Arts Bombast: Picture This at the SFPL
[Mission: Mission High School, ca. 1946.]
Saturday (aka the day that I did ALL the things) I had a chance to visit our fine city’s Public Library. For any bibliophobes out there, the library isn’t just a place to check out books. There, you can research archived photos, magazines, and other documents, attend lectures and film screenings, and enjoy art exhibitions. What I didn’t previously know however, was that in addition to the shows they offer on site, the SFPL also has a selection of online-only exhibitions.
Yesterday, I spent a good hour and half obsessing over exploring their Picture This exhibition, which features photographs from the SHADES Project. Basically, the library collects historic photos from community members through this initiative, and then displays a selection online for the good people of the internet. Some of my favorites:
[Western Addition: Ruth, ca. 1942.]
[Mission: Feast of Virgin of Guadalupe, ca. 1970. The donor’s father opened a tortilla factory on Fillmore Street in 1925. The family still runs Casa Sánchez, a large tortilla chip and salsa business. They seriously do make the BEST tortilla chips and salsa.]
[Mission: Sisters, 1962.]
[Mission: Perales-Moreno wedding, ca. 1970]
[Sunset: Eighteenth birthday party, 1926.]
[Western Addition: Nobu Mihara, 1931.]
[Sunset: Hanukah, ca. 1973. The dress pattern, the curtains, and the painting of the GG Bridge in the background = PERFECTION.]
[Mission: Mitchells Ice Cream founders. The family had a dairy at 29th and Noe Streets from 1851 until 1900. Picture taken in the alley between home and barnyard (511 29th Street), ca. 1890. Um, hi, have you had Mitchell’s ginger-flavored ice cream? I DIE.]
[Mission: 1131-1133 Treat Street, ca. 1910. This is one of my favorite blocks in my neighborhood…]
[Western Addition: House Wedding, 1969. Ugh, I really should have lived through the sixties.]
[Western Addition: First integrated group of graduates from Saint Dominic’s, 1963.]
For more fun stuff, check out SFPL’s online exhibition, Radically Gay: The Life of Harry Hay, and my favorite photos from National Geographic’s tumblr, FOUND.
Ribbon Around A Bomb 
I have a flyer for this at my desk, just haven’t gotten down there before it closes. Thanks for this – it’ll spur me to get on the BART this month.
I sometimes wish I was alive in the eighties. 😛 Just so I could go to the Batcave and make deathrocker friends.
Oi, meeeee too.