Pioneering Animation

Thanks to our partnership with The Society of California Pioneers, located just steps away from the museum, students begin this program at The Society’s research library engaging with primary source materials, creating a narrative, and collecting images. The second half of their hands-on experience takes place in museum’s Learning Center. In small groups, they combine animation and history, as Walt Disney did in his own films, to create animated shorts.

Golden Gate Park in The Gilded Age
on view October 24, 2019 to April 28, 2020

In 1867, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors drafted Order 800, an outline for the purchase and development of the westernmost expanse of land dismissed as “the outside lands” on early maps. Their plan included a grand public park similar to those in New York, London, and Paris. Landscape architect and engineer William Hammond Hall was hired to create Golden Gate Park from 1,017 of these acres of unpromising sandy soil and windswept dunes.

Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach subsequently played a significant role in the lives of San Franciscans during the Gilded Age and beyond. This exhibition of rarely-seen examples, gleaned from family albums and nineteenth-century studio catalogues, is our contribution to the celebration of Golden Gate Park’s sesquicentennial. 

Registration for the 2019–2020 academic year is now open. Please email schoolexperience@wdfmuseum.org if you have any questions.