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Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, but his family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1884 following his father’s death. The move was actually a return, for Frost’s ancestors were originally New Englanders, and Frost became famous for his poetry’s engagement with New England locales,…

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The Ansel Adams Gallery strives to cultivate an aesthetic appreciation and concern for our world by offering visitors a unique variety of books, handcrafts, fine art prints, and an extraordinary collection of Ansel Adams original photographs.

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The Ansel Adams Gallery - Welcome To The World Of Fine Arts

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The Ansel Adams Gallery strives to cultivate an aesthetic appreciation and concern for our world by offering visitors a unique variety of books, handcrafts, fine art prints, and an extraordinary collection of Ansel Adams original photographs.

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Explore our history Did you know that San Francisco Ballet is the oldest professional ballet company in America? That Willam Christensen, its Artistic Director in the 1940s, staged the first full-length American productions of Coppélia (1938), Swan Lake (1940), and Nutcracker (1944)? If you didn’t k…

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HISTORY

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BAY BRIDGE HISTORY

In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to great fanfare, after three years and five months of construction. On opening day, former President Herbert Hoover said, "this is the greatest bridge yet constructed." Nowadays, 280,000 vehicles drive on the Bay Bridge every day.
Click on the interactive timeline above to find out more about the bridge's history.

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Oakland history — a look back in words and photos – Oakland North : North Oakland News, Food, Art and Events

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History of the Bay Bridge - An Interactive Timeline - Oakland North

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THE HISTORY OF THE BAY BRIDGE History of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Dipity. BAY BRIDGE HISTORY In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to great fanfare, after three years and five months of construction. On opening day, former President Herbert Hoover said, “this is the g…

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October 10, 1911 and the Women's right to vote

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October 10, 1911 and the Women's right to vote

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On October 10, 1911, California became the sixth US state where women could vote equally with men, nine years before the Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised women nationally.

The battle for suffrage had been long, with many dramatic highs and lows. In 1893 the California Legislature passed a bill recognizing women's suffrage rights, only to have the governor veto it. Three years later, in 1896, suffrage made it onto the ballot as California Amendment 6, only to fail with 44.6 percent support.

One artifact from the California Historical Society's collection can tell us quite a lot about the campaign for women's suffrage. It's a piece of ephemera, specifically what was once known as a broadside-a paper printed on one side and intended to be posted, publicly distributed, or sold. Although undated, we can tell that it was created in support of the 1911 campaign and not the earlier one in 1896 because of the other states and countries it lists. (Specifically, women in Washington State obtained suffrage in 1910.) We also glean from it that the fight for suffrage was not just happening in the United States; it was a global movement, and California appears here situated in that much wider international context.

This particular piece of campaign material was created by the College Equal Suffrage League, a national organization begun in 1900. A prominent member was Maria de Lopez, whose father had come from Mexico to the San Gabriel Valley in 1849. De Lopez was a member of the Los Angeles-based Votes for Women Club and president of her local College Equal Suffrage League in 1911, when campaigning was at a fever pitch. Thanks to her, suffrage leaflets were translated into Spanish, fifty thousand of which were distributed by election day. She gave speeches from Ventura to Pasadena in both English and Spanish, and a week before the election she drew a crowd of thousands at a rally in Los Angeles Plaza.

Earlier campaigns, such as the one in 1896, were predominantly led by white, middle-to upper-class women, but the 1911 campaign would never had succeeded had it continued in that vein. Working women such as Selina Solomons, labor activists such as Maude Younger, women of color such as Sarah Massey Overton, single women, church groups, women's clubs-they all came together as a coalition. There were indeed divisions, there were disagreements, and there were exclusions, but leaders had learned from earlier failures that victory required partnerships among those who shared a desire for progress.

Surviving broadsides, pamphlets, flyers, buttons, and other materials are all evidence of the incredible amount of work that went into the 1911 campaign-the organizing, the coordination, the fundraising, the publicity and promotion, the strategies, the messaging. In small print at the very bottom of our broadside we can make out the words "10 cents the hundred." Supporters would buy them in bulk and distribute them as far and wide as possible.

Because of the demographics of earlier campaigns, their meetings were mainly held in private homes. The 1911 campaign was grassroots and far more public, and involved large meetings in public spaces, marches in the streets, speeches in churches and union halls, and plenty of door-to-door work. Like the message in this broadside, the 1911 campaign was big and bold and visible.

Our broadside also brings to our attention the different kinds of suffrage that were part of the conversation at the time: "full suffrage" versus "municipal suffrage" or "school suffrage." Women would be given voting rights in some arenas, such as the local school district or at the level of city government. In 1893, California's governor vetoed a bill granting women even the right to vote in school elections, remarking that they could not be trusted to go to the booth for one purpose and not try to vote in other matters.

By bringing up comparisons with other states, this broadside prompts the question of what the California movement learned from other states' campaigns. One takeaway was the previously underestimated importance of the rural vote. In 1869, forty-two years before California women could vote, Wyoming legislators passed a suffrage act giving women in the territory the right to vote and hold public office (when the territory became a state in 1890, women retained the right to vote). Lawmakers wanted to bring more women to the sparsely populated region, and recognized that if women had a say in how the territory was run, they would be more willing to settle there.

Leading up to 1911, women's suffrage was strongly contested in densely populated areas, particularly San Francisco, Oakland, and Alameda. These were the places heavily influenced by the liquor trade, and where saloon owners virulently opposed female suffrage, convinced that women would vote for prohibition. Knowing that the cities would be a tight call, and knowing that women's suffrage had passed in states with more rural voters, California suffrage leaders very strategically went after the rural vote. Public speakers were mobilized and sent to every town with at least two hundred residents.

And indeed, on Election Day, October 10, 1911, San Francisco and Alameda counties voted down the measure, and it just barely passed in Los Angeles. But when votes from the rural districts were tallied days later, suffrage had come out on top by a difference of 3,587 votes-a hairsbreadth of just 0.73 percent. The strategy had paid off. Men from the San Fernando, San Joaquin, and Sacramento Valleys, the state's three major farming areas, had overwhelmingly voted to give women the vote.

Other states now had fresh impetus to push forward with their own campaigns. Note this 1912 broadside from the Oregon chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League, which cites California as a success story!

To read more about the often overlooked role of Asian American, African American, and Native American women in California's women's suffrage movement, see the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls website: https://women.ca.gov/women-of-color-and-the-fight-for-womens-suffrage/.

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Women's Suffrage in California: What One Document Reveals - California Historical Society

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On October 10, 1911, California became the sixth US state where women could vote equally with men, nine years before the Nineteenth Amendment enfranchised women nationally. The battle for suffrage had been long, with many dramatic highs and lows. In

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Bruce was an avid reader and student of everything from philosophy, world religions, spirituality, and mysticism, to self-help, strategies for business, and beyond. Much of his personal library is housed in the Bruce Lee Archive and contains a range of well-preserved large format art books to little pocket paperbacks such as this worn copy of "Chinese Magic and Superstitions in Malaya" by Leon Comber.

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"We don't need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation." - Cesar Chavez

The Story of Cesar Chavez
THE BEGINNING

The story of Cesar Estrada Chavez begins near Yuma, Arizona. Cesar was born on March 31, 1927. He was named after his grandfather, Cesario. Regrettably, the story of Cesar Estrada Chavez also ends near Yuma, Arizona. He passed away on April 23, 1993, in San Luis, a small village near Yuma, Arizona.

He learned about justice or rather injustice early in his life. Cesar grew up in Arizona; the small adobe home, where Cesar was born was swindled from them by dishonest Anglos. Cesar's father agreed to clear eighty acres of land and in exchange he would receive the deed to forty acres of land that adjoined the home. The agreement was broken and the land sold to a man named Justus Jackson. Cesar's dad went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money and buy the land. Later when Cesar's father could not pay the interest on the loan the lawyer bought back the land and sold it to the original owner. Cesar learned a lesson about injustice that he would never forget. Later, he would say, The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature.

In 1938 he and his family moved to California. He lived in La Colonia Barrio in Oxnard for a short period, returning to Arizona several months later. They returned to California in June 1939 and this time settled in San Jose. They lived in the barrio called Sal Si Puedes -"Get Out If You Can." Cesar thought the only way to get out of the circle of poverty was to work his way up and send the kids to college. He and his family worked in the fields of California from Brawley to Oxnard, Atascadero, Gonzales, King City, Salinas, McFarland, Delano, Wasco, Selma, Kingsburg, and Mendota.

He did not like school as a child, probably because he spoke only Spanish at home. The teachers were mostly Anglo and only spoke English. Spanish was forbidden in school. He remembers being punished with a ruler to his knuckles for violating the rule. He also remembers that some schools were segregated and he felt that in the integrated schools he was like a monkey in a cage. He remembers having to listen to a lot of racist remarks. He remembers seeing signs that read whites only. He and his brother, Richard, attended thirty-seven schools. He felt that education had nothing to do with his farm worker/migrant way of life. In 1942 he graduated from the eighth grade. Because his father, Librado, had been in an accident and because he did not want his mother, Juana, to work in the fields, he could not to go to high school, and instead became a migrant farm worker.

While his childhood school education was not the best, later in life, education was his passion. The walls of his office in La Paz (United Farm Worker Headquarters ) are lined with hundreds of books ranging from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies on Gandhi and the Kennedys'. He believed that, "The end of all education should surely be service to others," a belief that he practiced until his untimely death.

He joined the U.S. Navy, which was then segregated, in 1946, at the age of 19, and served for two years.

In 1948 Cesar married Helen Fabela. They honeymooned in California by visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego (again the influence of education). They settled in Delano and started their family. First Fernando, then Sylvia, then Linda, and five more children were to follow.

Cesar returned to San Jose where he met and was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. Cesar began reading about St. Francis and Gandhi and nonviolence. After Father McDonnell came another very influential person, Fred Ross.

Cesar became an organizer for Ross' organization, the Community Service Organization - CSO. His first task was voter registration.

THE UNITED FARM WORKERS IS BORN

In 1962 Cesar founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers - the UFW. He was joined by Dolores Huerta and the union was born. That same year Richard Chavez designed the UFW Eagle and Cesar chose the black and red colors. Cesar told the story of the birth of the eagle. He asked Richard to design the flag, but Richard could not make an eagle that he liked. Finally he sketched one on a piece of brown wrapping paper. He then squared off the wing edges so that the eagle would be easier for union members to draw on the handmade red flags that would give courage to the farm workers with their own powerful symbol. Cesar made reference to the flag by stating, "A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives

pride . . . When people see it they know it means dignity."

