Videos

Author Ken Bernstein and photographer Stephen Schafer talked about their book, Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places Can Transform America’s Cities. This virtual program was hosted by …

Lynn Hudson talked about her book, West of Jim Crow: The Fight Against California’s Color Line. She described African Americans' quest for civil rights in California from statehood in 1850 t…

Author Bob Calhoun looked at 170 years of San Francisco’s history through the crimes that marked each era. The California Historical Society hosted this virtual event.

Author Bettina Aptheker talked about how closeted homosexuals shaped the Communist Party and influenced other social movements - even though communists officially banned gay people from join…

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake shook San Francisco, igniting a fire that lasted for three days. With the advancement of personal cameras, the earthquake became one of the most photographed…

A historian and a philanthropist looked at the struggles and discrimination faced by Chinese immigrants in nineteenth and early twentieth century California. First, historian Beth Lew-Willia…

A panel of scholars talked about how suffragists, as a group, outwardly adhered to traditional ideas of marriage and heterosexuality to demonstrate the suffrage movement’s respectability, ye…

California State University Professor Emerita Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz critiqued the popular notion of “nation of immigrants,” arguing that the concept obscures the violent nature of the early e…

Gary Noy gave an illustrated talk about the devastating fires and floods that coincided with the population explosion caused by the California Gold Rush. Mr. Noy is the author of Gold Rush S…

Professor Marcia Zug talked about her book Buying A Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches, in which she discusses how 19th century California gold rush pioneers encouraged single …

Lynn Downey talked about her book, Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World. Levi Strauss created his blue jeans business in San Francisco in 1873. Ms. Downey served as the com…

Professor Makeda Best talked about the photographic portrayal of California Native Americans during the 19th century, focusing on how photographers portrayed the Modoc tribe leading up to th…

Professor Benjamin Madley talked about his book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873. In his book, Professor Madley argues that vigilante…

Panelists talked about the Peoples Temple, its leader Jim Jones, and the community called Jonestown he established in Guyana. In 1978, more than 900 Americans died in Jonestown from cyanide …

Professor Carlos Manuel Salomon, author of Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California, talked about Mexicans of African descent who were some of the first non-Indian settlers in Calif…

Richard White presented a history of the operation of the transcontinental railroads. In his book the author recounts the social and economic impact the transcontinental railroads had on the…

Laura Ackley talks about the 1915 World’s Fair, officially known as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in San Francisco, California. The fair was a celebration of the Panama C…

Harold Wood talked about the naturalist at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. John Muir is often considered the “Father of the National Park System” and played a large role …

Jen Huntley talked about the history of the Yosemite Grant Act and the birth of Yosemite as a National Park. The Yosemite Grant Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was the first land g…

California Historical Society Executive Director Anthea Hartig visited the official society, and spoke about the history of San Francisco while presenting a selection of photographs and arti…