Exhibit June 28 - September 15, 2002

Exhibit June/July 2002

Wish You Were Here! Historic Postcards from San Diego and California From the John R. and Jane Adams Postcard Collection Panama - California Exposition, 1915-1916
The 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition held in Balboa Park boosted the production of postcards of San Diego, many of which are preserved in the Adams Postcard Collection. As with other U.S. expositions, the 1915 exposition served as a major tourist attraction; many of the thousands of tourists who came to San Diego for this event purchased postcards to send to family and friends back home.
San Diego was then a small town in the southwestern corner of the country, a geographically remote place with an underdeveloped port and industrial base. Agriculture had been the primary reason for pioneers to settle in the San Diego area, as its temperate climate allowed citrus and vegetable crops to thrive year-round. Many visitors to the exposition wrote notes on their postcards extolling the climate and the beauty of San Diego. Local historians attribute the growth of San Diego in the early part of the century to exposition visitors who decided to settle in San Diego as well as to the enticing descriptions of San Diego sent to the folks back home. The Spanish Colonial Revival style prevailed in the building designs for this Expo, which were undertaken by the well-known architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Completed for this exposition were Cabrillo Bridge, the California Building, the House of Charm, the House of Hospitality, the Casa de Balboa, the Casa del Prado, the Balboa Park Club, the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, the Botanical Building, and Alcazar Garden. The California Building and Spreckels Organ Pavilion were the only buildings designed for permanent use. (Information from Balboa Park site)	Entrance to Plaza de California
	Japanese Tea Garden
	Organ Pavillon
	Visitors to the Panama - California Exposition 1915
California Pacific International Exposition 1935-1936 Another exposition held in Balboa Park in 1935-1936 produced the same results; the city's population increased due to visitors who relocated to San Diego after the fair. Both of these expositions are well documented by picture postcards almost all of which are found in the Adams Collection. Nearly half of all the postcards have personal inscriptions that are a rich source for assessing the impressions made by the fairs and San Diego upon the tourists. Not all of the postcards sent home depicted the exposition grounds, buildings, and events. Views showing hotels, downtown, the harbor, beaches, La Jolla, Julian, San Diego State, and numerous other places, buildings, neighborhoods, activities, and people in San Diego County were also popular.
Most of the buildings in the Park’s Southern Palisades area were constructed for this fair, such as the Conference Building, the Ford Building, the Starlight Bowl and the Municipal Gymnasium. Other buildings constructed at this time were the Spanish Village Art Center, the House of Pacific Relations (seventeen cottages) and the United Nations Building.
The Expo’s architect, Richard Requa, designed buildings inspired by the native architecture of the Southwest–the Indian pueblos as well as the earlier Aztec and Mayan structures in Yucatan and Mexico. These buildings, along with those constructed for the 1915 Expo, present a complete architectural history of the Southwest from prehistoric times to modern day. (Information from Balboa Park site)	The Botanical Building surrounded by towering eucalyptus, 1935.
The Old Globe Theatre–a replica of the 16th-century Elizabethan Globe Theatre, once located in central London on the Thames River–was built for this second exposition. Special Collections at SDSU houses the historical records of the Old Globe.
A selection of Collections and University Archives holdings on the Panama-California Exposition 1915 and 1935: Balboa Park expositions, 1915-1936. The Magic City: A Book of Days. San Diego Historical Society, 1982. (Call number: Special Collections F869.S22 B25 1982) Pray-Palmer, Lillian. A Book of Memories for the Ages; A Pictorial Aftermath from the Panama-California Exposition, issued by the Balboa Park Auditorium Publicity Dept, San Diego, L.D. Gregory [1925]. (Call number: Special Collections fo. SB483.S22 P7) Winslow, Carleton Monroe. The Architecture and the Gardens of the San Diego Exposition. A Pictorial Survey of the Aesthetic Features of the Panama California International Exposition, Described by Carleton Monroe Winslow ... Together with an Essay by Clarence S. Stein; Illustrated from photographs by Harold A. Taylor; with an Introduction by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, San Francisco, P. Elder and company [c1916]. (Call number: Special Collections N4873 .W5) Official publication, Panama California International Exposition: San Diego, 1916. (Call number: Special Collections fo. F869.S22 P19 1916) For more information, please visit our archives or give us a call.