Event: Bancroft Roundtable: “Before the PPIE: The Mechanics’ Institute and the Development of San Francisco’s ‘Fair Culture,’ 1857-1909.”

Please join us for the second Bancroft Library Roundtable of the fall semester!

It will take place in the Lewis-Latimer Room of The Faculty Club at noon on Thursday, October 15. Taryn Edwards, Librarian/Historian in the Mechanics’ Institute Library and Chess Room, San Francisco, will present “Before the PPIE: The Mechanics’ Institute and the Development of San Francisco’s ‘Fair Culture,’ 1857-1909.”

Between the years of 1857 and 1899, the Mechanics’ Institute hosted thirty-one industrial expositions that displayed and promoted the products of local entrepreneurs and inventors. These expositions bolstered California’s infant economy, encouraged the demand for local goods, and whetted the public’s appetite for elaborate, multi-attraction fairs. Given the Mechanics’ Institute’s vast experience with putting on such spectacles, its members were involved as consultants on larger state-wide fairs including the California Midwinter Fair of 1894, the Golden Jubilee Mining Fair of 1898, the Portola Festival of 1909, and the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. Ms. Edwards will explore this rich history through a lecture and slideshow.

We hope to see you there.
Crystal Miles and Kathi Neal Bancroft Library Staff