Treasure Island Museum

This weekend, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the Treasure Island Museum Association. They had a booth at this year's Dragon Boat Races, so I got to meet and hang out with board member Walt Bilofsky as well as others with a passion for the island and the world's fair.



Here in San Francisco, we have some really great institutions. When I first moved here in 1995, I was eager to check out all three world's fair sites: the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park (site of the 1894 California Mid-Winter Exposition), the Marina and the Palace of Fine Arts (the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition), and Treasure Island (the 1939-'40 Golden Gate International Exposition).

My first stop at Treasure Island was to the Treasure Island Museum, which chronicled the history of the island from its creation in the late 1930's (it's all landfill!), to it's role hosting the GGIE, and to its subsequent use as a naval base. Sadly, when the Navy moved out in 1997, the museum closed with it since the US Navy owned the artifacts. However, the Treasure Island Museum Association lives on.

With the imminent handover of the island from the Navy to the City and County of San Francisco, the island is slaved to be completely redeveloped. Along with that are plans to re-open the Treasure Island Museum as an event greater institution.

Click here to find out more about the Treasure Island Museum Association.

The World's Fair Podcast, Episode 22: Alfred Heller

In episode 22 of the World's Fair Podcast, writer Alfred Heller is our guest.

Alfred Heller founded World's Fair Magazine in 1981 and has been to 19 world's fairs so far... from 1939 to 2010. He talks about many of those world's fairs and why he thinks world's fairs are still relevant.

Listen to this podcast as an MP3.

Subscribe to this podcast.

World's Fairs and the End of Progress by Alfred Heller

WorldsFairs.com

Listen to other episodes of the World's Fair Podcast.

70th Anniversary of the Golden Gate International Exposition

In 1939 and 1940, the years most known for New York's world's fair, San Francisco also hosted a large exposition on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. It was San Francisco's third and last (so far) international exposition.

Today's San Francisco Chronicle has an article today about the exposition with some photos:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/17/BAB415T0KF.DTL

This Saturday, the Treasure Island Museum Association is hosting a Treasure Island History Day from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., complete with walking tours, slide and video shows, and memorabilia:
TreasureIslandMuseum.org