California Academy of Sciences ~ A quick tour through its 155 year history.

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California Academy of Sciences A quick tour
through its 155 year history.
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Our beginning on April 4th, 1853 as the
California Academy of Natural Sciences On the
evening of April 4, 1853, seven men assembled in
a candle-lit room at 129 Montgomery and founded
the first academy of science west of the Atlantic
seaboard.
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The first formal museum of the now California
Academy of Sciences located at DuPont Grant
Avenue and California Streets from 1872 to 1890.
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Market Street Academy 1891 - 1906 With a
bequest from James Lick, this stately, six story
stone building was built at 833 Market Street
between Third and Fourth Streets. The center
archway leads to the museum in the rear building.
The front building was an income producing
commercial building.
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Market Street Museum The mammoth now dominates
the second floor in this sky lit, open court of
the museum. Research offices were located on the
top floors.
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A museum guest in the 1890s
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Alice Eastwood the Earthquake story

• On April 18th, 1906, at 512 am, an approximately
  8.0 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco.
  Several Academy curators and staff members rushed
  to the Market Street Academy and were able to
  rescue one cart of materials. The items saved
  included Academy minute books, membership
  records, and 2,000 type specimens. The remaining
  50 years worth of research collections and the
  library were lost in the fire. The heroine of the
  day was Botany curator Alice Eastwood, whose
  deeds remain legendary today.

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The mammoth is gone!
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Alice Eastwood 1859 - 1953 Academy botanist
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Galapagos Islands, 1905-1906 Expedition,
Schooner Academy

• The Schooner Academy set sail for the Galapagos
  Islands on June 28th, 1905 with seven Academy
  scientists aboard. The group was led by Rollo
  Beck. They explored the islands for a year, but
  upon hearing of the April 1906 earthquake in San
  Francisco, they set sail and returned home that
  November. The specimens they collected became the
  core of the scientific collections after the
  Academy and its first 50 years of collecting were
  destroyed.

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While the Academy was being destroyed by the 1906
earthquake, the Schooner Academy and its
scientists in suits were on expedition in the
Galapagos Islands.
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The research collections they brought back
became the beginning of the new Academy
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January 1894 The Concourse developed for the
Mid-Winter International Exposition
San Francisco City / County charter citizens
voted in 1910 to authorize a museum to be
located in Golden Gate Park on the Concourse
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North American Hallincluding Bird
Hall,Research, Library and AuditoriumDedicated
September 22, 1916
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These large doors are the public entrance to the
first building, North American Hall. This 1925
view shows the entrance with the Francis Scott
Key statue.
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This entrance was used until 1969.
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Steinhart AquariumDedicated September 29, 1923
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Steinhart Aquarium, the Academys second
building, was dedicated on September 29, 1923,
fulfilling Ignatz Steinhart's dream and bequest
of a public aquarium for the city of San
Francisco. Visitors are viewing the center of
three pools at the courtyard entrance.
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Simson African HallDedicated December 3, 1934
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Simson African Hall
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Science HallDedicated February 20,
1951Morrison Planetarium1952Mailliard
Library1959
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Science Hall joined Simson African Hall with the
Steinhart Aquarium. The tile dome is Morrison
Planetarium.
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Our footprint in Golden Gate Park, 1960s
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Courtyard with Whale Fountain and Francis Scott
Key sculpture
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Wattis Halland rear or Middle Drive
entranceDedicated June 30, 1976
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Middle Drive entrance through Wattis Hall
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Cowell Hall 1969 Herbst Portico1992
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The Academy closed its doors on December 31st,
2003
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Views of the Past

• Information on features that will return in the
  new Academy
• Events, expeditions and special people
• Answers about Academy icons that have found new
  homes.

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Map by Phil Frank
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Steinhart Aquarium and Swamp

• Ignatz Steinhart proposed an aquarium for the
  city of San Francisco in 1910. In 1916, he began
  conversations with Academy Director Barton W.
  Evermann. After approval by a city election in
  1918, a city charter established that the
  management and operation of an aquarium would be
  under the direction of the Academy and the
  operating funds would be furnished by the City of
  San Francisco. Ignatz donated the funds to
  construct the Steinhart Aquarium in honor of his
  brother, Sigmund Steinhart.
• 1923 The Steinhart Aquarium was opened on
  September 22nd.
• 1963 Major renovations were completed on the
  aquarium including the addition of the 63,500
  gallon Dolphin Tank. The Swamp now contained
  animals that would be found in an American
  southeastern swamp, American alligators and
  alligator snapping turtles.
• 1977 The Fish Roundabout was dedicated.
• 1995 Passage of aquarium bond, Proposition C,
  for seismic upgrade and infrastructure repairs.

