Etched in Memory

Etched in Memory:
Urban Views from the John S. Drum Collection
January 28 ~ May 28, 2004

The Society of California Pioneers is proud to present its newest exhibition, Etched in Memory: Urban Views from the John S. Drum Collection. This exhibit features the work of San Francisco natives Armin Hansen and Lawrence Scammon, the Austrian émigré John Joseph Winkler, and Massachusetts-born Loren Roberta Barton among others. While most California artists of the time were creating traditional landscapes, these artists chose to focus on the burgeoning life of cities, their architecture, ethnic neighborhoods, and bustling waterfronts. With a scarcity for vegetation or human beings, these works relay a longing for the receding world of nature that was quickly being replaced in California of the 1910s and 20s.

The collection was purchased from John Sylvester Drum (1872-1957), a prominent attorney, who served as president of the American Trust Corporation as well as president of the American Bankers’ Association and sat on the boards of Pacific Gas & Electric and the Yosemite Valley Railroad Company. Along with C. Templeton Crocker he was in part responsible for reviving the moribund California Historical Society in 1922 and was made a Knight of Malta by the pope in 1929 for his church philanthropy. Today the etchings in the Drum collection form an invaluable historical record of California’s cities in the transitory phase from village to metropolis.

The Society of California Pioneers, founded in 1850 by pre-Gold Rush pioneers, is the state's oldest historical organization. Dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and enjoyment of California heritage, the Society’s archives include an outstanding collection of 19th and early 20th century artwork, artifacts, photographs and manuscripts.

The Society of California Pioneers
300 Fourth Street at Folsom
San Francisco, CA 94107

415-957-1859
info@californiapioneers.org
http://www.californiapioneers.org

Exhibition Dates: January 28 - May 28, 2004
Museum Hours: Weds – Friday, and the 1st Saturday of each Month 10am– 4pm
General Admission $3; Students & Seniors $1