIE historian will talk about one of the main purposes of World's Fairs always has been to introduce the "latest and greatest" to the public. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    12:00PM – 12:30PM
  • Ina Coolbrith and friends join Joaquin Miller for lunch in the Oakland Hills

    Ina Coolbrith was crowned California’s first poet laureate during the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. This year marks the centennial of her becoming California’s first laureate and America’s first state laureate. Learn More >
    Reading • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    22
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Inventiveness and Innovation: Contemporary Architects and the Influence and Impacts of Architecture and Architects of the 1915 World’s Fair

    Join us for this panel discussion exploring the continued impact of the visionary Panama-Pacific International Exposition architects, including Bernard Maybeck and Willis Polk. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    22
    07:30PM – 08:30PM
  • Poet Ina Coolbrith’s Love of California Wildflowers

    Ina Coolbrith was crowned California's first poet laureate during the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. This year marks the centennial of her becoming California's first laureate and America's first state laureate. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    25
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Building the Panama Pacific International Exposition

    Join historian Laura Ackley for the dramatic story of how the gorgeous palaces of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition were designed and constructed in just a few short months between 1912 and 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    25
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • For California is a Poem: The 100th anniversary of Ina Coolbrith being named California’s first poet laureate

    Ina Coolbrith was crowned California’s first poet laureate during the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. This year marks the centennial of her becoming California’s first laureate and America’s first state laureate. Learn More >
    Lecture • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    30
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • African Americans in San Francisco: Before, During, and After the PPIE

    The California Historical Society and the Museum of the African Diaspora present an evening panel discussion uncovering the experiences, successes, and struggles of African Americans before, during, and in the decades following the World’s Fair of 1915. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND

May 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    01
    to
    May
    31
  • Woman’s Board of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With their success, the Woman’s Group was formally recognized by the PPIE Board of Directors as the hostesses of the Exposition who would see to the comfort, housing, entertainment, and safety of the PPIE visitors. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    01
    to
    May
    17
  • Engineers of Illumination: A Projected Light Project by Optic Flare

    Six light-based artists will show an after-dark artwork in the CHS gallery's front and side windows, each running for approximately six weeks. View the installations from Mission Street or Annie Plaza. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jul
    19
  • Promoting Merced: A County of Many Resources

    Like many counties in California, the PPIE was an opportunity to attract potential settlers to Merced County. Through the publication of an engaging illustrated booklet, Merced County was presented as a place of opportunity, wealth, prosperity, and contentment Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jun
    28
  • The City Luminous: Spectral Canopy Variation, a projected light piece by Kerry Laitala
  • The City Luminous: Spectral Canopy Variation

    The second in the series, Engineers of Illumination, this new piece from Kerry Laitala provides an imaginative view into the past. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jul
    31
  • A Corner of France in America

    Showcasing the importance of the French community in San Francisco’s history, and why it was known as the Paris of the Pacific. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    05
    to
    Jun
    28
  • California Invites the World: The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    Visitors to the Museum of the San Ramon Valley will have the opportunity to view rarely displayed items from the fair that come from the special collections of the California State Library.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    07
    07:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Jewel City: Light, Color, and Design at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco's Jewel City, leads a whirlwind visual tour of the amazing innovations in lighting, color, and design created for San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    09
    12:00PM – 04:00PM
  • History for Half Pints – May

    Join us for our monthly family program, History for Half Pints: Arts and Crafts and help us celebrate a year of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) with crafts, art, and music. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    12
    07:00PM – 09:30PM
  • The Joy Zone at the PPIE
  • On the Joy Zone: A Postcard & Photographic Tour of the PPIE’S Amusement District

    Everyone knows about the splendors of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, but not necessarily much about “The Zone” which was flashy, colorful and - in the eyes of some – a bit tawdry. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    15
    06:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Friday Night at the Museum – Clara goes to the Fair

    Exhibit debut and first Friday Night @ the Museum is May 15th from 6pm-9pm, FREE admission. Don't miss it!
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    16
    01:30PM – 03:00PM
  • A Whirlwind Tour of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition: Laura Ackley presents San Francisco’s Jewel City

    2015 marks the centennial year of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, when host city San Francisco emerged from the ashes of earthquake and fire as a center of beauty and progress. On the Presidio’s waterfront and in what is now the Marina District, courtyards, formal gardens, and eleven Beaux-Arts palaces made up a miniature city resplendent in tones of golden-orange, copper green, cerulean, and ‘‘Pompeiian red’’. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    17
    04:00PM – 07:00PM
  • The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum celebrates The Panama Pacific International Exposition: 100 Years

    See how the California Nursery Company in Niles helped build the fair by providing palm trees, other plants, equipment, and labor to create the beautiful grounds. Learn More >
    Lecture, Film • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    21
    10:00AM – 12:00PM
  • Joseph Raphael, Spring Winds, ca. 1914. Oil on canvas. FAMSF, museum purchase, Skae Fund Legacy, 41765
  • Curator Lecture: Photography of the San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, by Jim Ganz

    Jim Ganz is curator of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    23
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Pacific Peace, Pacific War: Treasure Island and the Golden Gate International Exposition

    The Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-1940 was San Francisco’s last great public celebration prior to America’s entry into World War II. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    28
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • The Thirteenth Labor of Hercules - Panama Pacific International Exposition, 1915, Courtesy California Historical Society
  • Labor in San Francisco – Before and After 1915

    The rights of workers have always been an important and vital topic in California. Join us for a stirring panel discussion around labor history during the first quarter of the 20th century. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND

June 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jul
    19
  • Promoting Merced: A County of Many Resources

    Like many counties in California, the PPIE was an opportunity to attract potential settlers to Merced County. Through the publication of an engaging illustrated booklet, Merced County was presented as a place of opportunity, wealth, prosperity, and contentment Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jun
    28
  • The City Luminous: Spectral Canopy Variation, a projected light piece by Kerry Laitala
  • The City Luminous: Spectral Canopy Variation

    The second in the series, Engineers of Illumination, this new piece from Kerry Laitala provides an imaginative view into the past. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jul
    31
  • A Corner of France in America

    Showcasing the importance of the French community in San Francisco’s history, and why it was known as the Paris of the Pacific. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    05
    to
    Jun
    28
  • California Invites the World: The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    Visitors to the Museum of the San Ramon Valley will have the opportunity to view rarely displayed items from the fair that come from the special collections of the California State Library.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    01
    to
    Jul
    31
  • The Panama Canal

    Named one of the seven modern wonders of the world by the American Society of Engineers, the Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This engineering marvel provides a shortcut of 8,000 miles for vessels travelling between oceans and eliminates the need to travel around the treacherous Cape Horn. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    04
    to
    Aug
    22
  • San Francisco: Rebirth of the Enduring City

    On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Robert Tat Gallery presents photographs picturing the scope of San Francisco history--from the 19th century to the present day. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    04
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Memories & Memorabilia: Sweden’s Exhibits at PPIE1915—a personal discovery by Charlotte Bernstrom

    Descended both from Sweden’s General Commissioner, Richard Bernström, and from Sweden’s Art Commissioner, Anshelm Schultzberg, Charlotte Bernstrom shares a unique family perspective on Sweden’s exhibits at San Francisco’s world’s fair of 1915, that links then and now.
    Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    05
    11:00AM – 01:00PM
  • San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915

    After 15 years of research and study, Laura Ackley will present her new book SAN FRANCISCO'S JEWEL CITY: The Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    05
    12:00PM – 02:00PM
  • San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
  • 37th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Opening Event

    Rotunda Dance Series performance by Hālau ʻo Keikialiʽi and Hālau ʻo Kuʻulei commemorating one of the first-ever mainland US performance featuring the ʽukulele, which took place at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    06
    to
    Jun
    07
  • San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
  • 37th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Weekend 1

