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California Academy of Sciences ~ A quick tour through its 155 year history. Our beginning on April 4 th , 1853 as the California Academy of Natural Sciences
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California Academy of Sciences~ A quick tour through its 155 year history.
Our beginning on April 4th, 1853 as the California Academy of Natural Sciences “On the evening of April 4, 1853, seven men assembled in a candle-lit room at 129 Montgomery and founded the first academy of science west of the Atlantic seaboard.”
The first formal museum of the now California Academy of Sciences located at DuPont [Grant Avenue] and California Streets from 1872 to 1890.
Market Street Academy 1891 - 1906 With a bequest from James Lick, this stately, six story stone building was built at 833 Market Street [between Third and Fourth Streets]. The center archway leads to the museum in the rear building. The front building was an income producing commercial building.
Market Street Museum The mammoth now dominates the second floor in this sky lit, open court of the museum. Research offices were located on the top floors.
Alice Eastwood & the Earthquake story • On April 18th, 1906, at 5:12 am, an approximately 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco. Several Academy curators and staff members rushed to the Market Street Academy and were able to rescue one cart of materials. The items saved included Academy minute books, membership records, and 2,000 type specimens. The remaining 50 years’ worth of research collections and the library were lost in the fire. The heroine of the day was Botany curator Alice Eastwood, whose deeds remain legendary today.
Alice Eastwood 1859 - 1953 ~ Academy botanist
Galapagos Islands, 1905-1906 Expedition, Schooner Academy • The Schooner Academy set sail for the Galapagos Islands on June 28th, 1905 with seven Academy scientists aboard. The group was led by Rollo Beck. They explored the islands for a year, but upon hearing of the April 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, they set sail and returned home that November. The specimens they collected became the core of the scientific collections after the Academy and its first 50 years of collecting were destroyed.
While the Academy was being destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, the Schooner Academy and its scientists [in suits] were on expedition in the Galapagos Islands.
The research collections they brought back became the beginning of the new Academy
January 1894 ~ The Concourse developed for the Mid-Winter International Exposition San Francisco City / County charter ~ citizens voted in 1910 to authorize a museum to be located in Golden Gate Park on the Concourse
North American Hallincluding Bird Hall,Research, Library and Auditorium~Dedicated September 22, 1916
These large doors are the public entrance to the first building, North American Hall. This 1925 view shows the entrance with the Francis Scott Key statue.
Steinhart Aquarium, the Academy’s second building, was dedicated on September 29, 1923, fulfilling Ignatz Steinhart's dream and bequest of a public aquarium for the city of San Francisco. Visitors are viewing the center of three pools at the courtyard entrance.
Science HallDedicated February 20, 1951Morrison Planetarium1952Mailliard Library1959
Science Hall joined Simson African Hall with the Steinhart Aquarium. The tile dome is Morrison Planetarium.
Courtyard with Whale Fountain and Francis Scott Key sculpture
Wattis Halland rear or Middle Drive entranceDedicated June 30, 1976
Views of the Past • Information on features that will return in the new Academy • Events, expeditions and special people • Answers about Academy icons that have found new homes.
Steinhart Aquarium and Swamp • Ignatz Steinhart proposed an aquarium for the city of San Francisco in 1910. In 1916, he began conversations with Academy Director Barton W. Evermann. After approval by a city election in 1918, a city charter established that the management and operation of an aquarium would be under the direction of the Academy and the operating funds would be furnished by the City of San Francisco. Ignatz donated the funds to construct the Steinhart Aquarium in honor of his brother, Sigmund Steinhart. • 1923 ~ The Steinhart Aquarium was opened on September 22nd. • 1963 ~ Major renovations were completed on the aquarium including the addition of the 63,500 gallon Dolphin Tank. The Swamp now contained animals that would be found in an American southeastern swamp, American alligators and alligator snapping turtles. • 1977 ~ The Fish Roundabout was dedicated. • 1995 ~ Passage of aquarium bond, Proposition C, for seismic upgrade and infrastructure repairs.
Steinhart Aquarium and SwampBuilding designed by San Francisco architect Lewis P. Hobart. Swamp Room
Steinhart Aquarium and Swamp Sea horse railings and bronze doors sculpted by San Franciscan Edgar Walters with bronze produced by C.J. Hillard Company, Inc.
Steinhart Aquarium and Swamp Tiles designed and produced by Solon and Schemmel of San Jose. “The lively intrusions of polychrome tiles into the prevailing sea-green ground tone are most happy in effect”.
Blue Whale Skeleton • The California Academy of Sciences' blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), also known as a sulfur-bottom whale) was captured off the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1908 by the whaler St. Lawrence, which was owned by the Pacific Whaling Station at Kyuquot, British Columbia. The skeleton was presented to the Academy in 1915 and then buried in what is now the Shakespeare Garden until it was mounted for display in 1917 by Joseph P. Herring. The skeleton was displayed in a large open shed: over 94 feet long and 24 feet wide, with height varying from 14 to 22 feet. This shed cost $1777.08 to build -- over $33,000 in 2007 dollars. It was installed between the research wing and Bird Hall of North American Building. The April 1967 Academy member newsletter reports that staff had recently added barbed wire to a cyclone fence surrounding the whale shed because of recurring problems with graffiti, vandalism, and theft. Fiberglass substitutes for stolen bones were installed, and the entire skeleton received a cleaning and a coat of weather-proof paint.The whale itself, a male, is 75 feet long and is estimated to have weighed over 80 tons. It measures 11 feet wide and 9 feet deep at its 11th rib. Its head alone is over 20 feet long, its longest rib is over 10 feet long, and its front flippers are nearly 11 feet long. Its corpse yielded over 8 tons of fertilizer, 60 barrels of whale oil, and 400 pounds of baleen.
Tyrannosaurus rex • Our Tyrannosaurus rex is a cast made from two dinosaurs, as none have been found intact. It was purchased from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology of Drumheller in Alberta and was assembled in the Academy Courtyard in the summer of 1993. It was on display to explain the science of the film Jurassic Park during our Jurassic exhibit. It was moved indoors the next year and was put on display in Cowell Hall.
Sabre-toothed cat • This prehistoric cat from the La Brea tar pits has been on exhibit in both Fossil Hall (1969) and the Life Through Time (1990) exhibit.
Foucault Pendulum • During World War II, an optical shop was set up in the Museum to grind and polish lenses and to rebuild binoculars and telescopes for the U.S. Navy. With this staff and expertise, the Academy went on to build our Morrison Planetarium Star Projector and our Foucault Pendulum. Foucault created his pendulum in 1851 to prove that the earth rotates. Our pendulum was located in Science Hall when it opened in 1952. In 1958 we built a Foucault Pendulum for the Smithsonian Museum and then in 1960 we started producing them for clients around the world. They were built in our instrument shop at an average of 4 to 5 a year. They are now created by retired staffer Cary Ponchione as “Academy Pendulum Sales.”