For a long time in 1962, there were very few union dues paying members. By 1970 the UFW got grape growers to accept union contracts and had effectively organized most of that industry, at one point in time claiming 50,000 dues paying members. The reason was Cesar Chavez's tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics that included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers problems, and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966. The farm workers and supporters carried banners with the black eagle with HUELGA (strike) and VIVA LA CAUSA (Long live our cause). The marchers wanted the state government to pass laws which would permit farm workers to organize into a union and allow collective bargaining agreements. Cesar made people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and safer working conditions. He succeeded through nonviolent tactics (boycotts, pickets, and strikes). Cesar Chavez and the union sought recognition of the importance and dignity of all farm workers.

It was the beginning of La Causa a cause that was supported by organized labor, religious groups, minorities, and students. Cesar Chavez had the foresight to train his union workers and then to send many of them into the cities where they were to use the boycott and picket as their weapon.

Cesar was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. Cesar fasted many times. In 1968 Cesar went on a water only, 25 day fast. He repeated the fast in 1972 for 24 days, and again in 1988, this time for 36 days. What motivated him to do this? He said, Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a rededication and recommitment to the struggle for justice through nonviolence.

THE FAST

Many events precipitated the fast, especially the terrible suffering of the farm workers and their children, the crushing of farm worker rights, the dangers of pesticides, and the denial of fair and free elections.

Cesar said about the fast, " A fast is first and foremost personal. It is a fast for the purification of my own body, mind, and soul. The fast is also a heartfelt prayer for purification and strengthening for all those who work beside me in the farm worker movement. The fast is alsoan act of penance for those in positions of moral authority and for all men and women activists who know what is right and just, who know that they could and should do more. The fast is finally a declaration of non-cooperation with supermarkets who promote and sell and profit fromCalifornia table grapes. During the past few years I have been studying the plague of pesticides on our land and our food," Cesar continued "The evil is far greater than even I had thought it to be, it threatens to choke out the life of our people and also the life system that supports us all. This solution to this deadly crisis will not be found in the arrogance of the powerful, but in solidarity with the weak and helpless. I pray to God that this fast will be a preparation for a multitude of simple deeds for justice. Carried out by men and women whose hearts are focused on the suffering of the poor and who yearn, with us, for a better world. Together, all things are possible."

Cesar Chavez completed his 36-day Fast for Life on August 21, 1988. The Reverend Jesse Jackson took up where Cesar left off, fasting on water for three days before passing on the fast to celebrities and leaders. The fast was passed to Martin Sheen, actor; the Reverend J. Lowery, President SCLC; Edward Olmos, actor; Emilio Estevez, actor; Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy, Peter Chacon, legislator, Julie Carmen, actress; Danny Glover, actor; Carly Simon, singer; and Whoopi Goldberg, actress.

THE DEATH OF CESAR CHAVEZ

Cesar Estrada Chavez died peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 1993 near Yuma, Arizona, a short distance from the small family farm in the Gila River Valley where he was born more than 66 years before.

The founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO was in Yuma helping UFW attorneys defend the union against a lawsuit brought by Bruce Church Inc., a giant Salinas, Calif.-based lettuce and vegetable producer. Church demanded that the farm workers pay millions of dollars in damages resulting from a UFW boycott of its lettuce during the 1980's. Rather than bring the legal action in a state where the boycott actually took place, such as California or New York, Church "shopped around" for a friendly court in conservative, agribusiness-dominated Arizona-where there had been no boycott activity.

"Cesar gave his last ounce of strength defending the farm workers in this case," stated his successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, who was with him in Arizona during the trial. He died standing up for their First Amendment right to speak out for themselves. He believed in his heart that the farm workers were right in boycotting Bruce Church Inc. lettuce during the l980's and he was determined to prove that in court." (When the second multimillion dollar judgement for Church was later thrown out by an appeal's court, the company signed a UFW contract in May 1996.

After the trial recessed at about 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 22, Cesar spent part of the afternoon driving through Latino neighborhoods in Yuma that he knew as a child. Many Chavezes still live in the area.

He arrived about 6 p.m. in San Luis, Arizona-about 20 miles from Yuma, at the modest concrete-block home of Dofla Maria Hau, a former farm worker and longtime friend. Cesar and eight other UFW leaders and staff were staying at her house in a poor farm worker neighborhood not far from the Mexican border.

Cesar ate dinner at around 9 p.m. and presided over a brief meeting to review the day's events. He had just finished two days of often grueling examination by attorneys for Bruce Church Inc.

He talked to his colleagues about taking care of themselves-a recent recurring theme with Cesar because he was well aware of the long hours required from him and other union officers and staff. Still, he was in good spirits despite being exhausted after prolonged questioning on the witness stand; he complained about feeling some weakness when doing his evening exercises.

The UFW founder went to bed at about 10 or 10:30 p.m. A union staff member said he later saw a reading light shining from Cesar's room.

The light was still on at 6 a.m. the next morning. That was not seen as unusual. Cesar usually woke up in the early hours of the morning well before dawn to read, write or meditate.

When he had not come out by 9 a.m., his colleagues entered his bedroom found that Cesar had died apparently, according to authorities, at night in his sleep.

He was found lying on his back with his head turned to the left. His shoes were off and he still wore his clothes from the day before. In his right hand was a book on Native American crafts. There was a peaceful smile on his face.

THE LAST MARCH WITH CESAR CHAVEZ

On April 29, 1993, Cesar Estrada Chavez was honored in death by those he led in life. More than 50,000 mourners came to honor the charismatic labor leader at the site of his first public fast in 1968 and his last in 1988, the United Farm Workers Delano Field Office at "Forty Acres."

It was the largest funeral of any labor leader in the history of the U.S. They came in caravans from Florida to California to pay respect to a man whose strength was in his simplicity.

Farm workers, family members, friends and union staff took turns standing vigil over the plain pine coffin which held the body of Cesar Chavez. Among the honor guard were many celebrities who had supported Chavez throughout his years of struggle to better the lot of farmworkers throughout America.

Many of the mourners had marched side by side with Chavez during his tumultuous years in the vineyards and farms of America. For the last time, they came to march by the side of the man who had taught them to stand up for their rights, through nonviolent protest and collective bargaining.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney, who celebrated the funeral mass, called Chavez "a special prophet for the worlds' farm workers." Pall bearers, including crews of these workers, Chavez children and grandchildren, then carried their fallen leader, resting at last, from the Memorial Park to Forty Acres.

The death of Chavez marked an era of dramatic changes in American agriculture. His contributions would be eroded, and others would have to shoulder the burden of his work. But, Cesar Chavez, who insisted that those who labor in the earth were entitled to share fairly in the rewards of their toil, would never be forgotten.

As Luis Valdez said, "Cesar, we have come to plant your heart like a seed . . . the farm workers shall harvest in the seed of your memory."

FINAL RESTING PLACE/FINAL RECOGNITION

The body of Cesar Chavez was taken to La Paz, the UFW's California headquarters, by his family and UFW leadership. He was laid to rest near a bed of roses, in front of his office.

On August 8, 1994, at a White House ceremony, Helen Chavez, Cesar's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chavez for having "faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence.

And he was victorious. Cesar Chavez left our world better than he found it, and his legacy inspires us still. He was for his own people a Moses figure," the President declared. "The farm workers who labored in the fields and yearned for respect and self-sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man who, with faith and discipline, soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led a very courageous life"

The citation accompanying the award noted how Chavez was a farm worker from childhood who "possessed a deep personal understanding of the plight of migrant workers, and he labored all his years to lift their lives." During his lifetime, Chavez never earned more than $5,000 a year. The late Senator Robert Kennedy called him "one of the heroic figures of our time."

Chavez's successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, thanked the president on behalf of the United Farm Workers and said, "Every day in California and in other states where farm workers are organizing, Cesar Chavez lives in their hearts. Cesar lives wherever Americans' he inspired work nonviolently for social change."

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The Story of Cesar ChavezTHE BEGINNING The story of Cesar Estrada Chavez begins near Yuma, Arizona. Cesar was born on March 31, 1927. He was named after his grandfather, Cesario. Regrettably, the story of Cesar Estrada Chavez also ends near Yuma, Arizona. He passed away on April 23,

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After he left the navy, Milk moved to New York and worked at various jobs. He was a public school teacher and worked in finance. He also became more involved in politics and demonstrated against the Vietnam War. In 1972 Milk moved to San Francisco, California. He opened a camera store in a section of the city known as the Castro. He was popular in the neighborhood, and he became a leader in the gay community. A year later he ran for a position on the city's Board of Supervisors. He lost that race. He ran and lost again in 1975, but in 1977 Milk was elected as a San Francisco City-County Supervisor.

Milk worked hard to protect gay rights and to help groups who were disadvantaged. He opposed a bill that would have made it legal to fire gay teachers in California's public schools. Milk's opposition helped defeat the bill.

On November 27, 1978, Milk and George Moscone, the city's mayor, were shot and killed in City Hall by Dan White, a former city supervisor. The response to the killings was peaceful at first. However, after White was sentenced to less than eight years in prison for the two murders, riots broke out.

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After he left the navy, Milk moved to New York and worked at various jobs. He was a public school teacher and worked in finance. He also became more involved in politics and demonstrated against the Vietnam War. In 1972 Milk moved to San Francisco, California.