    A “classic” Festival program, featuring ten dance performances from around the world.
    Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    06
    05:00PM – 07:00PM
  • Swedish National Day

    Musical performance by mezzo soprano Leandra Ramm and Ragnar Bohlin and speech by Consul General Barbro S. Osher. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    07
    03:00PM – 05:00PM
  • Portuguese Classical Music Concert

    Portuguese Classical Music Concert Celebrating “Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades Portuguesas" and the 100th Anniversary of Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Performance, Concert • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    09
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Swedes prepare for PPIE1915 at the Swedish American Hall

    Come hear Architectural Historian Jonathan Lammers’ speak about San Francisco’s Master Architect August Nordin, his masterpiece, the Swedish American Hall — now San Francisco’s newest landmark (#267) and ranked by the City as among the top 5% of our landmarks and one of the most distinctive in the West — and the Swedish/Scandinavian community in San Francisco at the time of PPIE. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    11
    05:30PM – 08:00PM
  • The Panama Canal: The Next 100 Years

    As part of the Club's celebration of the centennial of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, our panel will focus on the role the Panama Canal played in shifting California's fortunes and opportunities for Pacific Rim trade. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    11
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • The Portuguese Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Symposium guests will have the opportunity to learn about the preparations for the World’s Fair in San Francisco and how the Portuguese community was instrumental on the building of the Portuguese Pavilion. Learn More >
    Reading • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    10:00AM – 05:00PM
  • Dia de Portugal Festival

    The Portuguese Heritage Society of California (PHSC), proudly hosts the annual Dia de Portugal Festival on the second Saturday in June at History Park San Jose (Kelley Park), one of the largest events in California celebrating the Portuguese culture. Visit the Portuguese Historical Museum for an exhibit on the Portuguese Pavilion at the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Performance, Other • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    11:00AM – 03:00PM
  • History for Half Pints: Arts, Crafts, and Storytelling

    Join us for our monthly family program, History for Half Pints: Arts and Crafts and help us celebrate a year of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) with crafts, art, and music. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    11:00AM – 01:00PM
  • Concert: Kamawannaplaya ukulele group

    The Kamawannaplaya ukulele group entertains at the Museum on Saturday morning June 13th at 11 am. The ukulele, brought by PPIE in 1915 to the mainland, has turned into an enticing musical instrument. Learn More >
    Performance, Concert • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    01:00PM – 07:00PM
  • Siapo: Interacting with the Past, Present and Possible Future of an Ancestral Art Form

    Instructor Regina Meredith-Fitiao will share slides of historical siapo artifacts and the process in the making of a siapo. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Jun
    14
  • San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
  • 37th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Weekend 2

    A “classic” Festival program, featuring ten dance performances from around the world.
    Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    14
    01:00PM – 03:00PM
  • Su’a T. Wilson Fitiao: Laei of Samoa (Samoan Traditional Tattoo)

    Presenter Su`a T. Wilson Fitiao, Tufuga ta Tatau (Samoan Tattoo Master) will share some of the history, format and legacy of the Samoan traditional tattoo and his journey as a Tufuga ta Tatau. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    15
    10:00AM – 04:00PM
  • Play like it’s 1915 – 100th Anniversary of Wells Fargo Day at the PPIE

    Visit the Wells Fargo History Museum on June 15 for a Wells Fargo Day celebration, and play like it’s 1915. Visitors can enjoy free popcorn and receive a replica of the original 1915 Wells Fargo Day ribbon.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    16
    07:30PM – 08:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • California Nursery and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    The amazing story of how palms from California Nursery were transported by rail and ferry to the 1915 Panama Pacific International Expedition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    17
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • Laura Ackley, architectural historian and author, presents Jewel City: The Panama Pacific International Exposition

    Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) as Laura Ackley tells the fascinating story of the stunning innovations that awed 19 million fair visitors from San Francisco to Danville and beyond. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    18
    12:30PM – 01:30PM
  • Jenny Lind Concert

    The Consulate General of Sweden presents the annual Jenny Lind concert, a lunchtime performance of Nordic music and opera arias, with Jenny Lind scholarship recipient Sara Swietlicki and pianist Markus Kvint. The concert will take place at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Learn More >
    Concert • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    18
    01:00PM – 07:00PM
  • Kahili Pa`a Lima – Hawaiian Hand Held Kahili Instructor: Herman Tachera

    Afforded great respect through the ages, the kahili is a prized cultural item among Native Hawaiian people. Kahili are feathered standards used to show status, lineage, and family ties. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    18
    05:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Celebrating Pacific Island Art

    As part of the Celebrating Pacific Island Art (CPIA) Series, Kua`aina, an Indigenous Arts and Cultures non-profit, presents two artists from American Samoa who bear their cultural traditions. Learn More >
    Lecture, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    20
    10:00AM – 11:30PM
  • 121st annual Swedish Midsummer Festival

    This is our 121st annual Swedish Midsummer Festival. Since 1967, this festival has been celebrated at Sveadal, the League’s Swedish cultural resort in the Santa Cruz mountains. Learn More >
    Performance, Other • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    20
    05:00PM – 07:00PM
  • World Premiere: When the World Came to San Francisco

    World premiere of the documentary-drama celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Learn More >
    Film • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    20
    05:00PM – 10:00PM
  • The Panama-Pacific Centennial Concert

    Join the entire San Francisco community in celebrating the music, literature, and drama of the 1915 World's Fair!

    A Musical Tribute Celebrating the Centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition.
    Learn More >
    Performance, Concert • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    20
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Artists Reception

    Celebrate local artists and innovative techniques! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    20
    07:15PM – 07:45PM
  • “San Francisco’s Jewel City” by Laura Ackley

    This lavishly illustrated volume is as much a triumph as the fair itself. San Francisco’s Jewel City takes readers on an in-depth tour of the PPIE, revealing the dramas of constructing the fair and the displays of culture and industry that awaited within the exposition walls: electrical home appliances, rides in a homemade airplane, a world tour of twenty-one international pavilions, luminous radium crystals, and, of course, a model of the world-changing Panama Canal. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    21
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of the Palms, California Nursery Tour – June 21

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    24
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Presidio Book Club – “Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, The Great West & California at the Panama-Pacific Exposition”

    Experience something new…part book club, part graduate seminar, part Parisian salon. Presidio Book Club is an inclusive gathering that anyone can take part in, whether or not they’ve read the book. Led by Presidio Trust historian Barbara Berglund. Learn More >
    Reading, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    06:00PM – 07:30PM
  • Happy Anniversary, Ina Coolbrith!

    One hundred years ago, Ina Coolbrith was crowned California's first poet laureate at the Exposition Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium) during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Aleta George, author of Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California's First Poet Laureate, will speak about Coolbrith as poet, librarian, and the most popular literary ambassador in the early American West. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    27
    01:00PM – 03:00PM
  • Presidio Book Club – “Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, The Great West & California at the Panama-Pacific Exposition”

    Experience something new…part book club, part graduate seminar, part Parisian salon. Presidio Book Club is an inclusive gathering that anyone can take part in, whether or not they’ve read the book. Led by Presidio Trust historian Barbara Berglund. Learn More >
    Reading, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    27
    08:00PM – 10:00PM
  • San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival
  • 37th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Weekend 4

    The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival celebrates the Centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition with a series of thrilling dance performances from around the globe, set in the grand Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, which was built for the historic 1915 World’s Fair. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    28
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of the Palms, California Nursery Tour – June 28

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND

July 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jul
    19
  • Promoting Merced: A County of Many Resources

    Like many counties in California, the PPIE was an opportunity to attract potential settlers to Merced County. Through the publication of an engaging illustrated booklet, Merced County was presented as a place of opportunity, wealth, prosperity, and contentment Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Jul
    31
  • A Corner of France in America

