November 2020 ~ Online Presentations & Collections.
Dear subscribers of our monthly events newsletter,
The San Francisco Public Library is open for SFPL To Go service only. All in-person programs and events have been canceled until further notice, but our Virtual Library is available. We will keep you updated regarding our eventual reopening date and wish you health and safety during this time. We're working to bring you insights into San Francisco's history and book arts through our newsletter, blog and social media channels.
Happy Thanksgiving
Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White, Printing Art Quarterly, third quarter (1936)
From the Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing & the Development of the Book, SFPL. Happy Thanksgiving to our friends near and far! We are thankful for you, dear friends.
Everything She Touched, The Life of Ruth Asawa
Author Marilyn Chase shares how she stepped into the world of artist Ruth Asawa, in her new book Everything She Touched, The Life of Ruth Asawa. Chase spent a year and a half digging through hundreds of boxes of letters, writings and drawings carefully saved by Asawa. This was augmented by countless days interviewing Asawa's friends and family members to create a fascinating portrait of the artist. Calling Ruth a hero, Chase wrote that Asawa “is living proof that creativity heals, informs and ennobles life.”
Chase is an acclaimed author, long-time health science reporter and columnist for the Wall Street Journal and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley’s journalism school.
Dialogue: Total SF with Gary Kamiya and Paul Madonna
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight and pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub founded TotalSF to highlight the wonder and whimsy of San Francisco and to remember why the city is worth fighting for. They launched the program with #TotalMuni2018 when they rode every Muni line in one day and have continued their shenanigans by crafting a new 49 Mile Scenic Route that promotes walking and bicycling, hosting San Francisco movie nights at the Balboa Theater and interviewing San Francisco characters on their TotalSF podcast.
Members of Collective Genus will be in conversation with local art historian and archivist Jeff Gunderson on the subjects of collaboration, mutual support networks and the history of art collectives in the Bay Area. Collective Genus is a group of three Bay Area art collectives focused on cultivating and sustaining the local arts community.
Frontispiece, original drawing for Cherry Ann and the Dragon Horse
The Lee Manning de Villaneuve Cherry Ann and the Dragon Horse Drawings (BASC 9) is a collection of seven original pen and ink illustrations for the children's book, Cherry Ann and the Dragon Horse by Elizabeth Coatsworth (1955), about a Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco in the 1950s.
Manning de Villeneuve Lee was born in Summerville, South Carolina, on March 15, 1894. He grew up along the South Carolina coast and attended both public and military schools. Lee attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1914 to 1915; served his military service in Mexico and Europe between 1916 and 1919, and returned to Europe for three more years of study. He traveled extensively there, studying art on an academy scholarship in 1921. He married Eunice Celeste Sandoval, who would write children's books under the name Tina Lee. While at art school Lee became interested in illustration and began his career drawing for periodicals. He later illustrated over 200 children's books, focusing on adventurous and historical themes. He died at his home in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, on March 31, 1980.
Elizabeth Coatsworth (1900-1986) was probably best known for her book The Cat Who Went to Heaven (1930), which won the Newberry Medal for best children’s book in that year. She was the author of more than 100 books in a career that spanned 57 years.
The original drawings for Cherry Ann and the Dragon Horse were exhibited in the San Francisco Public Library’s Children’s Department, in November 1955. This collection of seven illustrations was later donated to the Library by Macmillan Publishers.
Recently Processed Collections
The San Francisco Folk Music Club (SFFMC) was founded in 1948 by Dave Rothkop. In 1962 Faith Petric, who grew to personify SFFMC, took over managing the club. Petric died in 2013 but her legacy continues as the Club has inspired creation of some five additional folk clubs in California and is a solid musical entity in the West Coast folk music scene. The SFFMC is made up of singers, instrumentalists, performers, songwriters, listeners, and dancers. Its purpose is the enjoyment, dissemination and preservation in individual, family and community life of that acoustic music roughly defined as "folk". Club activities include: camping, song swaps and jams, the Free Folk Festival and the Hootenanny.
This recently processed collection of 2.25 cubic feet includes meeting minutes, self published newsletters, directories of members, correspondence, flyers from festivals and venues and resource files and buttons.
From the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor
Illustration from Horrible: An Account of the Sad Achievements of Progress (1960).
We thought we'd get a head start on dressing the turkey. Oh that Tomi Ungerer, always an inspiration!