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In Jim Bouton's revelatory 1970 book Ball Four, he describes a late September 1969 scene at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. "A group of terrorized pitchers stood around the batting cage watching Willie McCovey belt some tremendous line drives over the right-field fence. Every time a ball bounced into the seats we'd make little whimpering animal sounds. 'Hey, Willie,' I said. 'Can you do that whenever you want to?' He didn't crack a smile. 'Just about,' he said, and he hit another one. More animal sounds." 1

At the time, McCovey was the best and most feared hitter in baseball. He was known not for long towering home runs, though he could certainly hit one of those when the mood struck, but for vicious line shots that imperiled first baseman, second basemen, and base runners, not to mention patrons in the distant right field stands. Longtime Dodger manager Walter Alston, who saw McCovey more than he would have liked, noted, "McCovey didn't hit any cheap one[s]. When he belts a home run, he does it with such authority it seems like an act of God. You can't cry about it." 2 Reds manager Sparky Anderson, among the many managers who often chose to walk the slugger, reasoned, "If you pitch to him he'll ruin baseball. He'd hit 80 home runs. There's no comparison between McCovey and anybody else in the league." 3

His journey to the top of his profession was oddly uneven, mostly due to circumstance. A natural first baseman, left-handed all the way, his six-feet-four and 200 pound physique (though he got bigger) and long arms earned him the wonderfully appropriate nickname of "Stretch." Jim Murray, the erudite Los Angeles Times columnist, once wrote, ""On ground balls hit down to the second baseman, there's no need to throw, the second baseman just hands the ball to Willie." 4 Unfortunately, when he arrived on the scene in late 1959 (in spectacular fashion) his team already had a first baseman, and a great one at that, and it took the Giants nearly seven years to straighten this all out. McCovey's years at the top were further shortened by injuries - he had bad feet and arthritic knees and hips that caused him considerable pain and made him mainly a part-time hobbled player for the last 10 years of his career. But if he had plenty of obstacles and mishaps to overcome, McCovey managed to stick around for parts of 22 seasons, hit 521 home runs, and earn the admiration and respect of seemingly every man he came across, especially in his adopted hometown of San Francisco, California.

Willie Lee McCovey was born on January 10, 1938 in Mobile, Alabama. Frank McCovey was a railroad laborer, and he and Ester had ten children, Willie being the seventh. Frank was a quiet man, and Ester usually ran the house without interference. Usually. "It didn't happen frequently," Willie recalled, "but I got my whippings. You better believe it. My father was the moral head of the house. He worked hard to support us. We never starved. Mother did all the yelling, but sometimes we didn't listen to Mother. Father was quiet, like I am. He didn't say much, but when he spoke, we listened." The children ate what came to be known as "soul food" - pots of beans or black-eyed peas - with chicken on Sundays. 5 "We went to church every Sunday," recalled McCovey, "and nobody ever smoked in front of my parents, even when we were all grown up. Of course, I never smoked anyway." 6

Mobile in the 1940s and 1950s was not an easy place for an African American child to grow up, and opportunities to escape the oppressive segregation were few. "Kids in Mobile either hung around street corners and went into gangs, or they hung around street corners and went into sports. I was lucky. The kids who were my friends went into sports." McCovey and his cohort dominated local playground teams in baseball, softball, basketball and football. He played first base in baseball and softball, was a high-scoring center in basketball, and played end in football. 7

Meanwhile McCovey had dropped out of high school a year early in 1954 to work and help the family finances. He delivered newspapers at the age of 12, and now worked in a bakery. In December he went to Los Angeles to visit his older brother Wyatt for the holidays - because his father worked for the railroad he was able to ride the train for free. Willie loved L.A. so much he decided to stay to live and work. He might have stayed for years, but his mother wrote to tell him that Alex Pompez was trying to reach him - he wanted Willie to attend a Giants tryout camp in Melbourne, Florida. The Giants sent him a bus ticket, and McCovey headed east.

Despite his age, McCovey had no difficulty adjusting to professional pitching. He hit .305 with 19 home runs, 24 doubles, 15 stolen bases, and a league-leading 113 RBI in just 107 games. The next year, with Danville, Virginia, in the Class B Carolina League, McCovey kept hitting - 29 home runs and a .310 average, leading the circuit with 38 doubles. In 1957, promoted all the way to Double-A Dallas, he hit .281 with 11 home runs. More importantly, he suffered injuries to his ankle and knee while sliding into home, costing him several weeks of the season. The knee had to be punctured and drained of fluid. Although he had had a bit of speed in his first few professional seasons, with a lot of triples and stolen bases, he would generally be considered slow afoot.

In 1958 the 20-year-old made it to Triple-A Phoenix, and he .319 with 14 home runs while battling knee soreness and visiting orthopedists. His teammates included Felipe Alou, Leon Wagner, Tom Haller, Willie Kirkland, and Ernie Broglio, a group good enough to win the Pacific Coast League championship. McCovey went to his first major league spring camp in 1959, but despite his impressive minor league record he had no realistic chance of making the team. The Giants, who had relocated to San Francisco, had two first baseman already: Bill White, who had had a strong rookie season for the Giants in 1956 but had spent most of the next two years in the Army; and Orlando Cepeda, the reigning Rookie of the Year, who had hit .312 with 25 home runs and 96 RBI and captured the hearts of the fans in San Francisco. McCovey wore a steel brace on his knee and saw very little action, before being sent back to Phoenix to start the year.

McCovey rather emphatically forced the Giants' hand. In late July, after 95 games, he was hitting .372 with 29 home runs and 92 RBI. That was apparently sufficient, and the Giants called him to San Francisco on July 30. "Something in the back of my mind kept asking - 'Am I good enough?'" recalled McCovey. 10 The Giants were just 1/2 game out of first place, though they had lost their last four games and had not been scoring runs. Cepeda had done his part, hitting just as well as he had in his fine rookie year. Manager Bill Rigney decided to move Cepeda to third base to get McCovey into the lineup.

His first game was on July 30, hitting third between Willie Mays and Cepeda, facing Phillies ace Robin Roberts at Seals Stadium. All McCovey did was go 4-for-4 with two triples, leading the Giants to a 7-2 victory. It was one of the more impressive debuts in big league history. He hit in his first seven games, batting .467 in that stretch, including his first home run (off the Pirates' Ron Kline) and his first two-homer game (both off Milwaukee's Bob Buhl). On August 17 he started a 22-game hitting streak, at the end of which he was hitting .381. He finished his two-month debut batting .354 with 13 home runs. The Giants stayed in first place most of August and September, and led both Los Angeles and Milwaukee by two games with eight to play, but lost seven of the eight and finished third, four games behind the pennant-winning Dodgers.

A theme of the Giants of this period was all of the surplus talent that they kept producing, and how they ultimately mismanaged it. This was especially true at first base. Though they had traded Bill White in March, the Giants now controlled two Hall of Fame talents who played first base, both 22 years old, born just four months apart in fact. Rather than trying to trade one of them, in a deal which they would almost definitely not have received equivalent value, the Giants chose to keep both. The experiment with Cepeda at third base lasted four games, resulting in two assists and three errors. Cepeda moved to left field, where he was also uncomfortable, though he did less damage. Thirty years later, Cepeda had some perspective. "I just wasn't ready mentally," he said. "I know I could've played left field if I'd put my mind to it, but I was only 21 years old and very sensitive. Friends and other players kept telling me I should demand to play first. It was all pride with me. And ignorance." 11 McCovey, as always the loyal teammate, just wanted to play. ""I could see his point," recalled McCovey. "Why should he make a fool out of himself playing out of position. The thing is, we both couldn't be on first." 12

"I could understand his reluctance," manager Bill Rigney recalled. "But Cepeda was the better athlete, so I thought he could make the move to another position more easily. But he would come up to me and say, 'Beel, I the first baseman not the left fielder.' What could you do? He was the most popular San Francisco Giant. It was very hard not to like Orlando Cepeda. But this became an unresolvable situation." 13 That said, it was Rigney's job to try, and he and his bosses deserve some blame for later allowing Cepeda to dictate the defensive alignment. In 1960, with the team moving to brand new Candlestick Park, he stayed with the same alignment - McCovey at first base and Cepeda in left field. (With Willie Mays, the best player in baseball, manning center field, Rigney also had the problem of finding places for Willie Kirkland, Felipe Alou, and Matty Alou.)

"If anyone's immune to the sophomore jinx, it's got to be McCovey," Rigney said. "His hitting is fundamentally too sound. He has a near perfect swing, a picture swing, and he doesn't go after too many bad balls." 14 Fully grown at 6-feet-4 and 200 pounds, McCovey had a tough year in 1960. At the end of May he was hitting .267 with 9 home runs, but a prolonged summer slump kept him on the bench often, and eventually to Triple-A in mid-July. His demotion was brief, just 17 games, but he continued to struggle on his return. For the season he hit .238 with 13 home runs. While his numbers against right-handed pitchers were respectable (.279, 13 homers), against southpaws McCovey hit a wretched .129 in 70 at bats. McCovey's defense, never a strong suit, suffered along with his offense.

In 1961 McCovey, playing for new manager Al Dark, was used as a platoon first baseman most of the season, starting 79 games and batting .271 with 18 home runs. Cepeda, whose hitting was apparently unaffected by the shuffling, shifted all year between first base and left field and had a great season, hitting .311 while leading the league with 46 home runs and 142 RBI. The next year, Dark announced that Cepeda, clearly the star of the tandem, would be his full-time first baseman. McCovey began the year as a pinch-hitter, then began to work his way into sharing the left field job with Harvey Kuenn. He had never played the outfield in his life, but at least he had Willie Mays next to him. "Mays told me what to do," McCovey recalled. "He built up my confidence. He let me make plays he could have made, and the club would have wanted him to make." 15 Still it was not an easy transition, leading one local observer to say, "Don't give him a glove. Give him a cigarette and a blindfold." 16

Even during these early years, McCovey could look forward to matching up against Dodger star Don Drysdale. During the years 1959 through 1962, McCovey hit .543 (19-for-35) with seven homers off the pitcher. Drysdale won 25 games in 1962, and captured the Cy Young Award, yet McCovey was still 6-for-10 against him. On August 11 at Candlestick, McCovey beat Drysdale with a titanic three-run pinch-hit home run that brought the home crowd roaring to its feet. "Drysdale threw it," recalled Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges, "and it was just gone. I don't think anybody really knows where or when it landed." 17 (Drysdale slowly started to figure McCovey out, but over the course of their careers still allowed 12 home runs and a .336 average to his nemesis.)

For the 1962 season, in his part-time left field role, McCovey hit .293 with 20 home runs in just 229 at bats. His .590 slugging percentage would have been fourth in the league had he had the requisite playing time. Dark had given up on him against left-handed pitchers - he started only once all year against a lefty, and he was removed for pinch-hitters nearly anytime a lefty was brought in. As a result, he played just 20 complete games. For the season he finished 3-for-10 against southpaws. In the World Series, he started four times - sitting out the three games Whitey Ford pitched. In Game 2, he homered off Ralph Terry in a 2-0 Giants win, went hitless in Game 3, singled in Game 5, and then played a central role in the finale.