    Showcasing the importance of the French community in San Francisco’s history, and why it was known as the Paris of the Pacific. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    01
    to
    Jul
    31
  • The Panama Canal

    Named one of the seven modern wonders of the world by the American Society of Engineers, the Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This engineering marvel provides a shortcut of 8,000 miles for vessels travelling between oceans and eliminates the need to travel around the treacherous Cape Horn. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    04
    to
    Aug
    22
  • San Francisco: Rebirth of the Enduring City

    On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Robert Tat Gallery presents photographs picturing the scope of San Francisco history--from the 19th century to the present day. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    02
    to
    Aug
    16
  • Engineers of Illumination: The Illuminated Palace

    The Illuminated Palace combines lensless camera techniques from the dawn of photography with contemporary digital views to capture architect Bernard Maybeck’s vision of the Palace of Fine Arts as a fleeting ruin. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    05
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of the Palms, California Nursery Tour – July 5

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    08
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Pueblo Indian Village in Grand Canyon of Arizona exhibit in The Zone at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Courtesy San Francisco Public Library.
  • Beyond The End of the Trail: American Indians and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Many Americans easily recognize James Earle Fraser’s famous statue The End of the Trail which first appeared at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. But despite its popularity, the statue does not accurately represent the participation of American Indians in the fair. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    09
    06:30PM – 08:30PM
  • Jewel City! Slide Lecture/Book Signing

    Historian and Author Laura Ackley will share remarkable stories of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (also known as the “San Francisco World’s Fair”) and present her new book: San Francisco's Jewel City. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    10
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour with special emphasis on Willis Polk

    Take a tour of San Francisco’s most famous downtown buildings with knowledgeable and friendly city historian Rick Evans! Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    12
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of the Palms, California Nursery Tour – July 12

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    12
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • SAN FRANCISCO’S JEWEL CITY – Laura Ackley

    Architectural historian Laura Ackley is the author of the recently published San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, which recently won a gold medal at the California Book Awards. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    14
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • San Francisco’s Jewel City

    San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition opened its doors to much acclaim a century ago. The fantastic goings-on in each of the 11 neoclassical palaces that transformed the Presidio found their way into many of the pages of the Commonwealth Club’s reports during that summer of 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    16
    05:30PM – 07:00PM
  • Opening Reception – Engineers of Illumination: The Illuminated Palace

    The California Historical Society invites you to attend a special reception celebrating The Illuminated Palace, a projected light piece by Kevin Cain, the third installation in the Engineers of Illumination series. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    17
    11:00AM – 05:00PM
  • Liberty Bell Day

    Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the arrival of the Liberty Bell in San Francisco with free admission to the California Historical Society's exhibition "City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair" Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    18
    10:00AM – 12:00PM
  • San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour with special emphasis on Willis Polk – July 18

    Take a tour of San Francisco’s most famous downtown buildings with knowledgeable and friendly city historian Rick Evans! Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    18
    12:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Open House – California Invites the World!

    Join us for an Open House to celebrate the new exhibit California Invites the World! Beginning July 18th, a new exhibit will be open at the Contra Costa County History Center celebrating 100 years since the Pan Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    18
    06:30PM – 09:00PM
  • San Francisco History Association Awards Dinner

    Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco’s Jewel City, will receive the Oscar Lewis Award at the San Francisco History Association’s Annual Awards Dinner. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    19
    10:30AM – 12:00PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of the Palms, California Nursery Tour – July 19

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    19
    12:00PM – 04:00PM
  • PPIE—Then and Now, a Bicycle History Tour

    This social, historical, and critical bicycle history tour covers key locations to the Panama Pacific International Exposition from Civic Center to the Palace of Fine Arts. Ride with us and travel through the past 100 years of the influence of this and other world's fairs. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    20
    to
    Jul
    31
  • The Niles Palms at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    In the spring and summer of 1914, several hundred palms made the trip from Niles to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition construction site in San Francisco. The palm trees were mature specimens, eight to thirty tons each, from the California Nursery Company located in Niles which is now a part of the city of Fremont. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    23
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • The Grand Design: PPIE and the “City Within A City”

    Architectural historians, writers, and artists will discuss the collaboration of Edward Bennett and the Exposition’s architectural committee whose vision of the Block Plan manifested the design of the PPIE. Innovation, fantasy and technology created this “city within a city” which included great architecture, urban design, and leaps of the imagination. The influences of this model city on San Francisco’s development will be brought into perspective. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    24
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour with special emphasis on Willis Polk – July 24

    Take a tour of San Francisco’s most famous downtown buildings with knowledgeable and friendly city historian Rick Evans! Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    06:00PM – 09:00PM
  • California Nursery, George Roeding Sr, and the PPIE Gala

    This gala will bring back the highlights of the 1915 events from the music to the food and a way for the Fremont community to learn about the involvement of Niles to this event. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    31
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour with special emphasis on Willis Polk – July 31

    Take a tour of San Francisco’s most famous downtown buildings with knowledgeable and friendly city historian Rick Evans! Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND

August 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    04
    to
    Aug
    22
  • San Francisco: Rebirth of the Enduring City

    On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Robert Tat Gallery presents photographs picturing the scope of San Francisco history--from the 19th century to the present day. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    02
    to
    Aug
    16
  • Engineers of Illumination: The Illuminated Palace

    The Illuminated Palace combines lensless camera techniques from the dawn of photography with contemporary digital views to capture architect Bernard Maybeck’s vision of the Palace of Fine Arts as a fleeting ruin. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    10:00AM – 12:00PM
  • San Francisco Architecture Walking Tour with special emphasis on Willis Polk – August 1

    Take a tour of San Francisco’s most famous downtown buildings with knowledgeable and friendly city historian Rick Evans! Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • California Invites the World

    Beginning on July 18th, a new exhibit will be open at the History Center celebrating 100 years since the Pan Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco. Photos, artifacts and other memorabilia from the original Exposition as well as a few special artifacts celebrating this year's centennial will be shown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • From the Vault: Artifacts from Richmond Day & the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition

    Celebrate the centennial of the PPIE with a mini exhibit of expo related artifacts from the museum's permanent collection. The show features artifacts such as postcards, souvenir books, ribbons, textiles and a medal made by Shreve & Company commemorating Richmond Day on August 7, 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    06
    06:00PM – 07:30PM
  • PPIE and Movers and Shakers of the Mechanics’ Institute

    Join the Mechanics' Institute to learn about the individuals who served on the PPIE Executive Committee and dreamed of an event that would benefit the “greater good” of the City and place San Francisco alongside the world's great cities of London, Paris and New York. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    08
    10:00AM – 04:30PM
  • Ride the 1915 PPIE Overfair Railway Steam Train at Swanton Pacific Railroad

    Take a train ride on the Swanton Pacific Railroad with 100-year old steam locomotives from the Overfair Railway that ran along San Francisco's Marina during the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Other • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    08
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • San Francisco’s Jewel City: Laura Ackley Lecture at the Richmond Museum of History

    Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco’s Jewel City, will deliver a lecture on the PPIE for the 100th anniversary of “Richmond Day” in the Seaver Gallery. This event is hosted in conjunction with the Panama Pacific International Exhibit. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    08
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Richmond Day at the Panama Pacific International Exposition

    Join us for an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of Richmond Day at PPIE. Held at the expo on August 7, 1915 Richmond Day commemorated the 10th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Richmond.
    Learn More >
    Performance, Lecture • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    11
    05:15PM – 06:15PM
  • Chess at the Mechanics’ Institute

    Chess has been a fixture of the Mechanics’ Institute for 160 years. Learn about the Chess Club’s history, anecdotes about famous players and tournaments, and current achievements. Lecture by John Donaldson, Chess Director and International Master. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    13
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • The Coney Island of the West: Alameda’s Neptune Beach from the 1870s-1930s

