125 Years of the de Young

The museum originated with the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, a monumental exhibition of technological innovation and artwork. Once the exposition closed, Michael H. de Young, the exposition’s director general, encouraged the park commissioners and San Francisco residents to maintain the Fine Arts Building as a public museum. On March 23, 1895, the newly founded museum opened and exhibited painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; historical objects from across the globe; and a natural history collection. 

April 17, 1915: "First Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by California Artists." This exhibition of works by California artists allows the artists to present and sell their pieces in the museum. Sculptor Melvin Earl Cummings’s "Enchantment" (ca. 1915), one of the works on view, became the basis for the sculpture at the center of the Pool of Enchantment, which was completed and placed at the entrance of the museum in 1920. Since 2005, the redesigned Pool of Enchantment has been situated on the site of the museum’s original Egyptian Revival–style building.

1934-1935: The State Emergency Relief Administration provides support to the museum. Unemployed workers are hired to make structural improvements to the building as well as to construct a room for prints, a textiles study room, and a library, which open in 1935. These additions expand the de Young’s ability to engage with researchers and visitors and provide access to resources for the general public.

July 2–December 5, 1955:  “'I Remember Mama': Costumes and Accessories of the Late-Victorian and Edwardian Periods." This exhibition of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fashion includes dresses, shoes, and headwear tracing the development of fashion in San Francisco from the late-Victorian period to 1910. “I Remember Mama” refers to a popular 1948 Hollywood movie of the same name. All of the dresses on view had been recently donated by San Francisco residents, and many of the pieces were inspired by the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition.

May 1973: "Traditional Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas." The Africa, Oceania, and Americas galleries are newly installed with a display that includes music, photographs, and information sheets to introduce the diverse and multivalent cultures and groups represented by the recently established department.

January 16–May 2, 1999: "Fred Wilson: Speaking in Tongues—A Look at the Language of Display." As part of a large-scale reevaluation of the de Young’s collecting and exhibiting practices in preparation for the new de Young building, contemporary artist Fred Wilson creates a series of artistic interventions, reinstallations, and revisions—rewriting display labels, reimagining the role of display cases, and recontextualizing works in the museum’s galleries.

June 3, 2017–April 1, 2018: "Revelations: Art from the African American South." This exhibition celebrates the major acquisition from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation of sixty-two modern and contemporary works of art by self-taught artists from the American South, including works by Thornton Dial, Ralph Griffin, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Joe Light, Ronald Lockett, Joe Minter, Jessie T. Pettway, Mary T. Smith, Mose Tolliver, Annie Mae Young, and Purvis Young.