San Francisco Mechanics' Institute

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mechanics' Institute at 57 Post Street in what is now the Financial District of San Francisco

The Mechanics 'Institute in San Francisco is a cultural institution founded in 1855, which today operates one of the oldest libraries on the west coast of the United States, various adult education initiatives and the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, the oldest chess club in the United States.

The San Francisco Mechanics' Institute was born towards the end of the California gold rush out of the belief that the provision of knowledge was the foundation of economic progress. After the institution's financial situation was extremely strained at the beginning, the Mechanics' Institute shifted in the second half of the 19th century to the organization of trade and industrial shows in specially built exhibition pavilions. At the same time it made numerous educational offers available to its members, among which lectures on scientific and cultural topics as well as the library and the chess club played a special role. From 1868, the year the University of Berkeley was founded , through the second half of the 20th century, the Mechanics' Institute had a say in the administration of California's oldest university. After all of the Mechanics' Institute buildings were destroyed in the severe earthquake of 1906 , its members sold properties in the heart of San Francisco in the following years and commissioned a new building at 57 Post Street, which is still located today.

Well-known members of the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute include entrepreneur Levi Strauss , writers Mark Twain and Jack London, as well as journalist and writer Ambrose Bierce and other San Francisco figures. The Mechanics' Institute Chess Club has enjoyed numerous visits from international chess greats such as Johannes Hermann Zukertort , Emanuel Lasker , José Raúl Capablanca , Alexander Alexandrowitsch Alekhine and Max Euwe throughout its existence .

history

The foundation in 1855

The Winter of 1849 , illustration from Mountains and Molehills, or Memoirs of a Burnt Journal by Frank Marryat . The drawing satirically intensifies the chaotic conditions in San Francisco at the time of the California gold rush.

When a small group of entrepreneurs met in San Francisco on December 11, 1854, to discuss the establishment of an educational institution for adults called the Mechanics' Institute, the California gold rush that began in 1848 had already cooled noticeably. San Francisco's department stores were overcrowded, prices were in free fall, and several banks were shut down. Around half of the city's residents were unemployed. The Annals of San Francisco noted that San Francisco was "in a period of great economic distress". Given California's uncertain future, advancing technical knowledge seemed a good answer to the question of what should come economically after the gold rush. Since the still young California at that time was to a large extent dependent on the expensive import of goods of all kinds, special importance was attached to the establishment of its own agriculture and industry. The idea on which the Mechanics' Institute was based was by no means new. As early as 1821, with the establishment of the School of Arts of Edinburgh , the Scot George Birkbeck had started a whole series of Mechanics' Institutes, which had spread throughout the English-speaking world in the course of the 19th century.

In March 1855 the plan for the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute took shape. Under the chairmanship of factory owner Benjamin Haywood, the entrepreneurs gathered in the San Francisco City Hall decided to set up a lending library . The books in this library should be available to all members on freely accessible shelves, which was by no means always the case at the time. At the same time, the premises should offer enough space for chess games, presumably to give the members the opportunity to get to know each other and to train their intellectual abilities. A corporation was set up for financing, the share price of which was initially set at $ 25. The annual membership fee was $ 5. The corporation was officially incorporated on April 24, 1855, and that date remains the founding date of the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute .

Financial difficulties: the first year

Portrait of the actress Julia Dean Hayne. Oil painting by Joseph Oriel Eaton , around 1850/51.

While the founders of the Mechanics' Institute had great belief in technical progress and the establishment of an independent economy in California, the institution's financial resources were initially limited. Six months after the inaugural meeting, the Mechanics' Institute moved into its own premises in the Express Building on the northeast corner of California and Montgomery, in what is now San Francisco's financial district . The book consisted of three volumes: a copy of the United States Constitution, a Bible, and a legal treatise on property law. The fund had $ 300 available, of which only $ 125 remained after four months and the purchase of 75 additional volumes. The Mechanics' Institute ran out of money just a year after it was founded and had moved to larger premises.

