From Street to Stage with Beaver Bauer

05 November, 2026 - 11 April, 2027

Jewett Gallery - Lower Level

Tashi Shimada (photographer), The Angels of Light Parade on Haight Street, 1972.

This exhibition surveys the career of Debra “Beaver” Bauer that spans more than fifty years of creative work. Bauer developed her reputation first as a member of the experimental Angels of Light Free Theater, which flourished for ten years before its cast was impacted by AIDS. Bauer then transitioned to work in costume design, becoming one of the Bay Area’s most respected and celebrated. She designed for major theaters like American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) and Berkeley Rep, as well as experimental companies like First Voice and Theater Yugen. She also worked with circus ensembles including Teatro ZinZanni, while maintaining an approach based in drawing and a lifelong inspiration from the Angels. The exhibition includes original renderings, performance photography, video clips and elements from costumes drawn from her expansive work.

Social: Opening Reception

Celebrate the creative work of Bay Area costume designer and artist, Debra "Beaver" Bauer, at the opening reception of From Street to Stage with Beaver Bauer. Showcasing a career that spans over 50 years, the exhibition includes original renderings, performance photography, video clips and elements from costumes drawn from her expansive work.

Light snacks and beverages will be served.

Thursday, November 5th, 2026: 5:00pm

Jewett Gallery - Lower Level

Main Library

100 Larkin Street

exhibitionsteam@sfpl.org

Panel: Evolving the Archive

Presentation and a panel discussion exploring how artists and institutions are evolving archives to make room for more stories, more histories and more truths. Presentations will include projects that reimagine engagement with public spaces and public knowledge, and memory work practices for preserving and passing down culture.

This program is the final installment of the Power & Public Memory: Shaping Legacy Program Series, which uplifts community stories and artists’ proposals for reimagined commemorative landscapes and inclusive spaces of public memory.  

Panelists 

Adrienne Storey, City Archivist, SFPL 

Yolanda Wisher, Senior Curator, Monument Lab 

Christy Chan, Artist and Filmmaker 

Moderated by Shamsher Virk, Program Officer, Performing Arts Program, Hewlett Foundation  

Wednesday, November 4th, 2026: 6:00pm

Koret Auditorium - Lower Level

Main Library

100 Larkin Street

allison.wyckoff@sfpl.org

Social: San Francisco Correspondence Co-op

Explore the world of mail art with the San Francisco Correspondence Co-op, a monthly social club for snail mail artists, letter writers and people who love the USPS. If this sounds like you, then you've come to the right place. The Co-op is a lively group of beginner mail artists as well as practitioners making some mail art together, sharing ideas and having fun. The Co-op meets the third Sunday of every month; no meeting in December.

Presented by Book Arts & Special Collections.

Sunday, November 15th, 2026: 1:00pm

Learning Studio - 5th Floor

Main Library

100 Larkin Street

bookarts@sfpl.org

California Trips: Bay Area

Take a trip through the Bay Area as it was captured by the people who lived, worked, traveled, celebrated, and made history here!

California Revealed and the San Francisco Public Library invite you to California Trips: Bay Area, a special archival screening night and fundraiser. Join us for home movies, amateur films, news footage, and other moving images drawn from collections cared for by California Revealed partners across the state.

About the Screening

The program travels through decades of Bay Area life, from family outings and tourist adventures to public gatherings, protests, and moments of social change. Together, these films reveal a region shaped by many perspectives and remind us how much of our history survives because people recorded these moments, held onto them, and made it possible for us to see and share them again. The evening will bring Bay Area histories back to the screen through an unexpected mix of archival surprises, with raffle prizes donated by local businesses.

We're also selling raffle tickets for some amazing prizes donated by local businesses. Winners will be announced following intermission.

Visit californiarevealed.org/ASN2026 for more details.

Saturday, November 7th, 2026: 6:00pm

Internet Archive Auditorium

300 Funston Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94118

Mission Branch Is Back!