    Learn about Alameda’s Neptune Beach - the "Coney Island of the West" - and it's history as a pivotal attraction after the close of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Authors Dennis Evanosky and Eric Kos will take guests on a tour of west Alameda’s bathing and beach resorts that established the Island City’s recreational character beginning in the 1870s. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    14
    to
    Oct
    25
  • End of the Trail: A Centennial Celebration

    Celebrating the unique history of this seminal sculpture on the 100th anniversary of its creation, the exhibition draws from the archives of the museum’s Dickinson Research Center. It will provide an overview from the sculpture’s creation by American artist James Earle Fraser and display at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, to its life at Mooney Grove Park in Visalia, California, and to its eventual home at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    16
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Fiction at the Fairs – featuring mystery writer Kelli Stanley

    The main event will be local mystery writer Kelli Stanley discussing and reading from her three murder mysteries, where bodies pile up behind the scenes on the Golden Gate International Exposition's Treasure Island and in pre-War San Francisco’s underworld. Unconventional detective Miranda Corbie has to sort out the mess. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    22
    to
    Aug
    23
  • Classical Choral Music at the PPIE

    San Francisco Lyric Chorus performs selections from classical choral works performed in the Exposition's Festival Hall by the 300-voice Festival Chorus (singers from all over the SF Bay area) and visiting choruses. Learn More >
    Concert • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    27
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Stucco Fantasy: How the PPIE Influenced Roadside Architecture in California

    Los Angeles historian Jim Heimann, author of Crazy California and Beyond: Roadside Architecture, will trace the 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition’s fanciful, yet little-known, legacy of stucco construction from the “Joy Zone” at the PPIE to Hollywood set design and roadside architecture. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    29
    12:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Opening celebration event of the “Royal Hawaiian Featherworks: Na Hulu Ali`i” Exhibit

    Afforded great respect through the ages, the kahili is a prized cultural item among Native Hawaiian people. Kahili are feathered standards used to show status, lineage, and family ties. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

September 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • California Invites the World

    Beginning on July 18th, a new exhibit will be open at the History Center celebrating 100 years since the Pan Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco. Photos, artifacts and other memorabilia from the original Exposition as well as a few special artifacts celebrating this year's centennial will be shown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • From the Vault: Artifacts from Richmond Day & the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition

    Celebrate the centennial of the PPIE with a mini exhibit of expo related artifacts from the museum's permanent collection. The show features artifacts such as postcards, souvenir books, ribbons, textiles and a medal made by Shreve & Company commemorating Richmond Day on August 7, 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    14
    to
    Oct
    25
  • End of the Trail: A Centennial Celebration

    Celebrating the unique history of this seminal sculpture on the 100th anniversary of its creation, the exhibition draws from the archives of the museum’s Dickinson Research Center. It will provide an overview from the sculpture’s creation by American artist James Earle Fraser and display at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, to its life at Mooney Grove Park in Visalia, California, and to its eventual home at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    08
    to
    Dec
    16
  • Exceptional Expositions

    Exceptional Expositions presents the architecture and landscape of two world’s fairs held in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915 and the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) of 1939. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    09
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    This special exhibition offers a glimpse into the efforts made by government, business, and societal leaders to prepare for and organize the PPIE and the crowd of nearly nineteen million national and international visitors that descended upon a revitalized city in search of entertainment and opportunity. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    12
    to
    Sep
    13
  • Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival 2015

    Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is excited to invite you to the annual, two-day chocolate celebration that has transformed into a true San Francisco staple. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    17
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Short Stories: Five Women of the PPIE

    Erin Garcia, curator of the California Historical Society exhibition City Rising: San Francisco and The 1915 World’s Fair (through January 2016), will profile five remarkable women who shaped, or were shaped by, the PPIE - each reflecting the diverse roles, experiences, and perspectives of women at the fair. Optional dinner to be announced.ture. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    17
    06:00PM – 08:30PM
  • Exceptional Expositions Presentation at UC Berkeley, College of Environmental Design

    The Environmental Design Archives has planned a fun and informative lecture and book signing, and reception on the evening of Thursday, September 17th, 2015 in conjunction with opening of Exceptional Expositions (on view September 8 – December 16, 2015 in the Environmental Design Library, 210 Wurster Hall). Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    19
    06:00PM – 11:00PM
  • Party for the Parks

    On September 19, 2015, the San Francisco Parks Alliance will host Party for the Parks at the Palace of Fine Arts. Party for the Parks is an annual event benefitting the Parks Alliance and selected programs of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    20
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – September 20

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    23
    07:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Laura Ackley Lecture on San Francisco’s Jewel City at Larkspur Library

    aura Ackley discusses her book, San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. 2015 marks the centennial year of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, when host city San Francisco emerged from the ashes of earthquake and fire as a center of beauty and progress. Learn More >
    Lecture • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    24
    10:00AM – 11:30AM
  • Joseph Raphael, Spring Winds, ca. 1914. Oil on canvas. FAMSF, museum purchase, Skae Fund Legacy, 41765
  • Curator Lecture: Jewel City: Art of the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, by James A. Ganz

    James A. Ganz is the curator for the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    26
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – September 26

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    27
    09:30AM – 04:00PM
  • Take a Ride on the Swanton Railroad with PPIE Overfair Railway Steam Locomotives

    Steam train rides with the original Overfair Railway locomotives from the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exhibition with a barbeque lunch, live music, and more at Swanton Pacific Ranch. Learn More >
    Other • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    27
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Joseph Raphael, Spring Winds, ca. 1914. Oil on canvas. FAMSF, museum purchase, Skae Fund Legacy, 41765
  • Docent Lecture: Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, by Kay Payne

    The year 2015 marks the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), the San Francisco world’s fair that celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and the city’s reconstruction following the great earthquake of 1906. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    27
    05:00PM – 09:30PM
  • Hakone Centennial Gala

    An evening at Hakone Gardens, with a reception, dinner, entertainment, silent auction, and Centennial Awards Ceremony. Learn More >
    Other • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    28
    to
    Dec
    07
  • The Exhibition That Never Was: The Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Book Club of California, and a Century of Fine Books

    In 1912, a group of San Francisco bibliophiles proposed an exhibition of locally produced fine press books for the forthcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition. When advised that their proposal would carry more weight if made by an official organization, they founded the Book Club of California. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    28
    05:00PM – 07:00PM
  • Exhibition Opening: The Exhibition That Never Was: The Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Book Club of California, and a Century of Fine Books

    Celebrate the opening of the fall exhibition at the Book Club of California: The Exhibition That Never Was: The Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Book Club of California, and a Century of Fine Books Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    28
    05:00PM – 07:00PM
  • San Francisco’s Jewel City: An Illustrated Talk & Book Signing with Laura Ackley

    In 1912, a group of San Francisco bibliophiles proposed an exhibition of locally produced fine press books for the forthcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition. When advised that their proposal would carry more weight if made by an official organization, they founded the Book Club of California. Learn More >
    Lecture, Reading • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

October 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Oct
    25
  • The Tushanwan Pagodas: Models from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of more than eighty models on carved by a group of 300 boys attending the Tushanwan Catholic orphanage and workshop in Shanghai for exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    19
    to
    Oct
    03
  • Berkeley Goes To the Fair!