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Steinhart Aquarium and SwampBuilding designed
by San Francisco architect Lewis P. Hobart.
Swamp Room
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(No Transcript)
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Steinhart Aquarium and Swamp

• Sea horse railings and bronze doors sculpted by
  San Franciscan Edgar Walters with bronze produced
  by C.J. Hillard Company, Inc.

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Swamp Room with sea horse railings
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Bronze sea horse railings
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Bronze handles to Steinhart Aquarium doors
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Steinhart Aquarium and Swamp

• Tiles designed and produced by Solon and
  Schemmel of San Jose. The lively intrusions of
  polychrome tiles into the prevailing sea-green
  ground tone are most happy in effect.

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The tiles surrounding the swamp
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A friendly face on the exterior of Steinhart
Aquarium
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Blue Whale Skeleton

• The California Academy of Sciences' blue whale
  (Balaenoptera musculus), also known as a
  sulfur-bottom whale) was captured off the west
  coast of Vancouver Island in 1908 by the whaler
  St. Lawrence, which was owned by the Pacific
  Whaling Station at Kyuquot, British Columbia. The
  skeleton was presented to the Academy in 1915 and
  then buried in what is now the Shakespeare Garden
  until it was mounted for display in 1917 by
  Joseph P. Herring.  The skeleton was displayed
  in a large open shed over 94 feet long and 24
  feet wide, with height varying from 14 to 22
  feet. This shed cost 1777.08 to build -- over
  33,000 in 2007 dollars. It was installed between
  the research wing and Bird Hall of North American
  Building. The April 1967 Academy member
  newsletter reports that staff had recently added
  barbed wire to a cyclone fence surrounding the
  whale shed because of recurring problems with
  graffiti, vandalism, and theft. Fiberglass
  substitutes for stolen bones were installed, and
  the entire skeleton received a cleaning and a
  coat of weather-proof paint.The whale itself, a
  male, is 75 feet long and is estimated to have
  weighed over 80 tons. It measures 11 feet wide
  and 9 feet deep at its 11th rib. Its head alone
  is over 20 feet long, its longest rib is over 10
  feet long, and its front flippers are nearly 11
  feet long. Its corpse yielded over 8 tons of
  fertilizer, 60 barrels of whale oil, and 400
  pounds of baleen.

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Whale Skeleton Courtyard
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Tyrannosaurus rex

• Our Tyrannosaurus rex is a cast made from two
  dinosaurs, as none have been found intact. It was
  purchased from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of
  Paleontology of Drumheller in Alberta and was
  assembled in the Academy Courtyard in the summer
  of 1993. It was on display to explain the science
  of the film Jurassic Park during our Jurassic
  exhibit. It was moved indoors the next year and
  was put on display in Cowell Hall.

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Tyrannosaurus rex
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Tyrannosaurus rex
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Sabre-toothed cat

• This prehistoric cat from the La Brea tar pits
  has been on exhibit in both Fossil Hall (1969)
  and the Life Through Time (1990) exhibit.

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Sabre toothed cat
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Sabre toothed cat
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Foucault Pendulum

• During World War II, an optical shop was set up
  in the Museum to grind and polish lenses and to
  rebuild binoculars and telescopes for the U.S.
  Navy. With this staff and expertise, the Academy
  went on to build our Morrison Planetarium Star
  Projector and our Foucault Pendulum. Foucault
  created his pendulum in 1851 to prove that the
  earth rotates. Our pendulum was located in
  Science Hall when it opened in 1952. In 1958 we
  built a Foucault Pendulum for the Smithsonian
  Museum and then in 1960 we started producing them
  for clients around the world. They were built in
  our instrument shop at an average of 4 to 5 a
  year. They are now created by retired staffer
  Cary Ponchione as Academy Pendulum Sales.

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Foucault Pendulum
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Optical shop in Bird Hall during World War II
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Pendulums ready for delivery
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Alligators

• (Alligator mississipiensis) The original swamp
  inhabitants were replaced during the Aquarium
  reconstruction of 1962 with American alligators
  from the American Southeast. When the Academy
  closed in 2003, these alligators were retired to
  Georgia. New and younger alligators will now
  inhabit the new swamp.