The impending bankruptcy of the still young institution could be averted solely through the engagement of actress Julia Dean Hayne (1830-1868), who agreed in 1856 to receive the proceeds from a performance of the play Madeleine, the Belle of Faubourg to the Mechanics' Institute donate. What made the actress take this step is not known. What is certain, however, is that the proceeds of $ 1,029 saved the Mechanics' Institute from financial ruin for a further twelve months and even enabled it to purchase more books.

Commercial and industrial shows

Mechanics 'Industrial Pavilion , the Mechanics' Institute exhibition building in 1869. Stereoscopic Photo Card, Eadweard Muybridge .

When the Mechanics' Institute ran out of funds again in 1857, its directors developed a concept that provided financial security for the rest of the educational offerings until 1899. Following the example of the London Great Exhibition of 1851 and the New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations of 1853, they planned the first major trade and industrial show in San Francisco, which was titled The First Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics' Institute of the City of San Francisco was to open on September 7, 1857.

The announcement of this event stated:

Fairs, besides exciting emulation, extending practical knowledge, suggesting ideas to ingenious minds, affording tangible evidence of superiority, stimulating talent, exhibiting the progress of the city, promoting extensive intercourse among producers and their patrons […] cannot fail to excite a world- wide interest in regard to our State, and exhibit reliable information respecting its resources, which will tend to encourage immigration and permanently establish beneath our genial skies an industrious, enlightened, prosperous and happy population.
Exhibitions can, in addition to stimulating competition, expanding practical knowledge, awakening ideas in inventive minds, providing tangible evidence of superiority, spurring talent, displaying the progress of the city, encouraging extensive interaction between producers and their customers, [...] not fail to arouse global interest in our state and provide reliable information on its resources, which will encourage immigration and the permanent creation of a hardworking, enlightened, affluent and happy population under our friendly skies.

The wealthy entrepreneur James Lick had provided a plot of land between Post and Sutter streets at the south-western end of the city free of charge for the exhibition . Mechanics' Institute members raised $ 7,000 in cash, building materials, and short-term loans to build the exhibit building.

View of booths at the 1864 Trade Show . Stereoscopic Photo Card, Carleton Watkins .

The first commercial and industrial show in San Francisco lasted 19 days and showed a total of 941 different exhibits, including furniture, saddles and bridles, pianos, billiard tables, grapes from the then largely unknown grape variety “ Zinfandel ”, pieces of petrified trees , an autograph by Cotton Mathers and lithographs which a certain EJ Muygridge had imported from England. Exhibitors received prizes in 45 categories. On the evening of each day a band entertained the visitors with a concert. The exhibition was financially a complete success thanks to the high level of visitor interest: after deducting generous donations to the city's two orphanages and the cost of building the exhibition building, the Mechanics' Institute was left with $ 2,784.

Inspired by the success of this venture, the Mechanics' Institute organized further trade and industrial shows in various exhibition buildings specially built for this purpose until the end of the 19th century. The last exhibition was in 1899, and the Mechanics' Institute suffered a loss of $ 7,600. This ended the era of regular commercial and industrial shows in San Francisco. The exhibition building used at that time was used for other purposes, such as boxing matches, concerts, or as a roller skating rink until it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1906 .

Participation in the administration of the University of Berkeley

Andrew Smith Hallidie served as President of the Mechanics' Institute from 1868 to 1878 and then again from 1893 to 1895 and, as such, served in the administration of the University of California at Berkeley. Portrait photo, before 1900.

One of the central tasks of every Mechanics' Institute was the organization of free or low-priced lectures. The San Francisco Mechanics' Institute has also engaged well-known speakers for such events since its inception. However, due to the ongoing financial difficulties in the first few years, such initiatives were initially limited. That all changed with the discovery of silver deposits in Comstock Lode , which sparked a silver rush not far from the Nevada- California border in the 1860s . With the influx of capital into San Francisco and the support of wealthy businessmen like the entrepreneur and banker William Ralston , the Mechanics' Institute started a series of lectures in 1863, for which there were speakers like the geologist Josiah D. Whitney or the anti-slavery opponent Thomas Starr King could win.