    Berkeley goes to the Fair! examines the PPIE experience from the opposite side of the Bay. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • California Invites the World

    Beginning on July 18th, a new exhibit will be open at the History Center celebrating 100 years since the Pan Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco. Photos, artifacts and other memorabilia from the original Exposition as well as a few special artifacts celebrating this year's centennial will be shown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • From the Vault: Artifacts from Richmond Day & the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition

    Celebrate the centennial of the PPIE with a mini exhibit of expo related artifacts from the museum's permanent collection. The show features artifacts such as postcards, souvenir books, ribbons, textiles and a medal made by Shreve & Company commemorating Richmond Day on August 7, 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    14
    to
    Oct
    25
  • End of the Trail: A Centennial Celebration

    Celebrating the unique history of this seminal sculpture on the 100th anniversary of its creation, the exhibition draws from the archives of the museum’s Dickinson Research Center. It will provide an overview from the sculpture’s creation by American artist James Earle Fraser and display at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, to its life at Mooney Grove Park in Visalia, California, and to its eventual home at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    08
    to
    Dec
    16
  • Exceptional Expositions

    Exceptional Expositions presents the architecture and landscape of two world’s fairs held in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915 and the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) of 1939. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    09
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    This special exhibition offers a glimpse into the efforts made by government, business, and societal leaders to prepare for and organize the PPIE and the crowd of nearly nineteen million national and international visitors that descended upon a revitalized city in search of entertainment and opportunity. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    28
    to
    Dec
    07
  • The Exhibition That Never Was: The Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Book Club of California, and a Century of Fine Books

    In 1912, a group of San Francisco bibliophiles proposed an exhibition of locally produced fine press books for the forthcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition. When advised that their proposal would carry more weight if made by an official organization, they founded the Book Club of California. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    01
    to
    Oct
    18
  • Fancy Flying: Aviation at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    An exhibition of twenty-one black and white photographs recently printed from vintage negatives including glass plates created by the Cardinell-Vincent Company on view in the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum at San Francisco International Airport. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    01
    10:00AM – 12:00PM
  • Cadwallader Washburn, Exposition Palace Interior, from the portfolio Building of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, ca. 1914. Lithograph. FAMSF, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1963.30.26362
  • Curator Lecture: Prints at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, by Colleen Terry

    Colleen Terry is assistant curator for the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
    Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    06
    06:00PM – 07:30PM
  • Pacific Peace, Pacific War: Treasure Island and the Golden Gate International Exposition

    The Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-1940 was San Francisco’s last world’s fair and last grand public celebration prior to America’s entry into World War II.
    Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    07
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Transformations in San Francisco Public Transit – Then, Now, Tomorrow

    Learn how PPIE infrastructure improvements have served San Franciscans every day for the past 100 years and how these arteries are being transformed today to serve us during the next century. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    07
    07:30PM – 09:00PM
  • Design, Color, and Light at the Exposition, by Laura Ackley

    Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco’s Jewel City, who holds degrees in architecture from Harvard and the University of California, will explore the architecture of the palaces and courts of this most beautiful of world’s fairs. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    08
    01:00PM – 02:00PM
  • Joseph Raphael, Spring Winds, ca. 1914. Oil on canvas. FAMSF, museum purchase, Skae Fund Legacy, 41765
  • Curator Lecture: French Paintings at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition: A Triumph of Diversity, by Melissa Buron

    Melissa E. Buron is an associate curator of European paintings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    10
    to
    Jan
    10
  • Night Illumination—Panama-Pacific International Exposition—San Francisco, California, 1915, 1915. Published by Pacific Novelty Company. Color letterpress halftone. FAMSF, gift of Barbara Jungi in memory of Elsie F. Miller; Elizabeth Colwell, The Great Pine (detail), 1908. Color woodcut. FAMSF, museum purchase, gifts in honor of Sylvia Walters's 75th birthday, gift of William C. Clark, and Estate of Moses Lasky, 2015.5
  • Prints at the Fair

    Prints at the Fair is a companion exhibition to Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Thousands of prints were displayed during the Exposition in 1915, including a display of more than two thousand impressions from the United States. Critic Charles Olmsted observed that this was “the most complete and representative collection of prints that has yet been made in this country.” Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    13
    07:00PM – 08:30PM
  • The Rebirth of a City

    Part of the 5th Annual Cloverdale Historical Society Fall Speaker Series, Laura Ackley, author of San Francisco's Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, will give a talk on "The Rebirth of a City." Learn More >
    Lecture • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    13
    07:00PM – 09:30PM
  • The Unique Fillmore Street Cable Car System

    In the early 1890s, people walking up Fillmore Street were greeted by an unusual sight: the construction of a cable counterbalance system whereby one cable car could pull another up the steep Fillmore Street grade between Green and Broadway. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    15
    10:00AM – 11:00AM
  • Guest Lecture & Book Signing: Panorama: Tales from San Francisco’s 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition, by Lee Bruno

    Lee Bruno is a journalist and author of Panorama: Tales from San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
    Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    16
    12:00PM – 02:00PM
  • Centennial of Fine Arts Preservation Day

    Celebrate the Centennial of Palace Preservation Day on Friday, October 16th with a day of music and lectures at the Palace of Fine Arts.
    Learn More >
    Lecture, Concert, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    16
    07:15PM – 08:15PM
  • Curator Lecture: “The Great ArtQuake of 1915,” by James A. Ganz

    Nine years after San Francisco was rocked by the great earthquake of 1906, the city was the site of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a world’s fair that included one of the largest art exhibitions ever presented on the West Coast. This talk gives an overview of the great “artquake” of 1915 and the aftershocks that are still being felt in San Francisco’s cultural institutions. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    17
    to
    Jan
    10
  • 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

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    18
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – October 18

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    19
    05:00PM – 07:00PM
  • 100th Anniversary of the PPIE: Broadside Printing Party

    Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by printing your own commemorative broadside on the Book Club's Columbian Hand Press.
    Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    20
    05:30PM – 07:00PM
  • Ulrika Knutson on Ingrid Bergman

    During PPIE Sweden was known for its leadership in Cinema from the earliest years. It is coincidental that this year is both the centennial of PPIE and of the birth of Ingrid Bergman, Sweden's famous film actress. Learn More >
    Lecture • Marin
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    to
    Feb
    26
  • The Grandeur of a Great Labor: The Building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With highlights from the rich collections of The Bancroft Library, the exhibition examines the building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the fair that celebrated the canal's opening and the rise of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    06:00PM – 07:30PM
  • Shamrock Isle: The Irish at the PPIE

    Join Elizabeth Creely as she explores the phenomena of Irish Villages at World Fairs, beginning with the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and ending at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    07:00PM – 09:00PM
  • SVENSK circa 1915

    This forum puts Sweden’s art exhibited at PPIE in the perspective of Sweden’s art at that time, explaining why and how it was so distinctive. One of Sweden’s pre-eminent authorities on Swedish fine arts, Dr. Elsebeth Welander-Berggren, visits us especially for this PPIE talk about the best Swedish art of that time. Learn More >
    Lecture, Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    22
    04:00PM – 05:00PM
  • Ulrika Knutson on Ingrid Bergman

    During PPIE Sweden was known for its leadership in Cinema from the earliest years. It is coincidental that this year is both the centennial of PPIE and of the birth of Ingrid Bergman, Sweden's famous film actress. Learn More >
    Lecture, Film • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    22
    07:30PM – 09:00PM
  • Panorama, by Lee Bruno

    In 1915, San Francisco became a prime destination for American and world travelers when it hosted the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Lee Bruno’s talk on San Francisco’s first world’s fair will draw from his book, Panorama, the images and stories about the architects, builders, inventors, artists, performers, and celebrities who made the nearly year-long event one of the greatest of its kind. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    23
    04:30PM – 06:00PM
  • Svensk circa 1915

    A lecture on Swedish art at the time of San Francisco’s Panama Pacific International Exposition. Keynote speaker is Elsebeth Welander-Berggren, Director of Sven-Harry’s Art Museum, Stockholm, and former Director of Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde. Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    24
    09:00AM – 11:00AM
  • 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, Educator Workshop

