VISIT THE AMERICAN GALLERIES AT THE DE YOUNG MUSEUM

Visit the original works of American art at the de Young Museum, in Golden Gate Park.

To arrange a visit...

  • Call 415.750.3658 T, W, Th, Fri from 10 am to 4 pm.
  • 8 weeks notice is required.
  • Docent tours or self-guided tours are available.

To Enhance Your Students' Museum Visit

  1. Visit the de Young on our free night, the first Wednesday of every month, and view the American art collection.
  2. If there are particular works of art you would like to have students work with, make a note of them and their location in the museum.
  3. Prepare students a few days before the visit with discussion and activities.
  4. The day before the visit, review the purpose of seeing original works of art and visiting an art museum. Review museum rules with the students.
  5. After the visit-have students record their experience of the museum. They can draw or write letters about it, or make posters to advertise the American art collection at the de Young.
  6. Send some examples of your students' reactions to their museum visit to the Education Department at the de Young.
  7. Continue to use the curriculum and visit the de Young again, soon!
  8. Send the evaluation sheet included with this guide to the Education Department at the de Young.

Before You Arrive

  1. Pens are not allowed in the galleries. If students need to write in the galleries, please bring clipboards and pencils. Do not lean clipboards on walls or cases.
  2. Please do not bring lunches or backpacks into the museum.
  3. We ask that one adult chaperone be assigned to every ten students.
  4. Review museum rules with students and chaperones.
  5. Bring your reservation form with you to the museum.

When You Arrive

  1. Please sign in with the guards when you arrive. Show your reservation form to the guards.
  2. Lunches and backpacks are not allowed in the galleries. Please leave them in the bus or car. Lunches and backpacks brought to the museum must be left in a basket at the front entrance. Please remove valuables before storing backpacks in baskets.
  3. Review museum rules with students and chaperones.
  4. If meeting a docent, inform the docent of the works your class has studied or works you wish to see.

Appropriate Museum Behavior

  1. Please do not touch art objects, including sculpture, frames, or furniture. Invisible oils on our skin can damage works of art.
  2. Please remain at least twelve inches away from all art work.
  3. Do not use the tops of display cases, art objects, or the walls as a writing surface or for a place to rest personal belongings.
  4. Talk at a normal voice level.
  5. No food, drink, candy, or gum is permitted in the museum.
  6. Photography is permitted but flash photography is not allowed. Photography is also not allowed in special exhibitions.

How to Read a Label

Labels identify works of art in a museum. The label is usually placed to the right of the work of art. The labels in the American galleries read as follows.

Artist's Name: James Peale

Place and date of birth-date and place of death: Queen Anne's County, Maryland 1749-1831 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Object title, year work completed: Still-Life with Fruit, ca. 1821

Materials of artwork: Oil on panel

How the de Young acquired the work: Museum purchase

Museum accession number: 46.11
This is a system of numbers that helps the de Young keep track of when works of art were acquired. This accession number, 46.11, tells us that this painting was the 11th art work acquired by the de Young in 1946.

  

Introduction | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Slide List | Museum Visit