California Historical Society

Shortly after its most recent refounding in 1922, the Society leased Room 508 of the Wells Fargo Building (at Second and Mission) as its headquarters.[6] Subsequently, the Society moved its offices to 456 McAllister (sharing the Pioneer Hall building near City Hall with the Society of California Pioneers) in 1938[11] and the Flood Building as a temporary home in 1955 when the Pioneer society was expanding.[12][13]^{: Note 10}

The society bought the Whittier Mansion in Pacific Heights as its headquarters in 1956, subsequently adding an adjacent building.[5] In 1993 it sold both and bought the San Francisco Builders Exchange Building, which had housed E. M. Hundley Hardware and served as headquarters for Nancy Pelosi's first campaign for Congress; the building was gutted and rehabilitated, and the Society moved in 1995.[14] In 2012, when the Golden Gate Bridge was 75 years old, the Society had its facade painted international orange, the color of the bridge.[4][5]

For several years the Society studied the feasibility of moving to the Old San Francisco Mint building, which would be renovated to house a museum and a community center.[5][9][15]

In July 2020 the Society announced that it was planning to sell its headquarters building,[5] however, as of January 2021 the Society remains in the Builders Exchange Building.

• Headquarters of the CHS throughout history
• 
  Wells Fargo Building, 1922–38
• 
  Flood Building, 1955
• 
  Whittier Mansion, 1956–95
• 
  Builders Exchange, 1995–present

The Historical Society houses an outstanding collection of over 5,000 works of art, including paintings, drawings, and lithographs. Artists represented in the Fine Art Collection include Albert Bierstadt, Maynard Dixon, George Albert Frost, William Hahn, Thomas Hill, Grace Carpenter Hudson, William Keith, Arthur Frank Mathews, and Theodore Wores.[17]

The Historical Society holds the papers of noteworthy organizations and businesses, including those of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, League of Women Voters, California Tomorrow, Stern Grove Festival Association, Peoples Temple, and the Heller Ehrman law firm. The Society also holds the papers of influential persons, including the Burr-Allyne Family, San Francisco Mayor James Rolph, Jr, Asbury Harpending, and Isaias W. Hellman.[18]

Photograph of Reginaldo Francisco del Valle from the Californios collection, c. 1878.

The ephemera collection consists of a wide range of ephemera pertaining to the state of California and each of its constituent counties.

Dating from 1841 the collection includes ephemera created by or related to churches; civic associations and activist groups; clubs and societies, especially fraternal organizations; labor unions; auditoriums and theaters; historic buildings, landmarks, and museums; hotels and resorts; festivals and fairs; sporting events; hospitals, sanatoriums, prisons, and orphanages; schools, colleges, and universities; government agencies; elections, ballot measures, and political parties; infrastructure and transit systems; geographic features; and other subjects.

Label for Southern Cross lemons from 1937; ephemera collection.

In 1964, former Society president, printing historian, and collector George L. Harding founded the Kemble Collection on Western Printing and Publishing, named in honor of pioneer California printer and publisher Edward Cleveland Kemble. Dedicated to the history of printing and publishing in the West, this collection began with three major gifts—Harding's printing and publishing library, William E. Loy's typographical library, and the business archives of San Francisco printing firm Taylor & Taylor—and has since grown in size and scope.[19][20]

The Historical Society holds documentary and fine art photographs by photographers such as Marliese Gabrielson, Arnold Genthe, Louis Herman Heller, Eadweard Muybridge, Anton Wagner, Carleton Watkins, Minor White and Willard Worden.[16]