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On view in the swamp
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American alligators in swamp
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Galapagos Islands, 1932, Crocker Expedition and
Toshio Asaeda

• Three Academy scientists accompanied Templeton
  Crocker on his Schooner Zaca for his 1932
  expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Crockers
  photographer and staff artist was Toshio Asaeda.
  His watercolors of fish captured their natural
  color, since they were painted as they were
  brought from the sea. His paintings were used as
  species signage in the old Steinhart Aquarium.
  Asaeda later joined the Academys Exhibit
  Department staff.

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An Asaeda fish painting
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Toshio Asaeda working on an African Annex diorama
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Monarch the grizzly bear

• Monarch the grizzly bear was captured alive on
  Gleason Mountain in the San Gabriel Range in Los
  Angeles County in 1889. He was placed on display
  in Woodward Gardens, a San Francisco amusement
  park, and then in Golden Gate Park. When he died
  in 1911 his body was prepared by taxidermist
  Vernon Shepard for the Natural History Department
  of the de Young Museum. He was accessioned into
  Academys Ornithology and Mammalogy Department in
  1953.
• In 1953, Don Greame Kelley, the founding editor
  of Pacific Discovery (the Academys first
  magazine) was commissioned to create the design
  for the new California state flag. Kelley used
  Monarch as a model for his drawing of the
  California grizzly bear. The original bear flag
  had been adopted by the state of California in
  1911.

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Monarch, the model for our California State
Bear Flag
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Image on our California State Bear Flag
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Other objects on display

• Years of human hands have smoothed this mammoth
  tusk that was saved from the Academy after the
  1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
• The larger tree section was cut from a Giant
  Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) growing in
  Sequoia National Park, CA. It was cut in the
  winter of 1917-18 at the age of 1,710 years. The
  smaller section is from a Coast Redwood (Sequoia
  sempervirens).
• Methuselah the lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri)
  is the oldest fish in the Steinhart Aquarium. He
  came half grown to the Academy in 1937.

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Mammoth tusk saved from 1906 earthquake
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On right Sequoia gigantean from Sequoia National
Park, CA Age 1,710 years
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Methuselah the Academys oldest fish a
lungfish
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Old views of Simson African Hall African
Watering Hole Listening to the gorilla
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Items no longer at the Academy

• Gary Larsens Far Side Gallery This permanent
  gallery was created after the 1985 exhibit of
  Gary Larsens Far Side cartoons. The name was
  also used for the Academys annual Thanksgiving
  weekend race, The Run to the Far Side, from 1985
  to 2002. The exhibit and the rights to use the
  name were returned to the cartoonist in 2003.
• Morrison Planetarium Star Projector
• SafeQuake and Earthquake Theater These two
  exhibits gave visitors the chance to experience a
  simulation of a California earthquake.

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Gary Larsons Far Side gallery Morrison
Planetarium star projector EarthQuake exhibit
and theater
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Items no longer at the Academy

• Dolphins A 63,500 gallon tank with a pipeline
  to the Pacific Ocean was built during the
  renovations of Steinhart Aquarium in 1963. This
  tank was the home for two Pacific white-sided
  dolphins, a bottlenose porpoise and harbor seals.
  In 1995, the two 2 dolphins were relocated to the
  Sea World of Texas in San Antonio to live in a
  much larger, two million gallon tank. Tropical
  sharks took over the dolphin tank.
• Fish Roundabout This circulartoroidal tank was
  opened in 1977 and was the first of its kind in
  the United States. Open sea or pelagic fish could
  swim 50 miles a day in a 1 knot current in the
  100,000 sea water tank. It was also voted by the
  citizens of San Francisco as the best make-out
  location in the city
• Butterball the Manatee Butterball was a
  beloved resident of the Steinhart Aquarium from
  1967 to 1984. He ate 25 heads of lettuce every
  day and reached a weight of 450 pounds at
  maturity.

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Fish Roundabout Butterball the
manatee Dolphin Tank
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Items no longer at the Academy

• Whale Fountain The Whale Fountain was sculpted
  by Robert Howard for the San Francisco Pavilion
  at the Worlds Fair on Treasure Island in 1939.
  It was rescued from storage and placed in the
  Academys Central Courtyard in 1958. Owned by the
  City of San Francisco, it now resides on the San
  Francisco City College campus.
• Bufano sculptures The large and loveable Bufano
  animal sculptures from the Academys central
  courtyard are owned by the City of San Francisco
  and now have new homes. They were placed in the
  courtyard after an Academy exhibit of the work of
  San Francisco sculptor Beniamino Benny Bufano
  in 1975.

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The Whale Fountain Bufano sculptures
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• Presented by the Library and Special Collections
• Karren Elsbernd, Aimee Morgan, Larry Currie and
  volunteer Marilyn Duman