Stacks of old books contain important records in the cold vault of the San Diego City Clerk’s Archives Center.
Yesterday I stepped into City Hall to enjoy an educational event open to the public during the City Clerk’s 3rd Annual Archives Month. When I entered the Archives Center in the basement of the San Diego City Administration Building, I didn’t really know what I might experience.
I saw and learned more from this behind the scenes tour than I expected!
I and a few others were led into a small lecture room and introduced to City of San Diego Archivist Jerry Handfield. He’s an energetic historian and professional archivist who in the past has served as State Archivist for both Indiana and Washington.
Jerry Handfield presented an overview of his job and explained the critical importance of maintaining genuine, reliable, trustworthy public records.
We learned that good governance depends on maintaining accurate records. Trustworthy public records protect the rights of citizens and promotes public trust in government. A healthy democracy relies on trust in its institutions.
Archives play such an important role that in 1850, when San Diego was a tiny town with very limited resources, the city’s newly created common council directed that a very expensive iron safe be appropriated to the clerk for the safekeeping of city records.
As an archivist, Jerry Handfield provided a list of reasons why records matter: they protect life (medical records), protect the public from disasters (maps and floor plans), protect property rights (deeds), and include all sorts of other critical information. He mentioned insurance and bank records, marriage licenses, work licenses and business records.
We learned that for an archivist preservation is a constant war. It’s a war against time, negligence, disasters like floods and mold, decay caused by acids in paper, and other often unpredictable factors. Some media that store records, such as floppy disks and magnetic tape, degrade over time, become corrupted or technologically obsolete.
Some of the City Archive’s older paper documents are given a special chemical treatment to help preserve them. Many are placed in acid-free sleeves or boxes and placed in a temperature and humidity controlled cold vault.
The City Clerk Archives is continuously working to digitize its many hard copy records–to preserve them for all time and make them readily available to the public via the internet. But there remain thousands upon thousands of documents and photos to be scanned and classified.
After the lecture we stepped into the cold vault and saw shelves stacked high with archival material. Then we stepped into a room where photos and negatives are scanned and digitized.
Ranged all around the main room of the Archives Center are additional interesting displays. I saw many Mayoral Artifacts that were presented as gifts to the city from all over the globe. Among these are an assortment of beautiful decorative plates.
Enough of my inadequate written description. Let’s look at a few photos and you’ll get a better idea of what I experienced!
San Diego City Archivist Jerry Handfield describes the importance of accurately recording and carefully preserving critical information.Stacks of boxes containing official records fill the temperature and humidity controlled cold vault at the City Archives.Archivist Jerry Handfield shows visitors shelves of old canvas and leather-bound books, including many that contain past City Council Resolutions.In one room at the Archives Center, old photographs are scanned and categorized by trained volunteers, in order to be digitized for easy public access.Many cool historical photos of San Diego cover the walls of this room!Man and Children in Halloween costumes, circa 1960.First Official Map of San Diego, June 1867.A treasure trove of San Diego history at one’s fingertips!Mayoral artifacts displayed in the main room of the San Diego City Clerk’s Archives Center include gifts from other cities and people around the world.Armetale plate with Seal of City of San Diego.Paper mache oni mask from Mizusawa, Japan.Filner Mayoral Artifact RF-4. Ballast Point Whaling Station, San Diego, California (1820’s).While walking about the main room of the City Archives I spied this cover of an Official Views San Diego Panama-California Exposition souvenir book.Boxes upon boxes hold tons of paper records in the basement of City Hall!
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You might say this blog is a sort of digital archive. You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Artist paints a face at the Spanish Village Art Center.
This afternoon I took a long walk through Balboa Park.
Look at all the colorful things I saw!
Painting the colored tile patio of Spanish Village.A squirrel in a colorful place!Even the planters in Spanish Village are bright with color!Brilliant colors from inside the Earth at the San Diego Mineral and Gem Societies’ museum.Many colors await visitors inside the Botanical Building.Any walk through Balboa Park is wonderful.Ninja Nattan smiles after demonstrating her awesome ninja skills.
Check out Ninja Nattan’s colorful Twitter feed here! She’s a super nice ninja comedian!
