Enter a Golden State of enlightenment at this Californiana treasure trove, featuring themed exhibitions drawn from the museum's million-plus California photographs, paintings and ephemera. Recent exhibits have unearthed 19th-century photographs of pioneers gleefully climbing trees in Yosemite, scrapped designs for a futuristic Ferry Building, and the epic life story of fiercely independent Californian businesswoman Juana Briones, whose 1837 farmstead is now SF's North Beach neighborhood.
California Historical Society events are rare opportunities to discuss San Francisco poetry, what it was like to be gay in 1940s San Francisco, or what was on the menu at Gold Rush saloons (short answer: whiskey, opium and tamales). If there's a Californian topic you'd like to pursue, call the research library ahead so that librarians can pull related materials from vaults full of rare manuscripts and ephemera.