In Game 7, facing Terry again, he tripled to deep center field in the seventh but had the biggest at-bat of his career in the bottom of the ninth. Trailing 1-0 with two out and runners at second and third, McCovey strode to the plate. Yankee manager Ralph Houk came to the mound to talk to Terry, and many observers felt that he would walk McCovey to face the right-handed Cepeda, who had been battling a knee injury the previous few weeks. Houk chose to pitch to Willie, who hit a long foul ball, and then hit a bullet directly to second baseman Bobby Richardson, who squeezed it for the final out and the World Series title. Two months later this at-bat was immortalized by Giants fan Charles Schulz in his daily Peanuts comic strip. After three identical frames show Charlie Brown and Linus sitting dejectedly on a curb, the final frame shows Charlie Brown wailing to the heavens: "Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball just three feet higher?" 18

In 1963 Dark finally decided he needed to keep McCovey in the lineup, starting him 145 times and giving him 627 plate appearances. In return, McCovey provided a league-leading 44 home runs (tying Milwaukee's Henry Aaron), 102 RBI, and a .280 average. He also led the league with 13 errors in left field, but Dark had concluded that he was better than Cepeda had been, and McCovey, unlike Cepeda, did not complain. "I knew I wouldn't be a Willie Mays," McCovey says, "and anybody who saw me play there could tell that right away. But I learned. I think I played it adequately." 19

McCovey spent a lot of time with Mays off the field in these early years. Mays carefully guarded his privacy, and did not get close to many people. "Mays was the type of guy," McCovey remembered, "I don't know what it was about him, but anywhere he went he felt he had to take somebody with him. And that somebody was usually me." As McCovey's career progressed, he generally hit fourth in the order, just after Mays, and he appreciated that Mays could "score for you off balls that nobody I've ever seen in baseball would score on." 20

Just when it seemed like McCovey had settled into stardom, he had a bad year in 1964, hitting just .220 with 18 home runs in 364 at bats, including a grisly .145 against lefties. McCovey struggled with the January death of his father, his greatest influence, and then battled the first significant physical problem of his major league career - a painful and mysterious ailment to the sole of his left foot. Dark doubted the injury, which disappointed his player. "Now, why would I not want to play? It was my profession, I always wanted to play before." 21 Before the 1965 season, a special ripple sole was devised for his shoes and he was able to live with the lessened soreness. But McCovey's injuries were just beginning.

Cepeda, the team's star first baseman, had been playing the past few years with a sore right knee. He continued to hit, averaging 32 home runs, 107 RBI and a .309 average over his first seven big league seasons. (He later suggested that he foolishly kept playing on the knee because Dark doubted his injury.) When Cepeda showed up at camp in 1965, playing under new manager Herman Franks, the swelling and pain in his knee had become unbearable, and he ended up playing just six games in the field the entire season, along with 27 pinch-hitting appearances. Franks moved McCovey back to first base, and the slugger responded with a great comeback season, 39 home runs and a .276 average. This was an offensive-starved era, making McCovey's statistics especially impressive. He finished second in the league in homers and walks (88), and in the top five in on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The Giants remained in the pennant race until the last weekend of the season before losing to a Dodger team that won 15 of its final 16 games.

When Cepeda showed up ready to play in 1966, the Giants once again had two star first basemen, one with a bad knee and the other with bad feet and two sore knees. Franks kept McCovey at first and tried Cepeda in left field for a few games, but it was soon clear that the situation had, finally, become untenable. On May 8, the 28-year-old Cepeda was dealt to the Cardinals for pitcher Ray Sadecki. Although his career would eventually succumb to his bad knees, Cepeda had a few good years left in him, including an MVP award in 1967. Significantly, neither he nor McCovey would ever play the outfield again. McCovey, also 28, had established himself as one of the best hitters in the game, but for the first time had a total grip on the first base position - the only position he could competently play.

McCovey responded in 1966 with what had now become a standard McCovey season - 36 home runs, 96 RBIs, a .295 batting average - finishing fourth in the league in on-base percentage (.391) and second in slugging (.586). McCovey was playing in a league filled with all-time great players, and he was holding his own with all of them. As proof, he batted cleanup in the 1966 All-Star Game, behind Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Henry Aaron in the batting order. In 1967 he had to miss time throughout the season because of his sore knees, but he still finished with 31 homers, 91 RBIs, and a .276 average in 135 games. The Giants finished in second place for the third straight season, though this time the race did not go to the last weekend.

McCovey was a quiet, humble man, but he was enjoying his new fame, and wealth - he was likely making $60,000 by 1968, and it would soon be twice that. He made his home in San Francisco - he no longer returned to Mobile, which he considered unfriendly to black people. He liked to drive big cars, often a Cadillac. He liked being with young women, listening to jazz or pop records, wearing the finest and most "mod" clothes. One thing he did not do: speak out on social issues. While there were many black athletes who wanted to take public positions on the issues facing African-Americans in the 1960s, McCovey was not one of them. "I do what I think is right," he said. "I have experienced prejudice. I know something's got to be done, but I am not knowledgeable as to what should be done. No matter what, I am a Negro. But I don't condone violence. It is not my bag." 22

His bag was hitting a baseball, and in 1968 he did it better than anyone else in the game. In what became known as the "Year of the Pitcher," someone forgot to inform McCovey, who hit .293 and led the NL with 36 home runs, 105 RBIs, and a .545 slugging percentage. Jim Maloney, Cincinnati's ace pitcher, understated the case when he called McCovey "the most feared left-handed hitter in the National League." Because all his fellow hitters had struggled to score runs over the past few years, after the season the major leagues agreed to lower the pitching mound and reduce the size of the strike zone.

In March 1969 he appeared on the television show "The Dating Game," and he and his selected date won a trip to Europe, deferred to after the season. In celebration, he went out and had his best year yet, cementing his reputation as baseball's best hitter. Along with his league-leading 45 home runs and 126 RBI, he hit .320 with 121 walks, leading the league with an extraordinary .453 on-base percentage and .656 slugging percentage. He was intentionally walked 45 times, a new major league record. McCovey did not think the new pitching mound had any effect. "The mound looks just as high to me," he reported. "Even before all this came up, the mounds varied in different parks. There was no conformity, and I'll bet it's the same this season. All they really had to do to improve hitting was to eliminate the spitball. If they had truly banned the spitter this season they wouldn't have to lower the mound or shrink the strike zone." 23

The Giants were involved in yet another tight pennant race, this time in the brand new NL West. Herman Franks had been replaced by Clyde King, a move that suited McCovey well. "I don't think," he said, "that I've ever met two men anywhere who have such opposite views about handling players. Herman was the type who hated to build a player up. Clyde, well, he's always around with the compliments to everyone. Ballplayers, like everyone else, like to get told they did something right." 24 (Franks was Mays' friend, and the longtime star and team leader did not take to the switch as well as McCovey did.) The Giants were in first place as late as September 22, but ultimately finished three games behind the Braves.

The 1970 Giants started slowly, causing the club to replace King with Charlie Fox, though nothing could help them catch the red-hot Cincinnati Reds. McCovey had another great season, batting .289 with 39 home runs and 126 RBI, leading the league in walks (137), intentional walks (40), and slugging percentage (.612).

In the final exhibition game in the spring of 1971, McCovey tore cartilage in his knee, and he opted to play the season rather than undergo surgery. The result was a lessened workload (just 95 starts, and 10 pinch-hitting appearances) and lessened effectiveness (.277, 18 homers in 329 at bats). "Every town we went to I had to have it drained because it would swell up as big as my head." McCovey recalled. "I was on medication throughout the year to try to keep the soreness and inflammation to a minimum." 25 Unfortunately, McCovey's knee woes would drag down the rest of his career. The Giants won the NL West that season and McCovey played all four games of their NLCS loss to the Pirates, hitting 6-for-14 with two home runs. A home run he hit off Steve Blass in Game 1 was a vintage McCovey special - a vicious blast over the right field fence that Roger Angell described as "an intercontinental ballistic missile." 26

In 1973, with two arthritic knees but a healed forearm, McCovey hit nearly as well as ever - in 130 games, many of them as a pinch-hitter, he belted 29 home runs and hit .266, walking 105 times (including a league-leading 25 intentionally). After the season he became the next high-priced Giant to be discarded, following Sam McDowell in June and preceding Juan Marichal in December. On October 25, McCovey and reserve outfielder Bernie Williams were dealt to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Mike Caldwell.

"They've never had a real star here," said San Diego's manager, John McNamara. "Now we have one who is absolutely first class." McCovey willingly took the burden. "What I do is give 100% and hope I'm setting an example," he said in his first spring with Padres. "That's why I played so often when I was hurt." 29 McCovey hit well the next two years - 22 home runs and 96 walks in 128 games, then 23 home runs and 57 walks in 122 games - but not enough to get the woeful Padres into contention. He continued to battle physical ailments, had increasing difficulties in the field and on the bases, but still did damage when he got into the batter's box. McNamara scheduled a couple of days off a week to try to wring as much value as he could out of his best hitter.

In 1976, the 38-year-old McCovey struggled right from the start, and lost his first base job to the 23-year-old Mike Ivie. On August 30 he was sold to the Oakland A's, which allowed him to try the designated hitter position for the only time in his career. For the year he hit .204 in parts of 82 games. With no contract for the coming season, his career seemed like it might have come to an end. He contacted the Giants, who invited him to spring training with no promise of a job.

On September 18, the Giants held a "Willie McCovey Day" before their game at Candlestick Park against the Reds. McCovey spoke for several minutes, on the verge of tears, thanking everyone he could think of, including his mother Ester, who was on the field. Fittingly, he ended the game with a two-out game-winning single off Pedro Borbon in the bottom of the ninth. "I think Willie showed everyone today just what kind of an individual he is," said Altobelli. 32

In retirement, McCovey has remained firmly associated with the Giants and with the city of San Francisco. In the late 1960s he bought a lot in Woodside, just down the peninsula from the city, and several years later he built a sprawling house on it. In subsequent years it became a beautiful and luxurious suburb, home to the mansions of many Silicon Valley millionaires, including the late Steve Jobs. McCovey has lived in the home ever since, close to his beloved Giants. He has held various positions with the club over the years: spring training instructor, special assistant to the general manager, and, most recently, Senior Advisor. His principal role seems to be showing up at the park and playing the part of beloved icon, something he is happy to do.

Other than his work with the Giants, McCovey was able to make occasional money at the memorabilia and autograph shows that became so popular in the 1980s and 1990s. He got into some hot water in 1996 when he was indicted for evading taxes on income derived from these shows. He ended up paying a $5,000 fine and serving two years probation.

