On November 5th, I hosted a tour for Mechanics’ members to the Society of California Pioneers in the Presidio to see their exhibit Generations to Come: Recent Conservation and Digitization Projects.
The morning of our tour, I ran into Mechanics’ member Anita Denz who happened to be on the tour before ours with her friend, noted photographer Ron Henggeler. Running into Mechanics’ Institute members “off site” is a special delight - San Francisco really is a small town! Unfortunately, she and I only had a moment to say our hellos before they went off to lunch and we met with our tour guide, the Pioneers’ enthusiastic curator John Hogan.
John has worked at the Pioneers for a long time and his intimacy with their collection shows in the wealth of knowledge and personal anecdotes he brought to our tour experience, especially when he showed our group Eadweard Muybridge’s spectacular eighteen-foot, thirteen-panel 1878 Panorama of San Francisco – the highlight of the exhibition.
While this particular exhibit is now over, not long ago, Anita shared with me her friend Ron’s latest newsletter which covers the exhibit in lush photographic detail. As you can see, the Pioneers pack a lot of wonder into their small, but gorgeous space! If you haven’t been there, I urge you to and visit them when their next exhibit, Yosemite Through Three Lenses, opens on February 4. This show will feature yet more work of Eadward Muybridge and that of two other photographers, Carleton Watkins and George Fiske.
Coincidentally, Muybridge and Watkins, were active members of the Mechanics’ Institute and some of their work included serving as “official” photographers of our industrial exhibitions. Their work in this regard can be viewed on our 5th floor where we have a picture exhibit that outlines our industrial exhibitions.
Eadweard Muybridge was born in England in 1830. He came to California as a young man and made himself famous as a photographer of cityscapes and natural wonders and his famous “running horse” imagery, the progenitor of modern moving pictures, was on special display at our 1878 exhibition.
To find out more about these colorful characters check out some of the books we have about them in our collection:
Eadweard Muybridge
The Man Who Stopped Time: the illuminating story of Eadweard Muybridge : pioneer photographer, father of the motion picture, murderer by Brian Clegg
River of Shadows : Eadweard Muybridge and the technological wild west by local heroine Rebecca Solnit
The Inventor and the Tycoon : a Gilded Age murder and the birth of moving pictures by Edward Ball
There is also a new film about Muybridge called Exposing Muybridge which you can watch locally or on various streaming services.
Carleton Watkins
Carleton Watkins : making the West American by Tyler Green
Carleton Watkins in Yosemite by Weston Naef