Celebrate the grand reopening of our beloved Mission Branch Library on November 14! Enjoy a festive community celebration that kicks off with a ribbon-cutting and a blessing for the newly renovated space by Aztec dancers. The afternoon continues with entertainment featuring René y Familia, refreshments and exploration. Enter through the new front doors at 3329 24th St., and take in the brand-new community room and children’s space on the ground floor. Then, make your way up the beautifully restored grand staircase into the historic reading room, viewing Juana Alicia’s stunning public art, and exploring the Main Floor’s Adult collection, the brand-new teen room and more! We can’t wait to celebrate with you! 

Selling San Francisco

22 October, 2026 - 24 November, 2026

San Francisco History Center Exhibit Space - 6th Floor

Marketing the City by the Bay has taken many forms over the decades – mass market advertising but also brochures in more than a half-dozen languages and campaigns targeted at such specific constituencies as gay travelers. Special occasions merit ads all their own. Cross-promotion can be a tool as well – look no further than See’s Candies’ $28 S.F.-themed Barbie from 2001, a limited release done with Mattel and SF Travel.

All materials are from the San Francisco Travel Association Records, SFH 771. This glimpse into the holdings was curated by former San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King. On view in the San Francisco History Center through Nov. 24, 2026. This pop-up is in conjunction with SFO Museum’s “Destination: San Francisco” exhibit at the Dianne Feinstein International Terminal.

Thou Drawest All Things: San Francisco by Its Artists 
Selections from the San Francisco History Center

01 October, 2026 - 07 January, 2027

San Francisco History Center Exhibit Space - 6th Floor

Harry Washington Seawell (1865-1945), [Chinese men reading billboard], 1901.

San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Over the years, the San Francisco History Center archives has welcomed gifts of original works of art. This exhibition presents a selection of drawings, watercolors, lithographs and etchings that illuminate life in San Francisco across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Lands End to the county line, explore how visual artists have interpreted this kaleidoscopic city. 

Curated by San Francisco History Center librarian Tom Carey. The works on view are drawn from the San Francisco Collection of Works on Paper. 

The American Indian Cultural District's

Mapping Genocide

04 September, 2026 - 21 January, 2027

Government Information Center - 5th Floor

The American Indian Cultural District's Mapping Genocide exhibition examines San Francisco's legacy of commemorating the ideologies and individuals who spearheaded the genocide and displacement of American Indians through public art in the Civic Art Collection and street place names in San Francisco.

Through visual art, sculpture, mapping and documented interviews, the exhibition explores whose histories have been celebrated in the public realm and whose have been erased. It confronts these difficult truths while reimagining the future of public art, monuments and place names through an Indigenous lens.

This interactive exhibition expands public understanding of San Francisco's history by elevating Native perspectives, increasing the visibility of American Indian cultures and histories and fostering community dialogue about truth, healing and representation.

Presentation: Mapping Genocide with San Francisco's American Indian Cultural District

Little Brown Dolls No More:

The Rise of Filipino Boxers in the Squared Circle

21 August, 2026 - 14 January, 2027

Filipino American Center Exhibit Space - 3rd Floor

Little Brown Dolls No More: The Rise of Filipino Boxers in the Squared Circle pays reverence to Filipino boxers and their innovation to American boxing, a colonial import turned powerful expression of identity, resilience and resistance. The “little brown doll of the Philippines” was a patronizing nickname used by sports writers in the 1920s and 1930s to refer to Filipino boxers. The boxing ring or “the squared circle,” however, became a platform for these fighters to claim dignity, pride and visibility in the early twentieth century amid racial tensions and American empire expansion. 

This exhibit traces the evolution of the sport from the Presidio of San Francisco where the first American troops were deployed to the Philippines for the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), and then back to San Francisco where these young Filipino men threw their first punches on American soil, and where a fighter forgotten by history named Francisco “Pancho Villa” Guilledo became the first Filipino flyweight boxing world champion in 1923. Many other Filipino boxers would follow Pancho Villa to train and fight in San Francisco at legendary gyms and venues like Civic Auditorium, Dreamland and Newman’s Gym. 