McCovey was married once briefly - to Karen in 1964 - but the couple divorced two years later. Willie and Karen had a daughter, Allison McCovey, who in 2012 was the Chief Operating Officer of the non-profit San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project.

The injuries that brought him constant pain throughout his career got only worse in subsequent years. He had many surgeries in each knee, before eventually having each replaced. He has had four back surgeries, which have left him increasingly immobile. By 2013 he had been in a wheelchair for more than a decade, though he still gets to many Giants games every year. His recovery from his latest back surgery kept him away from the ballpark during the Giants 2010 World Series victory, but he was front and center two years later when they did it again.

McCovey was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986, in his first year of eligibility. He has attended most of the induction ceremonies in subsequent years. The San Francisco Giants permanently retired his uniform number 44 soon after he last wore it. When the club opened their new ballpark, initially called PacBell Park, in 2000, one of the park's most striking visual features was the China Basin just beyond the right field fence. To honor their famous slugger who surely would have hit many balls into the water, the club named this inlet McCovey Cove. In 2003, the club unveiled a statue of their icon at McCovey Point, at the mouth of the Cove. Around the statue there are plaques with the names of the winners of the Willie Mac Award, which the Giants have given out annually since 1980 to a player who displays McCovey's spirit and leadership.

In 2013 McCovey remained an ever-present, beloved, and optimistic, denizen of his home city. "My health is good, it's just that I'm not able to walk yet," he said in March 2012. "It's mostly my balance. I haven't been walking for so long that I have to work on the balance." In 2010 he had begun home rehab for his recovery, and he and his nurse, Estela Bejar, fell in love. This only made McCovey more determined. "We got lots of plans to do, so I've got to get well," says McCovey, nodding and smiling at Bejar. "Plans to live and do things. Go to Hawaii and play golf." 33

McCovey spent several years playing with, and often overshadowed by, outstanding teammates, including Mays, arguably the greatest player there ever was. None of this - the platooning, the slights, the unrelenting injuries - seemed ever to affect this man, this man without enemies, who remained delightfully humble and grateful to be playing baseball, playing for the Giants. Five decades after his amazing debut, he was still there, still humble, still grateful, still smiling.

He died on October 31, 2018, at the age of 80 after a long battle with many health issues.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Steve Treder and Rob Wood for their thorough review of this article.
Notes
7 Hano, "The Arrival of Willie McCovey."

10 Hano, "The Arrival of Willie McCovey."

12 Fimrite, "The Cable Cars, The Fog - And Willie."

13 Fimrite, "The Heart Of A Giant.".

15 Hano, "The Arrival of Willie McCovey."

17 Einstein, "Hey, Lay Off McCovey."

19 Fimrite, "The Cable Cars, The Fog - And Willie."

21 Einstein, "Hey, Lay Off McCovey."

22 Hano, "The Arrival of Willie McCovey."

31 Fimrite, "The Cable Cars, The Fog - And Willie."

32 Fimrite, "The Cable Cars, The Fog - And Willie."

33 Whiting, "Willie McCovey recalls '62 Series - 50 years ago."

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In Jim Bouton's revelatory 1970 book Ball Four , he describes a late September 1969 scene at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. "A group of terrorized pitchers stood around the batting cage watching Willie McCovey belt some tremendous line drives over the right-field fence. Every time a ball bounced into the seats we'd make little whimpering animal sounds.

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The San Francisco Seals were a San Francisco professional baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1903 through 1957, when the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. During this time, the PCL was made up of teams up and down the Pacific Coast, from Seattle in the north to San Diego in the south.

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San Francisco 49ers Team History | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site

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Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records' legendary producer, describes Etta James as "the greatest of all modern blues singers...the undisputed Earth Mother." Her raw, unharnessed vocals and hot-blooded eroticism has made disciples of singers ranging from Janis Joplin to Bonnie Raitt.

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Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District | Golden Gate

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The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District is a special district of the State of California which operates and maintains the Golden Gate Bridge and two unified public transit systems - Golden Gate Transit and Golden Gate Ferry.

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Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District

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Alcatraz Island (U.S. National Park Service)

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Alcatraz reveals stories of American incarceration, justice, and our common humanity. This small island was once a fort, a military prison, and a maximum security federal penitentiary. In 1969, the Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz for 19 months in the name of freedom and Native American civil…

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The island is alive with history... three thousand years ago it served as a fishing and hunting site for Coastal Miwok Indians. It was later a haven for Spanish Explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala, a cattle ranch, and a U.S. Army post starting with the Civil War.

From 1910 to 1940, the island processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the majority from China. During World War II, Japanese, and German POWs were held on the island, which was also used as a jumping-off point for American soldiers returning from the Pacific. In the '50s and '60s, the island was home to a Nike missile site.
In 1946 the Quarantine Station located in Hospital Cove was declared surplus, and all functions were moved to San Francisco. In 1954 a number of citizen's groups managed to persuade the California State Park Commission to obtain 36.82 acres surrounding Hospital Cove (aka Ayala Cove) for a State Park.

In 1962 the Nike missile site on the south side of the island was deactivated, and the army left the island. In December of that year, the entire island was turned over to the State of California for park purposes - with the single exception of the Coast Guard station on Point Blunt, which continues in active operation to this day.

Recommended Reading

Angel Island Timeline
Images of America; Angel Island
Miwoks to Missiles

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The island is alive with history... three thousand years ago it served as a fishing and hunting site for Coastal Miwok Indians. It was later a haven for Spanish Explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala, a cattle ranch, and a U.S. Army post starting with the Civil War.

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5:12 AM - April 18, 1906

The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. Today, its importance comes more from the wealth of scientific knowledge derived from it than from its sheer size. Rupturing the northernmost 296 miles (477 kilometers) of the San Andreas fault from northwest of San Juan Bautista to the triple junction at Cape Mendocino, the earthquake confounded contemporary geologists with its large, horizontal displacements and great rupture length. Indeed, the significance of the fault and recognition of its large cumulative offset would not be fully appreciated until the advent of plate tectonics more than half a century later. Analysis of the 1906 displacements and strain in the surrounding crust led Reid (1910) to formulate his elastic-rebound theory of the earthquake source, which remains today the principal model of the earthquake cycle.

At almost precisely 5:12 a.m., local time, a foreshock occurred with sufficient force to be felt widely throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The great earthquake broke loose some 20 to 25 seconds later, with an epicenter near San Francisco. Violent shocks punctuated the strong shaking which lasted some 45 to 60 seconds. The earthquake was felt from southern Oregon to south of Los Angeles and inland as far as central Nevada. The highest Modified Mercalli Intensities (MMI's) of VII to IX paralleled the length of the rupture, extending as far as 80 kilometers inland from the fault trace. One important characteristic of the shaking intensity noted in Lawson's (1908) report was the clear correlation of intensity with underlying geologic conditions. Areas situated in sediment-filled valleys sustained stronger shaking than nearby bedrock sites, and the strongest shaking occurred in areas where ground reclaimed from San Francisco Bay failed in the earthquake. Modern seismic-zonation practice accounts for the differences in seismic hazard posed by varying geologic conditions.

As a basic reference about the earthquake and the damage it caused, geologic observations of the fault rupture and shaking effects, and other consequences of the earthquake, the Lawson (1908) report remains the authoritative work, as well as arguably the most important study of a single earthquake. In the public's mind, this earthquake is perhaps remembered most for the fire it spawned in San Francisco, giving it the somewhat misleading appellation of the "San Francisco earthquake". Shaking damage, however, was equally severe in many other places along the fault rupture. The frequently quoted value of 700 deaths caused by the earthquake and fire is now believed to underestimate the total loss of life by a factor of 3 or 4. Most of the fatalities occurred in San Francisco, and 189 were reported elsewhere.

Excerpted from Ellsworth, 1990.

Aerial view of the city taken from a series of kites five weeks after the earthquake and fire (154K).

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The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. Today, its importance comes more from the wealth of scientific knowledge derived from it than from its sheer size.

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Chinese Exclusion Act: 1882, Definition & Immigrants - HISTORY

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The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was one of several discriminatory U.S. laws that curbed Chinese immigration and made Chinese people ineligible for naturalization.

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THE STORY OF ISHI: A CHRONOLOGY by Nancy Rockafellar

In August of 1911 a starving native-American man walked out of the Butte County wilderness into Oroville and became an instant journalistic sensation. He was identified by UC anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and T. T. Waterman as the last of a remnant band of Yahi people native to the Deer Creek region. The UC anthropologists immediately went north to Oroville and brought him back to live on the Parnassus campus, giving him the name "Ishi" which meant "man" in the Yahi language. During the next four years, the anthropologists and physicians at UC would learn much from Ishi, as he demonstrated his toolmaking and hunting skills, and spoke his tribal stories and songs. Newspapers frequently referred to Ishi as the "last wild Indian," and the press was full of anecdotes referring to Ishi's reaction to twentieth-century technological wonders like streetcars, theaters, and airplanes. In his writings, Waterman respectfully noted Ishi's "gentlemanliness, which lies outside of all training and is an expression of inward spirit," and the records of the time reveal much mutual respect on the part of Ishi and his scientist-observers. Each weekend, hundreds of visitors flocked to Parnassus to watch Ishi demonstrate arrow-making and other aspects of his tribal culture.

HISTORICAL PERIOD
1840s: Approximately 400 Yahi people exist in California; total Yana people estimated at 1500.

1849: California Gold Rush begins.

Ishi's birth ca 1860.

1865: The massacres of Yahi People begin, 74 killed.

1866: Three Knolls Massacre, 40 killed; Dry Camp Massacre, 33 killed.

1871 Kingsley Cave/Morgan Valley Massacre 30 killed.

1870-1911: Period of Concealment: a remnant band (five to twenty individuals) of Yahi hide in the Mill Creek area.

November 10,1908: Surveying party surprises a band of four; Ishi escapes and hides; out of curiosity the surveyors take tools and artifacts from the camp.

October, 1910: T.T. Waterman leads an expedition into the Mill Creek area to attempt to find the lost band of Indians, finds "incontrovertible evidence of their existence in a wild state." No contact made.

August 1911: Ishi walks out of Butte County wilderness into Oroville.

September 4, 1911: T.T. Waterman brings Ishi to San Francisco

October 1911: Museum of Anthropology opens at Parnassus; over the next six months, 24,000 people visit the museum and watch Ishi demonstrate arrowmaking and firebuilding.