Then, when the University of California was founded in 1868 , its statutes gave the Mechanics 'Institute a say by granting a member of the Mechanics' Institute a permanent seat on the board of directors of the University of Berkeley . Andrew Smith Hallidie , then President of the Mechanics' Institute and later known as the "Father of the San Francisco Cable Cars ", was one of the first six "ex-officio regents" of the university to take this role because of their office and to those below also included the governor of the state of California, his deputy and the speaker of the California House of Representatives. The Mechanics' Institute's say at the first University of California reflected its importance in the cultural life of the city of San Francisco.

Although Hallidie would have preferred the University of Berkeley campus to be located in San Francisco rather than its current location on east San Francisco Bay , the close ties between the university and the Mechanics' Institute gave it the opportunity to strengthen its role as an educational institution. Not only did it influence the university curriculum, but it was also able to engage well-known members of the various faculties as speakers. For several decades, the Mechanics' Institute building on Post Street, built in 1866, served as the branch office of Berkeley State University. Lectures by respected professors such as the geologist Joseph LeConte , the German-born agricultural scientist Eugene Woldemar Hilgard, and Ezra Carr , a friend of John Muir , drew up to 500 students into the Mechanics' Institute.

The conversion of the Mechanics' Institute into a foundation, which was promoted by Hallidie during this period, gave the institution the opportunity to raise donations and in this way to supplement its income from trade and industry shows and membership fees. In this way, the Mechanics' Institute flourished in the second half of the 19th century. The right to have a say in the administration of the University of Berkeley did not expire until 1974.

Destruction and a new beginning

In the early hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by an earthquake, one of the worst natural disasters in United States history. At 5:12 a.m. local time, the city's residents were woken up by a 20 to 25-second foreshock before the 42-second main tremor started the same minute. However, it was not these tremors, felt from Oregon via Nevada to Los Angeles, that caused the almost complete destruction of San Francisco, but the numerous fires that broke out after the earthquake and could not be brought under control.

and display information about the image
Burning San Francisco on April 18, 1906 as seen from the St. Francis Hotel
The bronze plaque commemorating James Lick , one of the supporters of the Mechanics' Institute, is one of the few items salvaged from the library building at 31 Post Street

Of the three-story library building of the Mechanics' Institute at 31 Post Street, only the wall with the bronze plaque in honor of James Lick remained. In addition to this bronze plaque, some minutes of the meetings, a list of members, a few contracts and the founding document of the Mechanics' Institute were saved. These documents were in two vaults that had survived the tremors. The books in the library at the time of the quake, however, were destroyed. The loss of his library caused by the collapse of the building was all the more serious when the Mechanics' Institute had acquired the books from the Mercantile Library in San Francisco just months earlier . From the collection, which had grown to 200,000 volumes in this way, only those remained that were on loan to the members of the Mechanics' Institute at the time of the earthquake.

The large exhibition pavilion near City Hall, on the other hand, was initially only slightly damaged. Because the Central Emergency Hospital located in the basement of City Hall had been destroyed, a doctor and several nurses set up an emergency hospital in the Mechanics' Pavilion in the morning hours of April 18. But when the fires spread later in the day, they also reduced the Mechanics' Pavilion to rubble. The Mechanics' Institute suffered an almost complete loss from the earthquake and subsequent fires.

Just four months after the devastating fire, the Mechanics' Institute moved into temporary accommodation at 99 Grove Street. Book donations from libraries and private individuals as well as their own purchases had increased the book inventory to 5,000 volumes. In 1907, under the leadership of the then President of the Mechanics' Institute, Rudolph J. Taussig, of German descent, a new building was commissioned at the former location on Post Street, which was now number 57 due to a new house number. The cost of the nine-story new building was borne by land sales and Albert Pissis was won over as the architect , who already enjoyed a good reputation in San Francisco before the earthquake for his Beaux-Arts-style buildings. Work on Post Street began in April 1909, and the Mechanics' Institute library reopened the following July.

