This summer the Museum of San Diego History, operated by the San Diego Historical Society, will unveil the second of four phases of its permanent exhibition, "Place of Promise: Stories of San Diego." It is a very special time for the Society as the expansion has been in the works for over two decades. We hope that the exhibit will be a real facet to the city, building on the idea that San Diego is a place of promise, where stories are created and retold from generation to generation. We hope that you will join us in celebrating this special time.


…Celebrate the opening of PLACE OF PROMISE: STORIES OF SAN DIEGO July 19th…

ARTIFACTS TELL THE REAL STORY OF SAN DIEGO AT THE MUSEUM OF SAN DIEGO HISTORY AS IT EXPANDS ITS PERMANENT EXHIBITION

Building an Early Identity: One Place, Many Cultures

Opens: July 19, 2007

San Diego, CA---- Focusing on San Diego’s first inhabitants, a colorful kaleidoscope of Kumeyaay, Spanish, Mexican and early American settlers up to 1885, the Museum of San Diego History will unveil the second phase of its permanent exhibition in Balboa Park on July 19. The new exhibition examines the significant impact these influential cultures had in shaping the region’s identity and physical development.

Numerous artifacts from the San Diego Historical Society’s vast collections, many never before seen on public display, will become educational tools in the multi-dimensional exhibition. Featured objects on display will be a Concord Stagecoach, a 19th century ore cart similar to what was used in mining operations in the backcountry communities and an 1850 hand-appliquéd, red and white cotton quilt crafted by Juana Machado which was honored by the California Heritage Quilt Project. The quilt will hang alongside personal photographs of the Machado family, homage to one of the longest living Mexican families in the County.

An icon of San Diego’s past, the Concord Stagecoach from the Abbot-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire, is one of the most prominent pieces in the exhibition. With its trademark yellow wheels and leather strapping, the stagecoach was used in the late 1800s to deliver people and mail between El Cajon and Lakeside by the Frary and Foster stage line. Like other stagecoaches, it supported a mutual relationship between the city and towns dotting the countryside, linking what would be otherwise distant communities.

“We [the Museum of San Diego History] are letting the artifacts tell the story,” states head curator Nicholas Vega, adding, “the historical basis of contemporary San Diego, as we know it today, is a combination of the merging of these four cultures (Kumeyaay, Spanish, Mexican, and early American settlers up to 1885).” Over time, more than 2,000 items from the San Diego Historical Society’s vaults will rotate through the exhibition.

The perimeter of the gallery is lined by a timeline of period photographs from the San Diego Historical Society’s extensive photographic archives. These wrap around the gallery’s artifacts, representing items from all aspects of the Society’s collections, including photographs, fine art, costume and textile, anthropological, and religious objects.

The first phase of the Museum’s permanent exhibition focuses on San Diego County, past and present, and opened to the public last July. Within it, a dramatic central gallery rises from an interactive walk-on map of San Diego County that stretches wall-to-wall. Additional galleries will be unveiled over the next two years, with the third phase opening in the spring of 2008. The third phase will focus on the time period proceeding 1888, the year of San Diego’s big population boom. These galleries together will complete the exhibition under the main title, Place of Promise: Stories of San Diego.

The new gallery caters to all ages and is family friendly. Young children will be guided graphically throughout the displays by Bum, San Diego’s stow-a-way “town dog” whom arrived in 1886 aboard the steamer Santa Rosa. They will have the chance to play a “Where’s Waldo?” type of discovery game to find him. Children will also have the opportunity to dress up in mock Victorian-era dresses and suit coats to model in front of the hanging mirror that once adorned the guest lounge of the historic Horton House Hotel. Built by Alonzo Horton, the father of New Town whom financed the development in 1867, the hotel’s locale is now home to the US Grant in downtown San Diego. In honor of Horton, this exhibition will feature a number of objects from the Hotel.

“The development of the permanent exhibition is a significant achievement for the Historical Society, as it has been a major goal for many years,” elaborated Executive Director David S. Watson, who said that the project has been made possible with generous contributions from many donors over the past two decades, including operating support from the San Diego’s Arts and Culture Commission.

According to Watson, Place of Promise: Stories of San Diego “builds on the central idea that San Diego is a place of promise, a place where stories are created and told, where the future becomes the present, and the present unfolds in all its diversity.”