November 22, 1911: Ishi hospitalized for respiratory infection; all TB diagnostic tests are negative.

December 26, 1911: Ishi hospitalized with bronchopneumonia, photos and casts taken of his feet.

September, 1912: Ishi hospitalized three days for abdominal pain.

Ishi becomes acquainted with UC Surgeon, Dr. Saxton Pope; they begin archery collaboration.

May 1913: Ishi hospitalized two days for back pain.

May 1914: Pope does a complete clinical history of Ishi: "No Premonition of Illness."

Summer 1914: Ishi, Waterman, Pope and Kroeber Visit and map the Deer Creek area of Tehama county.

December 10, 1914 to Feb. 1, 1915: Ishi hospitalized for 62 days, First Tubercular Diagnosis in early 1915.

Summer 1915: Linguistics work with Edward Sapir; Ishi stays with Watermans at Berkeley for three months and is "carefully looked after."

August 22, 1915: Ishi hospitalized for six weeks, then moved to the Museum of Anthropology.

August 28, 1915: Kroeber informs T.T. Waterman and Gifford of plans for Ishi's convalescence: "We have got to handle the case. The physicians go by the book and rule, and it's up to us to apply our knowledge of the individual and our judgment to their findings and advice. He undoubtedly has had TB since last winter, though for the last 6 months it has been only latent... We must let the doctors get their crack at him, but unless he has really broken I don't think they'll find out much... If he gets back to where he was all spring, I believe the same treatment is the only one--reasonable air, exercise and distraction, with every ready tab on the progress of the disease with scales and thermometer. If ...the disease continues active even though mild, I suggest sending him preferably to our former watchman...himself a lunger of ten years' standing; or if he won't have him, then to the Appersons. Pope has the only right idea, which is to handle him as a person, not as a hospital case....I sail for Europe Tuesday...for about two months then back here. [New York and the Museum of Natural History]

September 30, 1915: Gifford replies, "Ishi has improved slowly, but he is a long way from being on his feet. The doctors feel that he will be better off in our building. ...the doctors say he is not in condition to move to the country..."

March 18, 1916: Ishi is readmitted to UC Hospital.

March 24, 1916: Kroeber writes from New York to Gifford, "I am very sorry. The temperatures made me lose hope some time ago. Please stand by our contingently made outline of action, and insist on it as my personal wish. There is no objection to a cast. I do not however see that an autopsy would lead to anything of consequence. I might be willing to consent if it were to be a strict autopsy in the ordinary sense to determine the cause of death, but as they know that, I suspect that the autopsy would resolve itself into a general dissection. Please shut down on it. As to disposal of the body, I must ask you as my personal representative on the spot in this matter, to yield nothing at all under any circumstances. If there is any talk about the interests of science, say for me that science can go to hell. We propose to stand by our friends. Besides, I cannot believe that any scientific value is materially involved. We have hundreds of Indian skeletons that nobody ever comes near to study. The prime interest in this case would be of a morbid romantic nature. Please acquaint Waterman with my feelings; and convey them also to Pope, toned down in form so as not to offend him, but without concessions. When the time comes, please see that the various people in the hospital are properly thanked. They have been more than white.

You can get an individual plot in any of the public cemeteries. Draw upon any money in our keeping, for this purpose without question or formality, on my responsibility. As to monument and care, we can see later. There is no use declaring an estate unless there is official demand. Whatever balance remains after we get through, I think should be turned over to the hospital for what they have done. All this, however, can be arranged later. Yours, ALK."

March 25, 1916: Ishi Dies at UC Hospital. Autopsy performed by Dr. Jean V. Cooke. Cause of death: Advanced Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Dr. K. F. Meyer of the Hooper Foundation is called in to consult on the route of infection.

(Waterman, Gifford and Pope are presumably present, Brain is removed, weighed, examined macroscopically and preserved).

March 30, 1916: Gifford reports to Kroeber, "Your letter of March 24 with instructions concerning the disposal of Ishi's body and estate was received too late to be of use. In disposing of his body I took the stand which you asked me to take some time ago: namely, that he have a Christian burial like any other friend. The only possible departures from your request lie in the fact that an autopsy was performed and that the brain was preserved. However, the matter, as you well know, was not entirely in my hands, as I am not the acting head of the department. In short, what happened amounts to a compromise between science and sentiment, with myself on the side of sentiment. Everything else was carried out as you would have done it yourself, I firmly believe. The Indian told Pope some time ago that the way to dispose of the dead was to burn them, so we undoubtedly followed his wishes in that matter. In the coffin were placed one of his bows, five pieces of dentalium, a box full of shell bead money which he had saved, a purse full of tobacco, three rings, and some obsidian flakes, all of which we felt sure would be in accord with Ishi's wishes. The remains are to be placed in a niche in the columbarium at Mount Olivet Cemetery. Pope and Waterman decided, and I agreed, that a small black Pueblo jar would be far more appropriate than one of the bronze or onyx urns which the Crematory has on sale. Tomorrow afternoon Pope and I are going down to place the ashes in this jar and put it in the niche purchased. Ishi died leaving $369.52. His estate went into the hands of the Public Administrator. This official, however has certainly been very obliging throughout. He has given us every aid and every advice. The money has been expended as follows:
Floral Piece at Museum $7.50
Funeral and Cremation $150.00
Niche in columbarium $40.00
County Tax $1.00
Hospital Bill $171.00

Out of the hospital bill of $171 will be deducted the charges of the Public Administrator's office. He kindly offered to cut his fee in half. The normal fee is fourteen percent (seven for the administrator and seven for the attorney) It has been cut as you see to three and one half percent for each of these men. This means of course seven percent of $369.50.

"The funeral was private, and no flowers were brought. Waterman, Pope, Loomis, Loud Warburton, Mason and myself were the only people who attended. We of course went to the crematory also. Sincerely, E. W. Gifford."

March 27, 1916: Private Funeral in the undertakers parlor, Waterman, Pope, Loud Warburton and Gifford accompanied the body to the cemetery where cremation occurred.

Mount Olivet files contain a receipt dated March 27, 1916 c/o Public administrator for $40.00 and an interment document describing name date of death, approx. age, color sex and place of birth. Cremation date listed as March 27, 1916.

March 31, 1916: Ishi's Ashes placed in a Pueblo jar and placed in the columbarium of Mount Olivet Cemetery.

March 31, 1916 Dr. Moffitt (Dean of the Medical School) thanks Waterman for his "kind note" and states "I do not think there ever was any idea of charging him [Ishi]."

October 27, 1916: Kroeber returns from sabbatical, writes to Curator of the National Museum, Ales Hrdlicka , "I find that at Ishi's death last spring his brain was removed and preserved. There is no one here who can put it to scientific use. If you wish it, I shall be glad to deposit it in the National Museum collection."

In January, 1917 the Anthropology recorder for the U.S. National Museum asks for clarification...stating that the museum "does not know certainly whether the specimen is deposited in, or presented to, the National Museum, nor whether it comes from you personally, or from the University through your good offices..." Kroeber replies, "Ishi's brain was sent to the National Museum as a gift with the compliments of the University of California. I believe there would be some question as to who was the legal possessor before it was sent to Dr. Hrdlicka. If you will enter as donor the Department of Anthropology of the University of California, I think your record will be as accurate as you can make it."

January 1917: The brain is shipped to Washington and accessioned by the Smithsonian, accession number 60884, museum number 298736. For sixty-four years it is stored in a ground glass jar in the "Division of Collections" of the Physical Anthropology Labs on the third floor of the Natural History Building. In 1981 the soft Tissue collections are rehoused and moved to Hall 25, stainless steel tank#6 and the catalogue number is attached by two permanent string tags. In 1994 the body part was moved to Third Pod, Museum Support Center. A 1999 observer reports that the brain appears to be still intact.

AFTERMATH
Publication of various articles on Ishi, Yahi ethnology and the Indian massacres of the previous century.

Alfred Kroeber, "The Yana and the Yahi." Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 78 (1925): 336-346.

Sim Moak. The Last of the Mill Creeks and Early Life in Northern California (Chico. Calif, 1923).

Nels C. Nelson, " Flint Working by Ishi."Holmes Anniversary Volume. Anthropological Essays Presented to Wm. Henry Holmes. (Washington D.C., 1916):397-402.

Saxton T. Pope, "Yahi Archery," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13 (1918): 104-152.

Saxton Pope, "The Medical History of Ishi," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13 (1920): 175-213.

Edward Sapir, "Analysis of a Yahi Text," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 20 (1923).

Edward Sapir, "The Position of Yana in the Hokan Stock," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13 (1918): 1-34.

T. T. Waterman, "The Yana Indians," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 13 (1918):35-102.

T. T. Waterman, "Ishi, the Last Yahi Indian," Southern Workman 46 (1917): 528-537.

1931: The University of California Department of Anthropology moves to new quarters at UC Berkeley and all artifacts connected with Ishi are transported to the east Bay; Medical records are housed at UCSF

MORE RECENT TIMES
1961: Theodora Kroeber publishes Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961).

1964: Theodora Kroeber publishes a children's book, Ishi, Last of His Tribe (Boston: Houghton Mifflin co., 1964).

The National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989 mandates that the Smithsonian Institution inventory, document, and, if requested repatriate culturally affiliated human remains and funerary objects to federally recognized Native American tribes. The 1996 amendment establishes deadlines for the distribution of summaries and inventories of human remains and associated funerary objects which are to be completed and submitted to Native groups by June 1, 1998.

Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act is passed in 1990, requiring all federal agencies and museums receiving federal funds to inventory and identify the items, notify the affected tribes and make arrangements to return such items if the appropriate tribe made a request.The Smithsonian is exempt from NAGPRA, and would be governed by provisions of the 1989 NMAI Act.

THE CONTEMPORARY SEARCH FOR ISHI'S REMAINS
Spring, 1997: Four federally recognized Maidu tribes (The Enterprise tribe, The Mooretown Tribe, The Berry Creek Tribe and the Mechoopda Tribe) unite to form the Butte County Native American Cultural Committee and elect Mr. Art Angle chair of the BCNACC.

May 14, 1997: The BCNACC passes Resolution 97-01 authorizing the BCNACC with the support of the Forest Service, City of Oroville, Chamber of Commerce, Butte County Board of Supervisors and the Native American Elders, to "locate and place Ishi's remains and spirit to his native Homeland."

June 6, 1997: Los Angeles Times article by Mary Curtius alerts UCSF officials to the possibility that the brain was not cremated along with Ishi's other remains. UCSF Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs initiates an internal investigation by a pathologist and a research historian.