    This teacher workshop will include educator resources, background about the development of the exhibition, and a studio activity. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    24
    01:00PM – 02:00PM
  • Symposium: “Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition”

    James A. Ganz, curator of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, and curator of Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition facilitates a discussion of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and its art program. Learn More >
    Lecture, Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    24
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – October 24

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    25
    12:00PM – 05:00PM
  • Celebrate the Centennial of Engine 35

    As one of this year’s centennial celebrations of the 1915 (PPIE) Panama Pacific International Exposition, Engine 35 will celebrate the centennial of the Pier 22 ½ station house, Sunday October 25th during normal hours noon to 5pm. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    30
    07:15PM – 09:00PM
  • When the World Came to San Francisco

    "When the World Came to San Francisco" (2015, 79 min.) is a drama-documentary about the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Through a reenactment of Reyna Belasco Rosenthal (1895-1976) being interviewed by a reporter in 1965, she tells of the Vaudeville era at the turn-of-the-century, the great earthquake, Luisa Tetrazzini celebrating reconstruction, and finally, how the idea for the fair came about and visiting the fair itself. Learn More >
    Film • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

November 2015

  • Feb
    01
    to
    Nov
    01
  • Fair, Please! Streetcars to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    Come see how the Municipal Railway continues to benefit San Francisco as a result of the groundwork laid as we bring you “Streetcars to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition”! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    04
    to
    Nov
    02
  • Phoebe Apperson Hearst: California’s Grande Dame

    A new exhibit at the History Center’s Museum, presented in collaboration with the Hearst Corporation, is the first to focus solely on Phoebe Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • California Invites the World

    Beginning on July 18th, a new exhibit will be open at the History Center celebrating 100 years since the Pan Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco. Photos, artifacts and other memorabilia from the original Exposition as well as a few special artifacts celebrating this year's centennial will be shown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • From the Vault: Artifacts from Richmond Day & the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition

    Celebrate the centennial of the PPIE with a mini exhibit of expo related artifacts from the museum's permanent collection. The show features artifacts such as postcards, souvenir books, ribbons, textiles and a medal made by Shreve & Company commemorating Richmond Day on August 7, 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    08
    to
    Dec
    16
  • Exceptional Expositions

    Exceptional Expositions presents the architecture and landscape of two world’s fairs held in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915 and the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) of 1939. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    09
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    This special exhibition offers a glimpse into the efforts made by government, business, and societal leaders to prepare for and organize the PPIE and the crowd of nearly nineteen million national and international visitors that descended upon a revitalized city in search of entertainment and opportunity. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    28
    to
    Dec
    07
  • The Exhibition That Never Was: The Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Book Club of California, and a Century of Fine Books

    In 1912, a group of San Francisco bibliophiles proposed an exhibition of locally produced fine press books for the forthcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition. When advised that their proposal would carry more weight if made by an official organization, they founded the Book Club of California. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    10
    to
    Jan
    10
  • Night Illumination—Panama-Pacific International Exposition—San Francisco, California, 1915, 1915. Published by Pacific Novelty Company. Color letterpress halftone. FAMSF, gift of Barbara Jungi in memory of Elsie F. Miller; Elizabeth Colwell, The Great Pine (detail), 1908. Color woodcut. FAMSF, museum purchase, gifts in honor of Sylvia Walters's 75th birthday, gift of William C. Clark, and Estate of Moses Lasky, 2015.5
  • Prints at the Fair

    Prints at the Fair is a companion exhibition to Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Thousands of prints were displayed during the Exposition in 1915, including a display of more than two thousand impressions from the United States. Critic Charles Olmsted observed that this was “the most complete and representative collection of prints that has yet been made in this country.” Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    17
    to
    Jan
    10
  • 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

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    to
    Feb
    26
  • The Grandeur of a Great Labor: The Building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With highlights from the rich collections of The Bancroft Library, the exhibition examines the building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the fair that celebrated the canal's opening and the rise of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    01
    to
    Mar
    30
  • The Broderick

    The whole family will enjoy seeing the Fire Department's special exhibition of rare fire engines, Panama Pacific International Exposition Fire Department memorabilia, uniforms, period clothing and hundreds of historic fire artifacts on display at the San Francisco Fire Department Museum Come see this priceless treasure - a great family friendly event! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    02
    to
    Dec
    17
  • A Fair Centennial: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915-2015. Selections from the F. W. Olin Library

    Featuring books, archives, ephemera, and memorabilia relating to the 1915 world's fair. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    04
    07:30PM – 09:00PM
  • Berkeley and the Exposition, by Steven Finacom

    Steven Finacom will talk about the many Berkeley connections to the PPIE and the GGIE--the Treasure Island World's Fair 25 years later. Berkeley people helped shape and build both expositions and flocked to enjoy their glories. He will explore their contributions and experiences as well as the tangible legacies of the fairs that remain in the East Bay Learn More >
    Lecture • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    08
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – November 8

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    08
    01:00PM – 03:00PM
  • Night Illumination—Panama-Pacific International Exposition—San Francisco, California, 1915, 1915. Published by Pacific Novelty Company. Color letterpress halftone. FAMSF, gift of Barbara Jungi in memory of Elsie F. Miller; James Tissot, L’ambitieuse (The Political Woman) (detail), 1883–1885. Oil on canvas. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, gift of William M. Chase, 1909, 1909:10; Edwin Deakin, Palace of Fine Arts and the Lagoon (detail), ca. 1915. Oil on canvas. Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, long-term loan from the California Department of Finance, conserved with funds provided by Gerald D. Gordon, LOAN.2006.Deakin; Francis Bruguière, Machinery Hall, West Entrance, at Night (detail), 1915. Gelatin silver print. FAMSF, gift of the Whitton Family to the Percy Gray Collection
  • Docent Lecture: Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, by Ellen Harden

    To mark this anniversary, Jewel City revisits this vital moment in the inauguration of San Francisco as the West Coast’s cultural epicenter. The landmark exhibition at the de Young reassembles more than 200 works by major American and European artists, most of which were on display at this defining event. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    10
    10:30AM – 11:30AM
  • John Singer Sargent, The Sketchers, 1913. Oil on canvas. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
  • The San Francisco Auxiliary Presents Women and the PPIE

    Join us for a lecture by Victoria Kastner, scholar of the PPIE, contributor to the Jewel City catalogue, and historian at Hearst Castle. Ms. Kastner will discuss the important role women played in organizing and presenting the PPIE, as well as in preserving its art and architecture for future generations. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    10
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Food at the Fair

    Food played a huge part in the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Visitors to the fair learned about new fruit hybrids, cookware innovations, leading Napa wines, and many other wonders in the Palace of Food Products; they tasted the winners of PPIE culinary competitions such as Larraburu sourdough bread; they snacked on enchiladas, chop suey, and clam chowder at the fair; and they explored San Francisco's restaurants during their stay in the city. Learn More >
    Panel Discussion • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Apr
    10
  • Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

    All aboard for a trip back in time as the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park presents an all new garden railway display celebrating the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. See an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, as model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair's most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Dec
    23
  • Panama-Pacific 1915 Centennial Photography Exhibit

    A joint exhibit of photographs of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition from the collections of the SFMTA Photo Archive, SF Public Library Photo Center, and Moulin Studios and hosted by the Harvey Milk Photo Center. The show will highlight images from these public and private collections that provide a glimpse into the birth, life, and death of San Francisco’s largest and most extravagant public event. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    07:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Dance, Music and Song: The Lively Arts at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    In this exciting multimedia presentation, historian Laura Ackley presents photos, rare recordings, and movies of dance, music and song at the 1915 World’s Fair. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    14
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – November 14

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    19
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Nutcracker Under the Dome