A beautiful work of colorful art by Yoichi Nakama, now on display at the Japanese Friendship Garden.A great She-Ra cosplay on El Prado!SAM: Storytelling Across Media is coming up at the Comic-Con Museum. Sign up for the panels before they are full!Juggling on a unicycle on a slackline! Wow!A small moment from another very colorful walk through Balboa Park!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Last weekend I walked all around Old Poway Park. During my visit I took a look at the park’s many historic structures and interesting sights. When I approached the front of the 1886 Templars Hall, I noticed a large bronze sculpture standing near the foot of the front steps.
The Pioneers is a seven-foot-tall bronze sculpture by renowned local artist Richard Becker. It was commissioned in 2006 by the City of Poway. The gentle figures of a mother, child and faithful dog provide a beautiful tribute to Poway’s early pioneer founders.
Plaque reads: The Pioneers. Sculptor Richard Becker, 2007. Mother and child welcoming families to Poway. A tribute to the pioneers who settled in Poway at the turn of the 19th century.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
During my misty morning walk in Leucadia a couple weekends ago, I discovered many awesome street murals! I took photos when I came upon them, but I was in more of a walking and thinking mood than a blogging mood, so I didn’t gather a whole lot of information.
These photographs provide an idea of what you might see should you walk or drive north up Coast Highway 101. Lots of color and lots of cool beach and surf scenes.
Enjoy!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Today, as I walked through the Morley Field section of Balboa Park, I was excited to see a good crowd competing at the Petanque Courts, otherwise known as the Petanquedrome!
Turns out today was the San Diego Club de Petanque’s big San Diego Select Doubles Open Tournament!
I paused to watch the spectacle.
Hands lifted and released, spheres spun and collided. Calculating players orbited. I thought I was watching a celestial dance.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Check out these colorful murals that now decorate the east side of the old Firestone Complete Auto Care building on Park Boulevard, just north of Smart Corner.
All three murals were recently created by the female artists of @ladieswhopaint!
UPDATE!
I took more pics on a later walk…
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
I seldom walk through some neighborhoods in San Diego. My last walk through South Park was several years ago.
This morning I headed from Golden Hill up 30th Avenue then Fern Street. As I passed through the heart of South Park my camera found a bunch of cool street art I haven’t previously seen!
Some of this colorful artwork, including a few murals, seems new. Some of it I might have missed during that last walk…
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Today I headed up to Old Poway Park to enjoy a very cool event. Scenes from the 19th century were being reenacted at the annual Rendezvous in Poway!
History enthusiasts had set up tents and tipis under large beautiful sycamore trees in the park’s grassy area. I learned that the rendezvous participants had been camping in Old Poway Park for several days already, and that local school students came by during the week to learn about life in the Old West during the 1800’s.
The Rendezvous in Poway, which continues this Sunday, features people in costume representing vaqueros, mountain men, cowboys, pioneers, and even members of the cavalry during the Civil War. For a few bucks kids can pan for real gold and families can ride the park’s fun Poway-Midland Railroad loop and watch a mock train robbery! Many of the attractions are free to the public, including a realistic cannon firing demonstration and Professor Tru Lee Bogus’ Traveling Medicine Show.
I also discovered that the Heritage Museum in Old Poway Park is open on weekends. There are many fascinating exhibits inside, and visitors can learn a good deal about the early history of Poway, back when people reached the once-tiny town by stagecoach.
On a pleasant early October afternoon I walked about the Rendezvous in Poway, enjoying many unique sights–and of course I took photos!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
One fantastic sculpture by renowned French-American sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle presently stands at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Those who pass by the cultural center on their way up North Escondido Boulevard can’t fail to miss it.
I stopped by to have a look at the monumental sculpture, which is titled Grande Step Totem.
A plaque near its base is weathered and cracked and is difficult to read now. I’ve tried to transcribe the English portion of it accurately:
Grande Step Totem
Based in Native American spirituality, Saint Phalle’s Totem is more solemn than much of her work. With a muted color palette and subject matter, this piece encourages introspection. The Totem returned to Escondido on December 19, 2012 after spending the summer on view with several other Saint Phalle pieces on Park Avenue in New York City.
As you can see, some construction work was being done around the base of the sculpture when I visited last weekend. Here are my photos…
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
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