The Mechanics' Institute in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Room for the chess class on the fourth floor of the Mechanics' Institute at 57 Post Street, January 2020

Since its inception, the game of chess has been an integral part of the Mechanics' Institute's cultural offerings. In addition to normal gaming operations, its members hosted local tournaments and, via telegraph connections, correspondence chess tournaments with players from Canada and other parts of the United States. The chess department of the Mechanics' Institute had thus developed a reputation that reached far beyond California. While chess greats like Johannes Hermann Zukertort and Emanuel Lasker came to San Francisco in the 19th century , this tradition continued especially in the first half of the 20th century. The Cuban world champion José Raúl Capablanca played games against members of the Mechanics' Institute in simultaneous chess events in 1916 and again in 1926. The Russian-French world champion Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine later recalled that on his tour of the United States in 1929 he met the strongest players "in San Francisco, at a place called the Mechanics' Institute". In 1949, the later president of the World Chess Federation, Max Euwe , competed in simultaneous chess against members of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club .

In 1948 alone there were brief arguments about the future of the chess club. Individual members were bothered by what they saw as the neglected appearance of the chess players and advocated the closure of the club. However, the reaction of the local press and the chess-loving members of the Mechanics' Institute to this venture was so violent that the plan was quickly abandoned. As a result, the furniture in the chess room on the fourth floor of the building at 57 Post Street was renewed and the phrase "There should be a chess room" was written into the Mechanics' Institute's statutes. Active players in the chess department still hold positions on the Board of Trustees of the Mechanics' Institute.

View of the library on the third floor of the Mechanics' Institute, January 2020

In the 1920s the Mechanics' Institute began to lose members. Richard Reinhardt, author of the history of the Mechanics' Institute, published in 2005 for the 150th anniversary, attributes this to the increasing influence of radio. He describes how the radio stations available in the San Francisco Bay Area competed with the reading rooms of libraries until the advent of television. By the early 1940s, the Mechanics' Institute lost nearly a quarter of its membership in this way. When television developed into a mass medium from the 1950s onwards, numerous San Francisco cultural institutions ceased operations and the Mechanics' Institute also came under further pressure. In order to counteract the decline in membership and to develop an additional source of finance, it followed - beginning in the 1960s - other associations, museums and alumni organizations in the USA and offered within the framework of the so-called "Affinity Charter System". Charter flights for like-minded people ”) offers cheap flights for vacation trips of its members. In this way, the number of members rose sharply at first, but when the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 heralded the end of the Affinity Charter System , the number of members fell from 12,000 in the meantime to less than 7,000 members. By 2019, the number of members had sunk to a historic low of around 4,000. While the Mechanics' Institute in earlier times counted numerous San Francisco personalities, including Levi Strauss , Ambrose Bierce , Mark Twain and Jack London, among its members, today it is considered a “hidden gem” and an “egalitarian oasis in a rapidly changing San” Francisco ".

Today the Mechanics' Institute offers its members author readings, writing workshops, computer and Internet courses, book circles, and film screenings. The chess club is strongly committed to youth work and also offers chess introductions for women. Games from the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club can be viewed on the Twitch video portal . The library, which comprises more than 160,000 volumes, is open every weekday and offers members of the Mechanics' Institute free access to the Internet. The Mechanics' Institute generates most of its annual income from renting office space at 57 Post Street.

literature

swell

The Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco itself holds the largest inventory of sources on its history. In the wake of the earthquake in 1906, then Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Joseph Cummings, was able to rescue the contents of two safes from the collapsed building of the Mechanics' Institute at 31 Post Street. Other documents from the second half of the 19th century that were in the basement of the building were destroyed. The current inventory includes:

  • Statutes
    • Constitution and by laws, 1870-1899
    • Constitution, by-laws, and rules of the Mechanics' Institute of the City of San Francisco, California [1895].
    • Constitution of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, California, April 7, 1908 .
  • Logs
    • Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Mechanics' Institute , Volume 1: 1854–1857, Volume 2: 1857–1860, Volume 3: 1869–1874, Volume 4: 1891–1895, Volume 5: 1895–1897, Volume 6: 1897-1899, Volume 7: 1899-1904, Volume 8: 1904-1913, Volume 9: 1913-1923.
  • Reports on trade and industrial shows held [1857–].
  • Annual reports [1855–].
  • Mechanics' Institute lectures: 1855–1931 (typed listing).
  • President's report to the members of the Mechanics' Institute [1965-].