    Nutcracker Under the Dome will run nightly from November 19 through December 31, every half hour starting at 5:00 p.m. until the Centre’s closing. Westfield’s iconic Dome will come to life each night with this 3-D light show that will showcase the beloved holiday tradition in an innovative format, promising to capture the imagination of young and old. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    19
    03:30PM – 06:00PM
  • Nutcracker Under the Dome Kick-Off Event

    SF Ballet and Westfield San Francisco Centre kick off the holiday season by unveiling the 3-D holiday light spectacular, Nutcracker Under the Dome. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    21
    02:00PM – 03:30PM
  • Architecture and San Francisco’s Fairs

    The San Francisco History Center invites you to two talks about San Francisco's Fairs and architecture. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    21
    05:00PM – 06:00PM
  • Photo Opportunity with the San Francisco Ballet

    On two Saturdays through the holiday season, guests will have the opportunity to meet and take photos with the San Francisco Ballet dancers Under the Dome. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    27
    07:15PM – 09:00PM
  • Film Screening: When the World Came to San Francisco

    "When the World Came to San Francisco" (2015, 79 min.) is a drama-documentary about the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Through a reenactment of Reyna Belasco Rosenthal (1895-1976) being interviewed by a reporter in 1965, she tells of the Vaudeville era at the turn-of-the-century, the great earthquake, Luisa Tetrazzini celebrating reconstruction, and finally, how the idea for the fair came about and visiting the fair itself. Learn More >
    Film • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    28
    04:15PM – 04:45PM
  • STORY TIME & MOVEMENT WORKSHOP WITH MISS KRISTI
  • Story Time & Movement Workshop with Miss Kristi

    Interact with Nutcracker in a whole new way with San Francisco Ballet School. Together, experience the story of Nutcracker through Nutcracker Interactive Storybook Tablet App, and then participate in a short movement workshop based on characters in the app. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

December 2015

  • Feb
    19
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Wells Fargo at the PPIE

    A special exhibition at the Wells Fargo History Museum in San Francisco tells the story of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Wells Fargo’s role in supporting the Exhibition. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Innovation Hangar

    Innovation Hangar is a unique social innovation space that facilitates connections, ideas and investments in a way that simply cannot happen in the virtual world. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    15
    to
    Dec
    23
  • A Tale of Two Fairs: 1915 San Francisco and 1915-16 San Diego

    A special exhibit on the San Francisco and the San Diego World Fairs of 1915 from the Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs at CSU Fresno. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Monterey County at the PPIE

    This temporary exhibition commemorates the centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), held in San Francisco to honor the opening of the Panama Canal. Monterey County sent several exhibits to the PPIE, and celebrated with a special day at the fair as well as a pageant. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    13
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Exhibit on the PPIE’s Portuguese Pavilion at the Portuguese Historical Museum

    Enjoy an exhibit on the Portuguese pavilion and the direct connection to the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church to the PPIE. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jun
    25
    to
    Dec
    04
  • Popular Songs of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    You'll be humming tunes that were popular one hundred years ago after a visit to this online exhibition that includes a slideshow of sheet music cover art, an essay by music historian James M. Keller, and links to vintage recordings.
    Learn More >
    Exhibition • Elsewhere
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • California Invites the World

    Beginning on July 18th, a new exhibit will be open at the History Center celebrating 100 years since the Pan Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco. Photos, artifacts and other memorabilia from the original Exposition as well as a few special artifacts celebrating this year's centennial will be shown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Aug
    01
    to
    Dec
    31
  • From the Vault: Artifacts from Richmond Day & the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition

    Celebrate the centennial of the PPIE with a mini exhibit of expo related artifacts from the museum's permanent collection. The show features artifacts such as postcards, souvenir books, ribbons, textiles and a medal made by Shreve & Company commemorating Richmond Day on August 7, 1915. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    08
    to
    Dec
    16
  • Exceptional Expositions

    Exceptional Expositions presents the architecture and landscape of two world’s fairs held in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915 and the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) of 1939. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    09
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Company’s Coming: San Francisco Hosts the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    This special exhibition offers a glimpse into the efforts made by government, business, and societal leaders to prepare for and organize the PPIE and the crowd of nearly nineteen million national and international visitors that descended upon a revitalized city in search of entertainment and opportunity. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Sep
    28
    to
    Dec
    07
  • The Exhibition That Never Was: The Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Book Club of California, and a Century of Fine Books

    In 1912, a group of San Francisco bibliophiles proposed an exhibition of locally produced fine press books for the forthcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition. When advised that their proposal would carry more weight if made by an official organization, they founded the Book Club of California. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    10
    to
    Jan
    10
  • Night Illumination—Panama-Pacific International Exposition—San Francisco, California, 1915, 1915. Published by Pacific Novelty Company. Color letterpress halftone. FAMSF, gift of Barbara Jungi in memory of Elsie F. Miller; Elizabeth Colwell, The Great Pine (detail), 1908. Color woodcut. FAMSF, museum purchase, gifts in honor of Sylvia Walters's 75th birthday, gift of William C. Clark, and Estate of Moses Lasky, 2015.5
  • Prints at the Fair

    Prints at the Fair is a companion exhibition to Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Thousands of prints were displayed during the Exposition in 1915, including a display of more than two thousand impressions from the United States. Critic Charles Olmsted observed that this was “the most complete and representative collection of prints that has yet been made in this country.” Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    17
    to
    Jan
    10
  • 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

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    to
    Feb
    26
  • The Grandeur of a Great Labor: The Building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With highlights from the rich collections of The Bancroft Library, the exhibition examines the building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the fair that celebrated the canal's opening and the rise of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    01
    to
    Mar
    30
  • The Broderick

    The whole family will enjoy seeing the Fire Department's special exhibition of rare fire engines, Panama Pacific International Exposition Fire Department memorabilia, uniforms, period clothing and hundreds of historic fire artifacts on display at the San Francisco Fire Department Museum Come see this priceless treasure - a great family friendly event! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    02
    to
    Dec
    17
  • A Fair Centennial: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915-2015. Selections from the F. W. Olin Library

    Featuring books, archives, ephemera, and memorabilia relating to the 1915 world's fair. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Apr
    10
  • Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

    All aboard for a trip back in time as the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park presents an all new garden railway display celebrating the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. See an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, as model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair's most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Dec
    23
  • Panama-Pacific 1915 Centennial Photography Exhibit

    A joint exhibit of photographs of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition from the collections of the SFMTA Photo Archive, SF Public Library Photo Center, and Moulin Studios and hosted by the Harvey Milk Photo Center. The show will highlight images from these public and private collections that provide a glimpse into the birth, life, and death of San Francisco’s largest and most extravagant public event. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    19
    to
    Dec
    31
  • Nutcracker Under the Dome

    Nutcracker Under the Dome will run nightly from November 19 through December 31, every half hour starting at 5:00 p.m. until the Centre’s closing. Westfield’s iconic Dome will come to life each night with this 3-D light show that will showcase the beloved holiday tradition in an innovative format, promising to capture the imagination of young and old. Learn More >
    Exhibition, Performance • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    03
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • “The Great Chums” on the Joy Zone, 1915 California Historical Society, PC-PA 190_001
  • Short Stories: Five Women of the PPIE

    Erin Garcia, curator of City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair, will profile five notable women. These include Phoebe Apperson Hearst, the well-known philanthropist who served as honorary president of the exposition’s Woman’s Board; Delilah Beasley, the African-American reporter who covered the fair for the Oakland Sunshine newspaper; and Alice Sue Fun, a 16-year-old department store stock girl who described her visit to the exposition’s Chinese pavilion as “the highlight of [her] life." Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    03
    06:00PM – 07:30PM
  • Farewell to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    The San Francisco History Center presents a very special lecture for the centennial celebration of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Laura Ackley – author of San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 - will share the details of the closing of the Fair in an illustrated lecture. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    04
    04:15PM – 05:15PM
  • The Ferry Building Lights Are Going Out!

