September 15th, Faculty Club
12pm
The first Bancroft Round Table of the fall semester will take place in the Lewis Latimer Room, of The Faculty Club at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday September 15. Architectural historian Laura Ackley will give a talk entitled: “Illuminating the Jewel City: Spectacular Lighting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.”
The Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) opened in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1915 as war raged in Europe. Organized to commemorate the completion of the Panama Canal and the 400th anniversary of Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean, the Exposition also came to commemorate the rebirth of San Francisco after the catastrophic earthquake of April 1906. Ms. Ackley will discuss the elaborate and ground-breaking lighting effects created for San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. General Electric Illuminating Engineer Walter D’Arcy Ryan designed, for the first time, a “Total Illumination Plan” which skeptics claimed could not be realized.
The scope of the preparations was staggering and technological innovation was at a premium. The campus community is invited to listen to Ms. Ackley’s illuminating remarks upon the lighting, a design element central to the magnificence and success of the Exposition. Bancroft’s PPIE records are one of our most heavily used collections, both by visiting scholars and our Berkeley students.