Eyewitness to the Resistance:

Photojournalists on the Front Lines of Protest

17 September, 2026 - 31 December, 2026

Art, Music & Recreation Center Exhibit Space - 4th Floor

Protest photography records more than a crowd. It captures the messages people carry, the coalitions they form, the spaces they occupy and the responses their presence provokes. It also reflects a photographer’s choices: where to stand, when to press the shutter and which moment will represent a larger event.

Historical photographs from the San Francisco History Center are presented alongside recent work by Pro Bono Photo photographers. Together, the images trace continuities in public protest while recognizing the distinct history, purpose and stakes of each movement.

Presented in connection with Eyewitness to the Resistance: Photojournalists on the Front Lines of Protest, an Oct. 22 panel discussion hosted by Indivisible San Francisco and Pro Bono Photo. Participating photographers will share their work and discuss the role of photojournalism in documenting protest, civic action and pro-democracy movements throughout the Bay Area.

Discourse about the Spanish West Indies, an interesting account of various portions of America,

a manuscript from William Blathwayt’s collection, circa 1690.

Panama Canal Collection, Book Arts & Special Collections.

This small manuscript of 14 pages was donated to the San Francisco Public Library in 1965 by noted collector Norman H. Strouse, along with 68 other items about the exploration and building of the Panama Canal. While most of the collection is cataloged, this manuscript escaped notice until now! We can date the provenance of the manuscript to the collection belonging to the greatest collector of his time, Sir Thomas Phillipps. This is Phillipps MS 34799, which joins another Phillipps manuscript, that one in the Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering (Phillipps MS 696: Novum Testamentum).

Back to our 1690 manuscript: Some time after the great sales of the Phillipps collection, our manuscript was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 1955. The manuscript was purchased at some point by American collector Otto O. Fisher, who placed his bookplate at the back of the manuscript. Subsequently acquired by Norman H. Strouse for his personal collection about the Panama Canal, the Discourse about the Spanish West Indies was offered by Strouse to the San Francisco Public Library, its final destination. The manuscript is now receiving much needed cataloging and will soon be available to everyone visiting Archives & Special Collections.

New Arrival at Book Arts & Special Collections

Speedball Textbook, 26th Edition. Designed and edited by Carl Rohrs. (2026)

We’re so excited to acquire the Speedball Textbook, 26th Edition. Now in two formats: the first printing which follows the format of previous years (5.5 x 8.5 inches), and the second printing which is a larger format (11 x 7 inches), with six extra pages of calligraphic splendor! The Speedball Textbook includes over 100 calligraphers and their lettering styles, a visual feast for beginners as well as practitioners. Many exemplars have been reproduced from calligraphy in the Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering. Our copies will soon be cataloged for everyone to explore.

More about the story behind the Speedball Textbook, 26th Edition at The Life of Letters podcast: Laura Edralin’s interview with Carl Rohrs, designer and editor of the Speedball Textbook

Introducing the Fire Insurance Maps online!

Published to help assess fire risk for buildings, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps show the footprint for every building in the city. These maps also indicate type of construction, use of structures, addresses, and, sometimes, the names of businesses.

The Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) is a research portal to find and view high-definition, color Fire Insurance Maps, Real Estate Atlases, Plat Books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information. Can you find your house?

Destination: San Francisco

May 9, 2026 - January 10, 2027

SFO International Terminal

Aviation Museum & Library, Departures Level 3 - Pre-Security

SFO Museum has partnered with SFPL's San Francisco History Center and local historian and former San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King on a new exhibition, Destination: San Francisco. The exhibition offers a vibrant look at how our city built its identity as a world‑class travel destination—tracing decades of promotional efforts from iconic brochures and bold graphic design to imaginative marketing campaigns. The San Francisco History Center's San Francisco Travel Association Records collection provided rich context for this story.

This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to see how SFPL’s archival collections are interpreted and brought to life in a museum setting. If you can, take time to visit SFO and explore the city’s travel history.

Pre‑security access; no ticket required.

Read the press release for more information.