    To commemorate the exact Centennial of the Closing Day of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, the '1915' lights on San Francisco's Ferry Building are being turned off!

    Please join us for a fun ceremonial salute to 'closing day' on the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building. There will be wonderful souvenirs to the first 500 attendees, music, a tribute to Lincoln Beachey, CC Moore and Sunny Jim Rolph, and surprises galore! Vintage attire is encouraged!

    Program is 4:15 - 5:15 - get there early! Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    04
    06:00PM – 08:00PM
  • Historic Libations: Lights Out, Party Continues

    December 4 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Join us in celebrating this remarkable event at Historic Libations, CHS’s annual holiday cocktail party. Sip California cocktails, legendary and obscure, toast to the history of mixed drinks, and commemorate the end of one chapter in California’s history and the beginning of another. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    05
    02:00PM – 04:00PM
  • Broadside Printing Event

    Keepsake for the Centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    05
    05:00PM – 06:00PM
  • Photo Opportunity with the San Francisco Ballet

    On two Saturdays through the holiday season, guests will have the opportunity to meet and take photos with the San Francisco Ballet dancers Under the Dome. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    06
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – December 6

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    10
    07:00PM – 08:30PM
  • San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific Exposition

    In its centennial year, Nancy DeStefanis discusses the "last great world's fair," the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, and displays artifacts from the event. Learn More >
    Lecture • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    12
    01:00PM – 02:30PM
  • Transplanting at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
  • Avenue of Palms, California Nursery Historical Park Tour – December 12

    See the actual palms that traveled to SF and back in 1915. Learn about how the California Nursery was the center of growing trees for all the west coast to enjoy. Learn More >
    Other • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    12
    04:15PM – 04:45PM
  • STORY TIME & MOVEMENT WORKSHOP WITH MISS KRISTI
  • Story Time & Movement Workshop with Miss Kristi

    Interact with Nutcracker in a whole new way with San Francisco Ballet School. Together, experience the story of Nutcracker through Nutcracker Interactive Storybook Tablet App, and then participate in a short movement workshop based on characters in the app. Learn More >
    Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Dec
    16
    to
    Dec
    31
  • SF Ballet in Tomasson’s Nutcracker (©Erik Tomasson
  • San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker

    Lights dim. History comes alive. This year SF Ballet celebrates the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition with its production of Nutcracker, which is set in San Francisco in 1915, the year the Exposition brought the world to San Francisco’s doorstep. Learn More >
    Performance • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND

January 2016

  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    10
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    21
    to
    Jan
    03
  • City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World’s Fair

    Journey inside the PPIE to see what fairgoers encountered 100 years ago in the grand palaces, exotic foreign pavilions, and the amusement midway known as the Joy Zone. Learn what distinguished this world’s fair through vintage photographs, souvenirs, and other artifacts. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Feb
    28
    to
    Jan
    30
  • Hakone’s Centennial: A Century of Beauty and Endurance

    Hakone is the oldest Japanese estate garden in the Western Hemisphere. It was founded by Isabel Stine, a San Franciscan who was so enthralled by the Japan Pavilion at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition she wanted to have her own Japanese garden and retreat. Learn More >
    Exhibition • Peninsula
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • May
    30
    to
    Jan
    03
  • Pacific Worlds

    Turning the familiar idea of California as the western frontier on its head and re-positioning the State as “the East Coast of the Pacific,” Pacific Worlds weaves together objects and ephemera from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections along with contemporary California Pacific Islander artwork and community voices. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    10
    to
    Jan
    10
  • Night Illumination—Panama-Pacific International Exposition—San Francisco, California, 1915, 1915. Published by Pacific Novelty Company. Color letterpress halftone. FAMSF, gift of Barbara Jungi in memory of Elsie F. Miller; Elizabeth Colwell, The Great Pine (detail), 1908. Color woodcut. FAMSF, museum purchase, gifts in honor of Sylvia Walters's 75th birthday, gift of William C. Clark, and Estate of Moses Lasky, 2015.5
  • Prints at the Fair

    Prints at the Fair is a companion exhibition to Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Thousands of prints were displayed during the Exposition in 1915, including a display of more than two thousand impressions from the United States. Critic Charles Olmsted observed that this was “the most complete and representative collection of prints that has yet been made in this country.” Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    17
    to
    Jan
    10
  • 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

    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. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    to
    Feb
    26
  • The Grandeur of a Great Labor: The Building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With highlights from the rich collections of The Bancroft Library, the exhibition examines the building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the fair that celebrated the canal's opening and the rise of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    01
    to
    Mar
    30
  • The Broderick

    The whole family will enjoy seeing the Fire Department's special exhibition of rare fire engines, Panama Pacific International Exposition Fire Department memorabilia, uniforms, period clothing and hundreds of historic fire artifacts on display at the San Francisco Fire Department Museum Come see this priceless treasure - a great family friendly event! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Apr
    10
  • Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

    All aboard for a trip back in time as the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park presents an all new garden railway display celebrating the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. See an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, as model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair's most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Jan
    10
    10:00AM – 02:00PM
  • Subframe Listening Event: Past is Prologue

    To close our Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) programming, we present an interactive program at the Palace of Fine Arts. Come meet the staff of Subframe, an audio storytelling project, and listen to their audio stories connected to the history of the PPIE, specifically their final episode titled, "The Past is Prologue." Learn More >
    Exhibition, Other • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND

February 2016

  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Jul
    25
    to
    Feb
    14
  • Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden

    This exhibition presents a survey of Willard Worden’s photographs from the first two decades of the 20th century, including views of San Francisco’s coastline, Golden Gate Park, and Chinatown. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
  • Oct
    21
    to
    Feb
    26
  • The Grandeur of a Great Labor: The Building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

    With highlights from the rich collections of The Bancroft Library, the exhibition examines the building of the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the fair that celebrated the canal's opening and the rise of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Learn More >
    Exhibition • East Bay
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    01
    to
    Mar
    30
  • The Broderick

    The whole family will enjoy seeing the Fire Department's special exhibition of rare fire engines, Panama Pacific International Exposition Fire Department memorabilia, uniforms, period clothing and hundreds of historic fire artifacts on display at the San Francisco Fire Department Museum Come see this priceless treasure - a great family friendly event! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Apr
    10
  • Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

    All aboard for a trip back in time as the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park presents an all new garden railway display celebrating the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. See an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, as model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair's most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND

March 2016

  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    01
    to
    Mar
    30
  • The Broderick

    The whole family will enjoy seeing the Fire Department's special exhibition of rare fire engines, Panama Pacific International Exposition Fire Department memorabilia, uniforms, period clothing and hundreds of historic fire artifacts on display at the San Francisco Fire Department Museum Come see this priceless treasure - a great family friendly event! Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Apr
    10
  • Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

    All aboard for a trip back in time as the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park presents an all new garden railway display celebrating the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. See an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, as model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair's most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND

April 2016

  • Apr
    02
    to
    Apr
    02
  • Underground Chinatown: Racism at the Fair — The 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition

    The exhibition focuses on a popular attraction in the 1915 Fair’s “Joy Zone” that fascinated visitors with false portrayals of Chinese culture. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • Free
  • ATTEND
  • Nov
    12
    to
    Apr
    10
  • Garden Railway: 1915 Pan–Pacific

    All aboard for a trip back in time as the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park presents an all new garden railway display celebrating the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. See an enchanting display landscaped with hundreds of dwarf plants and several water features, as model trains wend their way through the festive fairgrounds, zipping past whimsical recreations of the fair's most dazzling monuments and amusements, including the Tower of Jewels, Palace of Fine Arts, and more. Learn More >
    Exhibition • San Francisco
  • $
  • ATTEND
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