October, 1997: Berkeley investigation fails to find further information on the brain's removal; letter sent to Arthur Angle and the BCNACC.

June 16, 1998: UCSF investigation leads to the Smithsonian, but the Director of the American Indian Program tells UCSF representative that the brain is "old folklore and it doesn't exist."

December 16, 1998: UC Research Historian meets at UCSF with Orin Starn, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Duke University, to discuss the research on the whereabouts of Ishi's brain.

December 1998-January 1999: Orin Starn recontacts the Smithsonian, finds new documents in the Bancroft library, proof that Kroeber shipped the brain in 1917.

January 27, 1999: Presence of the brain at the Smithsonian is confirmed personally in a meeting between Thomas Killion of the Smithsonian repatriation office, and Orin Starn.

January 28, 1999: Butte County Native American Cultural Committee is notified by Orin Starn, who expresses his "support and admiration for your efforts to see that Ishi is finally laid to rest in a proper way."

February 17, 1999: UCSF report filed by the UCSF Research Historian, calls for UC support for repatriation and reunification of Ishi's remains.

February 19, 1999: UCSF press release on the "Discovery" of Ishi's brain leads to national news coverage.

February 23, 1999: The Butte county Native American Cultural Committee holds a press conference in Oroville, and announces "it is important to remember that the Native Americans feel that a complete body is necessary to proper burial and release of the spirit. Ishi was the last Yahi Indian, the last of his tribe that was lost forever from mother earth...in this discovery of the missing body part, we now can proceed with the repatriation of our red brother." The BCNACC announces it s intentions to travel to the Smithsonian to view the missing body part, and "assuming the viewing goes well, we will be seeking the full cooperation of the University of California and the Smithsonian Institution in the proper repatriation of all of Ishi's remains for a proper Native American burial."

March 24, 1999: eight representative members of the BCNACC visit the Smithsonian to view the brain and conduct a cleansing ceremony.

March 23-25, 1999: Press reports the Smithsonian's announcement that it will repatriate Ishi's brain to lineal descendants or culturally affiliated people, and members of the BCNACC have no cultural affiliation with the Yahi. The press reports "No Happy Ending in Sight for Ishi's Brain."

March 25, 1999: Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 25 Relative to the University of California, "urges the Regents of the University of California to immediately take any and all actions necessary to ensure that the remains of Ishi be returned to the appropriate tribal representatives...urges the Governor to direct all affected state agencies to cooperate in the effort to return the remains of Ishi so that a proper Indian burial ceremony may take place and closure may be brought to this indignity..."

April 5, 1999: California State Legislature Oversight Hearing "on the subject of the remains of Ishi and the disposition of Native American remains and artifacts."

May 1999: After a month of investigation, the Smithsonian identifies the people of the Redding Rancheria and the Pit River tribe as Ishi's closest relations and therefore designated recipients of Ishi's remains.

April 12, 2000: The California state attorney general's office obtains a court order from San Mateo county for the removal of Ishi's ashes from the Colma cemetery for reburial by the designated Native American people according to their customs.

May 12 and 13, 2000: The Butte County Native American Cultural Committee organize a conference in Oroville to memorialize Ishi.

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THE STORY OF ISHI: A CHRONOLOGY by Nancy Rockafellar In August of 1911 a starving native-American man walked out of the Butte County wilderness into Oroville and became an instant journalistic sensation. He was identified by UC anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and T. T.

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In December 1958, Ritchie Valens paid a visit to his alma mater, Pacoima Junior High School, in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. Not much older than the assembled students (he had turned seventeen the previous May 13), he performed an assortment of its, his own and others', including his latest single, the double-sided "Donna"/ "La Bamba," which would climb into the Top Five by the following February.

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Questions and answers on John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck (1902-1968), born in Salinas, California, came from a family of moderate means. He worked his way through college at Stanford University but never graduated. In 1925 he went to New York, where he tried for a few years to establish himself as a free-lance writer, but he failed and returned to California. After publishing some novels and short stories, Steinbeck first became widely known with Tortilla Flat (1935), a series of humorous stories about Monterey paisanos.

Steinbeck's novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labour, but there is also a streak of worship of the soil in his books, which does not always agree with his matter-of-fact sociological approach. After the rough and earthy humour of Tortilla Flat, he moved on to more serious fiction, often aggressive in its social criticism, to In Dubious Battle (1936), which deals with the strikes of the migratory fruit pickers on California plantations. This was followed by Of Mice and Men (1937), the story of the imbecile giant Lennie, and a series of admirable short stories collected in the volume The Long Valley (1938). In 1939 he published what is considered his best work, The Grapes of Wrath, the story of Oklahoma tenant farmers who, unable to earn a living from the land, moved to California where they became migratory workers.

Among his later works should be mentioned East of Eden (1952), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), and Travels with Charley (1962), a travelogue in which Steinbeck wrote about his impressions during a three-month tour in a truck that led him through forty American states. He died in New York City in 1968.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished inNobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
John Steinbeck died on December 20, 1968.

To cite this section
MLA style: John Steinbeck - Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Thu. 5 Oct 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1962/steinbeck/biographical/>

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 1962 was awarded to John Steinbeck "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"

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UNBELIEVABLE SINCE 1918!

The foundation of our museum exhibit collection was set by Robert L. Ripley (1890-1949), a cartoonist, explorer, reporter, adventurer, and collector, who traveled to 201 countries in 35 years seeking the odd, the unusual, and the unexplained.

"I have traveled in 201 countries and the strangest thing I saw was man"
Robert L. Ripley

He was nicknamed "The Modern Marco Polo", and in his endless search for unbelievable stories to draw in his immensely popular newspaper cartoon feature, he acquired hundreds of exotic artifacts from around the world.

The Birth of the Believe It or Not! ODDITORIUMS

In time, Robert Ripley opened seven different "Odditoriums", typically associated with World Fairs, to house his huge collection.

Ahead of his time
Ripley was the FIRST to broadcast:

from underground

from the sky (from a falling parachute)

from underwater

from mid-ocean to the entire USA

from Australia to the USA

from South America to the USA

from from London, England to every country in the world simultaneously using a team of translators!

Today, the syndicated daily cartoon is seen in many countries around the world, in multiple languages.

THE INCOMPARABLE MR. RIPLEY

Ripley's first Believe It or Not! books, collections of his newspaper cartoon drawings, appeared in 1929 and 1931 at a time when he was receiving millions of pieces of mail each year.

Radio & Television Pioneer

The success of the first book led to a live radio show.

Starting in1930 and running continuously until 1944, Ripley hosted a wildly successful weekly radio show.

The show continued briefly in 1947-48, but by that time he was already experimenting with the new medium of television.

The Original Super-Star

In addition to being a cartoonist, an author and a radio personality, Ripley was also a movie star, making 24 "shorts" (12-15 minute documentaries) for the Vitaphone Film Company in 1931-32.

In the spring of 1949 Robert Ripley launched a weekly television show

Based loosely on his successful radio show format, Ripley displayed some of his artifacts, drew cartoons on camera, and re-enacted fantastic unbelievable stories, followed by interviews with the actual "stars" of the stories.

The Death of an Icon

Ripley's television show was the first "reality" show and was growing quickly in popularity until on show #13 on May 27, 1949, Ripley had a heart attack while on stage discussing the military funeral hymn "Taps".

The Ripley Collection

The majority of his artifacts were sold at a four day long public auction, and the lion's share was bought up by New York City entrepreneur John Arthur.

The First Odditorium

In December 1950 Mr. Arthur opened the first permanent Ripley's Believe It or Not!® Odditorium in St. Augustine, FL.

A Truly Remarkable Life

Robert Ripley led an incredible life of adventure and excitement and forever will be remembered for coining one of the most recognized and used phrases in the English language:

Ripley's Legacy

Today there are 31 Ripley's Believe It or Not! museums in ten countries, dozens of Ripley books, a huge internet web presence, and hundreds of television videos in the company's archive vaults.

Ready for more? The Ripley collection today includes everything from micro-miniature sculptures, to giant 22-foot tall car part robots. Dive right in ›

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The Iconic Mr. Ripley - Ripley's Believe It or Not!

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The foundation of our museum exhibit collection was set by Robert L. Ripley (1890-1949), a cartoonist, explorer, reporter, adventurer, and collector, who traveled to 201 countries in 35 years seeking the odd, the unusual, and the unexplained. "I have traveled in 201 countries and the strangest thing I saw was man" Robert L.

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Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was one of the twentieth century’s most important and critically acclaimed sculptors.

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By William Turnage, Reprinted courtesy of the author and Oxford University Press

Ansel Adams, photographer and environmentalist, was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman, and Olive Bray. The grandson of a wealthy timber baron, Adams grew up in a house set amid the sand dunes of the Golden Gate. When Adams was only four, an aftershock of the great earthquake and fire of 1906 threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose, distinctly marking him for life. A year later the family fortune collapsed in the financial panic of 1907, and Adams's father spent the rest of his life doggedly but fruitlessly attempting to recoup. An only child, Adams was born when his mother was nearly forty. His relatively elderly parents, affluent family history, and the live-in presence of his mother's maiden sister and aged father all combined to create an environment that was decidedly Victorian and both socially and emotionally conservative. Adams's mother spent much of her time brooding and fretting over her husband's inability to restore the Adams fortune, leaving an ambivalent imprint on her son. Charles Adams, on the other hand, deeply and patiently influenced, encouraged, and supported his son.

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By William Turnage, Reprinted courtesy of the author and Oxford University Press Ansel Adams, photographer and environmentalist, was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman, and Olive Bray. The grandson of a wealthy timber baron, Adams grew up in a house set amid the sand dunes of the Golden Gate.

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William Randolph Hearst | American newspaper publisher

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William Randolph Hearst: William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher who built up the nation's largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism. Hearst was the only son of George Hearst, a gold-mine owner and U.S. senator from California (1886-91). The young Hearst attended

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Claim your space in the Parking Lot and begin reconnecting with friends, gathering your favorite memories, and keeping track of your time with Jerry. We'll also keep you in the loop with email updates.

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Isadora Duncan, (born May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878, San Francisco, California, U.S.-died September 14, 1927, Nice, France), American dancer whose teaching and performances helped to free ballet from its conservative restrictions and presaged the development of modern expressive dance. She was among the first to raise interpretive dance to the status of creative art.

