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Book Arts & Special Collections and San Francisco History Center |
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A talk and slideshow by Richie Unterberger
Rock historian and author Richie Unterberger presents "Early San Francisco Punk and New Wave: Anarchy in the USA". The talk and slide show will feature film clips of more than a dozen Bay Area punk and new wave acts from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, including the Avengers, Crime, the Residents, the Mutants, the Sleepers, Flipper, and Romeo Void.
This is an in-person program and will not be recorded.
Wednesday, January 7th, 2026: 6:00pm Koret Auditorium - Lower Level Main Library
100 Larkin Street artmusicrec@sfpl.org |
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A monthly social club based in San Francisco for mail artists, letter writers and people who love the USPS. If this sounds like you, then you've come to the right place! The Correspondence Co-op is a place for like-minded folks to meet other artists and beginners in a casual setting, make some mail art and share ideas.
The SFCC meets the third Sunday of every month; no meeting in December.
Sponsored by Book Arts & Special Collections.
Sunday, January 18th, 2026: 1:00pm
Learning Studio - 5th Floor Main Library 100 Larkin Street bookarts@sfpl.org |
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26.2 to Life, filmed inside California’s oldest state prison, explores the transformative power of San Quentin’s 1000 Mile Club, in which incarcerated men train for and run a marathon on the dirt and concrete path circling the prison yard. For the runners who take their places at the starting line on a cool, sunny November morning, completing the marathon means more than entrée into an elite group of athletes. It’s a chance to be defined by more than their crimes.
Please stay for the post-screening panel discussion and Q&A. Director: Christine Yoo
NR, 88 mins., 2022. Closed captions (CC) in English.
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026: 5:00pm Koret Auditorium - Lower Level
Main Library 100 Larkin Street digicenter@sfpl.org |
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We've Got Sole: Hip Hop, Hoops and the Rise of Sneaker Culture
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We've Got Sole is a celebration of the Black community’s influence on Sneaker Culture. It pays homage to the legacy of the Black and Brown communities whose creativity, perseverance and style helped develop and shape what is now referred to as Sneaker Culture.
Learn about how Sneaker Culture first emerged from Hip Hop and the rise of Black athletes in the NBA during the 1970s and 1980s. On playgrounds and city streets, Black youth adopted the cutting-edge styles and attitudes of New York City’s freshest and flyest streetball legends, B-boys, and graffiti artists--figures who proudly wore their sneakers not just to display their extraordinary basketball talents and dance moves, but as expressions of style and individuality.
Opening Reception — Jan. 22, 6 p.m., Main Library, African American Center, 3rd Floor |
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Collections in Use in 2025 |
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In 2025, the San Francisco History Center and Book Arts & Special Collections supported 2,697 total requests across books, periodicals, and archival collections.
The above chart shows how requests distributed across collection types, while the two below highlight the most-requested archival collections and then the top book/periodical categories used by researchers.
We look forward to sharing more of our collections with you in 2026!
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Public Domain Day: New Images Now Free to Download
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January 1 is Public Domain Day, when works published in 1930 officially enter the public domain. That means books, films, photographs, and more from that year are now free for anyone to use, share, and enjoy.
To celebrate, the DIGI Center staff updated all 1930 images in DigitalSF to reflect their new public domain status. When an image enters the public domain, we also make it available as a free high-resolution TIFF download, giving researchers, creators, and the public full access to these historic materials.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s available on DigitalSF:
- 57,000+ photographs currently online (from a collection of 2.5 million)
- 453 photographs from 1930 that entered the public domain on January 1
- 24,000 public domain images available for free download
Explore a sample of newly public domain photos from 1930 and discover San Francisco’s past—now open to everyone.
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New Arrival to Book Arts & Special Collections
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Indians of the U.S.A. Designed by Louise E. Jefferson (Friendship Press, 1944)
Book Arts & Special Collections has recently acquired a pictorial map designed by Louise E. Jefferson, cartographer, illustrator, calligrapher, book designer, and photographer. Depicting Native American life and history, including the forced removal of indigenous people from their ancestral homes, this map is pictorially vibrant, imbued with historical accuracy and sensitivity for marginalized communities.
The first female African American Art Director in an American publishing house, Louise E. Jefferson designed many maps for Friendship Press. One of the few African American cartographers, she designed holiday seals for the NAACP, and published books on African decorative art and African American art.
Read more about Louise E. Jefferson’s pictorial maps at World’s Revealed-Geography and Maps at the Library of Congress
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Current and Upcoming Exhibits
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Fashioning Bay Area Punk
Style, Subversion, Shock! October 31, 2025 - March 15, 2026
Book Arts & Special Collections Exhibit Space- 6th Floor |
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As a display, Fashioning San Francisco Punk traces the development of San Francisco punk dress and self-expression to the city’s rich history of counter-cultural revolution and celebrates the looks, accessories, and tastemakers that continue to define Bay Area alternative style.
Explore the library's Punk Rock Archive and Little Maga/Zine collection through this display connecting the content to the exhibition Living Tattoo Traditions: American Irezumi and Beyond, on view in the Jewett Gallery from Oct. 2, 2025 - March 1, 2026. |
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80th WWII Anniversary: Remember “Comfort Women”
September 26, 2025 - February 1, 2026
International Center Exhibit Space - 3rd Floor |
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On the 80th Anniversary of the end of WWII, we honor the history and legacy of the “comfort women,” the hundreds of thousands of women and girls who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Pacific War. The survivors are also called the “grandmas.” Although most of them perished, those who did survive became spokespeople for women’s rights and were instrumental in changing International Law, making sexual slavery and sexual violence during war a crime against humanity and a war crime. This exhibition, with photos and original artwork by the survivors, highlights the “grandmas” history, activism and their ongoing struggle for redress and justice.
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Remembering Ieuan Rees, Master Stone Carver and Teacher
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Calligraphy by Ieuan Rees, Richard Harrison Collection.
Rest in calligraphic heaven, Ieuan Rees, Welsh calligrapher, stone carver, and teacher (1941-2025). Ieuan came to worldwide notice through a series of YouTube lectures, known as much for his stone carving wisdom as for the soothing ASMR sounds of his chisel and voice, documented in this piece produced by BBC News.
Here is more from Ieuan on YouTube.
The Book Arts & Special Collections Center is honored to hold this piece and more in the Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy & Lettering. Available for everyone to view and enjoy.
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San Francisco History Center, Book Arts & Special Collections
Main Library, 6th Floor 100 Larkin San Francisco, CA 94102 |
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