Friday, April 17, 2009

de Young Attendance Register—April 18, 1906

Detail of April 18, 1906 entry

In recognition of the 103rd anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, we're pleased to present a guest post by FAMSF assistant registrar Steven F. Correll.

Last December when several of the Fine Arts Museums registrars were looking through the de Young's offsite storage facility, senior registrar Stephen Lockwood found a series of ledger books that record the weather and daily attendance for the de Young beginning with its opening day in the 19th century. As we looked through the books, one particular ledger was most interesting:

"Tuesday, April 17th, 1906. Fine, warm, pleasant day. Attendance: 928."

The next day had a very different entry:

"5:15 AM, Wednesday, April 18/06. Terrific Earthquake which demolished the building and destroyed many of the exhibits. --John W. Rogers, Curator"

Below the ledger entry Rogers added the note: "Museum closed indefinitely."

The next entry to appear in the ledger is: "Sunday, November 10, 1907.  Cold and cloudy."

Posted by: Andrew Fox | April 17 at 11:44:41 AM
Permalink | Comments (2) : Submit a Comment
Listed under: General News

Friday, April 17, 2009

Notes from Cairo

Camels at the Giza Pyramids

Last week a team of journalists and museum staff journeyed to Cairo, Egypt for a week of shooting and research to produce a one-hour documentary and newspaper supplement for our upcoming exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.

We were fortunate to be accompanied by the noted archaeologist and cultural phenomenon, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquties for Egypt.  You may have seen Dr. Hawass in many television specials on the National Geographic or Discovery Channels about ancient Egypt, King Tut, mummies or scientific discoveries relating to antiquity.  That’s right, he’s the man with the hat.  Just this week he announced that the Supreme Council of Antiquities is close to unearthing the location of the tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony in a dig near Alexandria.

[Read the rest of this post and view photos from the Egypt trip on our Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition website.]

Posted by: Jill Lynch | April 17 at 11:40:09 AM
Permalink | Comments (0) : Submit a Comment
Listed under: de Young News | Exhibitions

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Get Your Flat Anubis!

Flat Anubis is here!

Go to our King Tut website to get your own Flat Anubis*. Download, print, color and cut out, then take him on your travels and share share your photos on our Adventures of Flat Anubis Flickr group.

Learn more about Flat Anubis and download your copy here.

*Thanks to the original Flat Stanley for inspiring this project!

Posted by: Andrew Fox | April 14 at 3:29:53 PM
Permalink | Comments (0) : Submit a Comment
Listed under: de Young News | Exhibitions