1893 SFAI, Mark Hopkins Institute of Art

In 1893 the Mark Hopkins mansion on the top of Nob Hill became the home of the School and the San Francisco Art Association when Edward Searles donated the property to the University of California to be used by the SFAA for an art school.  Hopkins was one of the “Big Four” who along with Collis P. Huntington, William Crocker, and Leland Stanford built the western half of the transcontinental railroad. This mansion---the highest structure on the highest hill in the City was completed after Hopkins had died. The widow Hopkins then married her interior designer, Edward Searles. Mrs. Searles died and Edward moved to Massachusetts with the Hopkins chauffeur.

The property was sold in 1925 for the Mark Hopkins Hotel when the School moved to 800 Chestnut Street, into the building designed as an Italian hillside town by Arthur Brown.

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.

Jay DeFeo's Class Roll Books 1965 & 1966

The College Roll Books have been mined by researchers, usually to track-down who taught what, when, and to whom.  Sometimes they offer traces of additional historical ephemera—like these two Jay DeFeo roll book pages filled with coloring, paint spills, student names, scratches, highlights, and a listing of weekly activities for her Drawing Class which included:  “Valentines” one week and “Flo & Jazz” another week. [The legendary model, Flo Allen also occasionally sang with the Studio 13 Jazz Band]

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.

SFAI Archives: 1918 "Epidemic Influenza"

The School closed from October 18th through November 18th “on account of the  Epidemic Influenza purported to have come from China by way of Spain.  It may have come from Milpitas…another guess would be Pipestone, Minnesota.”

Ralph Stackpole who had studied at the School with Arthur Mathews taught “Night Sculpture” in the Fall of 1918 where it is noted in this roll book that “Owing to an epidemic, School was closed from Oct. 18 to Nov. 1918.”

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.