Although Duncan's birth date is generally believed to have been May 27, 1878, her baptismal certificate, discovered in San Francisco in 1976, records the date of May 26, 1877. Duncan was one of four children brought up in genteel poverty by their mother, a music teacher. As a child she rejected the rigidity of the classic ballet and based her dancing on more natural rhythms and movements, an approach she later used consciously in her interpretations of the works of such great composers as Brahms, Wagner, and Beethoven. Her earliest public appearances, in Chicago and New York City, met with little success, and at the age of 21 she left the United States to seek recognition abroad. With her meagre savings she sailed on a cattle boat for England.

At the British Museum her study of the sculptures of ancient Greece confirmed the classical use of those dance movements and gestures that hitherto instinct alone had caused her to practice and upon a revival of which her method was largely founded. Through the patronage of the celebrated actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, she was invited to appear at the private receptions of London's leading hostesses, where her dancing, distinguished by a complete freedom of movement, enraptured those who were familiar only with the conventional forms of the ballet, which was then in a period of decay. It was not long before the phenomenon of a young woman dancing barefoot, as scantily clad as a woodland nymph, crowded theatres and concert halls throughout Europe. During her controversial first tour of Russia in 1905, Duncan made a deep impression on the choreographer Michel Fokine and on the art critic Serge Diaghilev, who as impresario was soon to lead a resurgence of ballet throughout western Europe. Duncan toured widely, and at one time or another she founded dance schools in Germany, Russia, and the United States, though none of these survived.

Her private life, quite as much as her art, kept her name in the headlines owing to her constant defiance of social taboos. The father of her first child, Deirdre, was the stage designer Gordon Craig, who shared her abhorrence of marriage; the father of her second child, Patrick, was Paris Singer, the heir to a sewing machine fortune and a prominent art patron. In 1913 a tragedy occurred from which Duncan never really recovered: the car in which her two children and their nurse were riding in Paris rolled into the Seine River and all three were drowned. In an effort to sublimate her grief she was about to open another school when the advent of World War I put an end to her plans. Her subsequent tours in South America, Germany, and France were less successful than before, but in 1920 she was invited to establish a school of her own in Moscow. To her revolutionary temperament, the Soviet Union seemed the land of promise. There she met Sergey Aleksandrovich Yesenin, a poet 17 years younger than she, whose work had won him a considerable reputation. She married him in 1922, sacrificing her scruples against marriage in order to take him with her on a tour of the United States. She could not have chosen a worse time for their arrival. Fear of the "Red Menace" was at its height, and she and her husband were unjustly labeled as Bolshevik agents. Leaving her native country once more, a bitter Duncan told reporters: "Good-bye America, I shall never see you again!" She never did. There followed an unhappy period with Yesenin in Europe, where his increasing mental instability turned him against her. He returned alone to the Soviet Union and, in 1925, committed suicide.

During the last years of her life Duncan was a somewhat pathetic figure, living precariously in Nice on the French Riviera, where she met with a fatal accident: her long scarf became entangled in the rear wheel of the car in which she was riding, and she was strangled. Her autobiography, My Life, was published in 1927 (reissued 1972).

Isadora Duncan was acclaimed by the foremost musicians, artists, and writers of her day, but she was often an object of attack by the less broad-minded. Her ideas were too much in advance of their time, and she flouted social conventions too flamboyantly to be regarded by the wider public as anything but an advocate of "free love." Certainly her place as a great innovator in dance is secure: her repudiation of artificial technical restrictions and reliance on the grace of natural movement helped to liberate the dance from its dependence on rigid formulas and on displays of brilliant but empty technical virtuosity, paving the way for the later acceptance of modern dance as it was developed by Mary Wigman, Martha Graham, and others.

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Isadora Duncan | Biography, Dances, Technique, & Facts

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Isadora Duncan, American dancer whose teaching and performances helped to free ballet from its conservative restrictions.

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Born: April 23, 1928
Santa Monica, California
American actress and ambassador

Shirley Temple Black is widely regarded as an American heroine who devoted her career first to films and then to public service. The United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, she is still remembered by millions of fans for her success as a child movie star in the 1930s.

A child star

Shirley Temple was born in Santa Monica, California, on April 23, 1928. The youngest of three children, her father was a bank teller, who later worked as his daughter's manager and financial advisor when she became famous. As a child Shirley Temple began to take dance steps almost as soon as she began to walk. Her mother began taking her to dancing classes when she was about three and a half years old. She also took her daughter on endless rounds of visits to agents, hoping to secure a show business career. The hard work soon paid off-little Shirley obtained a contract at a small film studio, and one of the great careers in film history began.

Shirley Temple's first contract was with Educational Pictures Inc., for whom she worked in 1932 and 1933. She appeared in a short movie entitled Baby Burlesks, followed by a two-reeler, Frolics of Youth, that would lead to her being contracted by the Fox Film Corporation at a salary of $150 per week. The first full-length feature that she appeared in for Fox was Carolina (1934). It was another Fox release of that year that made her a star: Stand Up and Cheer. She appeared in eight other full-length films that year, including Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes. The first of these is especially notable because it was her first starring role. In 1934 the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences awarded her with a special miniature Oscar "in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year, 1934."

Through the rest of the decade Shirley Temple's star soared. It was not only her adorable dimples and fifty-six corkscrew curls that would keep her at the top of the box office listings. She was a spectacularly talented child, able to sing and dance with style and genuine feeling. Gifted with perfect pitch, she was a legendary quick study who learned her lines and dance routines much faster than her older and more experienced costars.

Unfortunately, little of the built-up popularity would be Temple's to claim by the time she was an adult. As she reports in her autobiography (a person's own life story), her father's questionable management of her

funds, coupled with both of her parents' spending, enabled her to enjoy only a fraction of the immense fortune she had earned. By 1940 she had appeared in forty-three feature films and shorts, and an entire industry had sprung up with products celebrating the glories of Shirley Temple: dolls, dresses, coloring books, and other merchandise.

Trying to grow up

By the decade's end Temple was no longer quite a child. When The Blue Bird (1940) proved unpopular at the box office, and the next film she starred in fared poorly as well, Twentieth-Century Fox devised a means of getting rid of the "property" that had saved the fledgling studio from bankruptcy. She tried to maintain her acting career through the 1940s, but never again did she come even close to the stardom of her childhood. Film audiences would simply not allow the adorable girl who had sung "On the Good Ship Lolly Pop" and "Animal Crackers (in My Soup)" to grow up.

It is arguable that nothing could have been done to preserve Temple's youthful magic. Yet her ongoing struggles as an adult would prove her to be as heroic in her own life as she had ever been on the screen. A difficult first marriage to actor John Agar caused her to mature quickly. Almost immediately thereafter came the realization that her parents had been looking out for their own best interests rather than hers.

Political role

In 1950 Temple married the successful California businessman Charles Black, with whom she raised her children. Her concern over domestic social problems caused her to realize that life as a private citizen could not satisfy her desire to make the world a better place. She ran for Congress in 1967 and was defeated. This was only the beginning of her involvement in public service, however. In 1969 she was appointed to serve as a representative to the United Nations (UN), a multinational organization aimed at world peace. Her work at the United Nations led to a second career for Shirley Temple Black. In 1972 she was appointed representative to the UN Conference on the Human Environment and also served as a representative on the Joint Committee for the USSR-USA Environmental Treaty. The next year she served as a U.S. commissioner for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Black overcame a great challenge in 1972 when she successfully battled breast cancer. When she publicly disclosed that she had had a mastectomy (the surgical removal of a breast), she gave courage to millions of women. Two years later she was appointed ambassador to Ghana, where the people of that nation warmly received her. In all of her various diplomatic functions, Black's intelligence and spirit contributed greatly to her country's reputation and furthered its world position. Democratic President Jimmy Carter (1924-) paid tribute to her tact and flawless taste when he chose her (Black had been a lifelong Republican) to make the arrangements for his inauguration (swearing in as president) and inaugural ball in 1977.

By 1981 Black was such an established pillar of the public service community that she became one of the founding members of the American Academy of Diplomacy. In 1988 she was appointed Honorary Foreign Service Officer of the United States, the only person with that rank. She went on to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia (today known as the Czech Republic and Slovakia) from 1989 until 1992. Such honors are ultimately the true measure of her career's meaning.

Recognition and later career

Latter-day film industry recognition such as the Life Achievement Award of the American Center of Films for Children or the full-sized Oscar that Black was given in 1985 were echoes of a past that, while still meaningful for "Shirley Temple," were not quite relevant for Shirley Temple Black. According to Black, her more than twenty-five years of social service have been just as enjoyable as her years in Hollywood.

Black, through her lifetime of service in the arts and public life, has demonstrated the spirit of self-sacrifice and hard work that Americans have aspired to for generations. She is regarded as a true American heroine. Her lifetime achievements were duly honored on December 6, 2001, when she was honored in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

For More Information

Black, Shirley Temple. Child Star: An Autobiography. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Blashfield, Jean F. Shirley Temple Black: Actor and Diplomat. Chicago: Ferguson, 2000.

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Born: April 23, 1928 Santa Monica, California American actress and ambassador Shirley Temple Black is widely regarded as an American heroine who devoted her career first to films and then to public service. The United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, she is still remembered by millions of fans for her success as a child movie star in the 1930s.

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Julia Child revolutionized American cuisine through her French cooking school, award-winning cookbooks, and world-renowned television programs by presenting an approachable version of sophisticated French cooking to her eager audience for four decades.

She began with a sincere passion for good food and the pleasures of cooking, studying in France in the '50s with chef/friend Simone Beck. With the help of Louisette Bertolle, another dedicated food lover, they created a cooking school called L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes and later, in 1961, completed their groundbreaking cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

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In Memoriam

"Julia Child's legacy to America is felt nowhere more strongly than at PBS," said Pat Mitchell, former President and CEO of PBS. "When it all began on WGBH, Boston's public television station, in 1962, no one had ever done a cooking show on television. But Julia set a standard for far more than a genre that has grown exponentially ever since. She made sophisticated cooking techniques accessible while promoting the art of cooking to men and women alike. She was a funny, witty and debonair character who charmed all who knew her - even if just by her television appearances. We're honored to have had her as part of the PBS family and we will cherish her memory."

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PBS is home to Julia Child. Since her first cooking program aired on public television in 1963, she has inspired millions of amateur cooks and many professional chefs with her well-honed skills, easy kitchen spirit, and passion for learning.

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