Representations

  • Hildie V. Kraus: A cultural history of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, 1855–1920 , Leeds 2007 (15-page abstract, published in parallel in the journal Library history: official journal of the Library & Informations Group of CILIP, Library History Group , Volume 23, June 2007).
  • Richard Reinhardt: Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream. An Illustrated History of the First 150 Years of the Mechanics 'Institute of San Francisco , San Francisco 2005, ISBN 0-9776435-0-6 (authoritative description of the history of the Mechanics' Institute with numerous illustrations).
  • [William G. Merchant]: 100 years of Mechanics 'Institute of San Francisco, 1855–1955 , San Francisco 1955 (Merchant was acting president of the Mechanics' Institute in the anniversary year; in addition to a 30-page treatise on history, the booklet contains a “List of Officers, 1855–1955 ").
  • John Hugh Wood: Seventy-Five Years of History of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco , San Francisco 1930.

Web links

Commons : San Francisco Mechanics' Institute  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ^ Richard Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream. An Illustrated History of the First 150 Years of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco , San Francisco 2005, p. 6.
  2. ^ So William G. Merchant, 100 years of Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, 1855–1955 , San Francisco 1955, p. 1.
  3. ^ "San Francisco is passing through a time of much mercantile distress", in: Frank Soulé / James Nisbet, John H. Gihon, The annals of San Francisco: containing a summary of the history of the first discovery, settlement, progress and present condition of California, and a complete history of ... its great city; to which are added, biographical memoirs of some prominent citizens , New York 1855, here quoted from Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 6.
  4. ↑ More detailed information on the history and distribution of the Mechanics' Institutes in the 19th century is provided by Thomas Kelly in George Birkbeck: Pioneer of Adult Education , Liverpool 1957.
  5. ^ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 52.
  6. ^ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 7.
  7. ↑ For this and the following cf. Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 8.
  8. ↑ For details on this, Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 11, and - much shorter - Merchant, 100 years of Mechanics' Institute , p. 6f.
  9. ↑ Quoted here from Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 12.
  10. ↑ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 12.
  11. ↑ For more information, see Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 14.
  12. ↑ a b Merchant, 100 years of Mechanics' Institute , p. 8.
  13. ↑ On this and the following cf. Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , pp. 27f.
  14. ↑ See Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , pp. 25f.
  15. ↑ On this and the following cf. Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 26.
  16. ^ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 26.
  17. ↑ See Joanna L. Dyl, Seismic City. An Environmental History of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake , Seattle and London 2017, p. 58, and - in somewhat more detail - John B. McGloin, San Francisco. Story of a City , San Rafael and London 1978, pp. 138-140.
  18. ↑ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 69.
  19. ↑ Merchant, 100 years of Mechanics' Institute , p. 24 states that the book inventory has grown from 135,000 to 200,000 volumes; Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 70, on the other hand, speaks of 140,000 volumes from the Mechanics' Institute, which in January 1906 were supplemented by 60,000 volumes from the Mercantile Library. However, both authors agree on the total number of books destroyed on April 18, 1806.
  20. ↑ See James Haas, The San Francisco Civic Center. A History of the Design, Controversies, and Realization of a City Beautiful Masterpiece , Chicago 2019, p. 52f., And - in more detail - Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 68.
  21. ^ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 71.
  22. ↑ The most detailed information on this aspect of the history of the Mechanics 'Institute is provided by the lecture The Mechanics' Institute Library Commission and Construction: 1906–1912 and the accompanying slide show , which the architectural office Ver Planck, which specializes in listed properties, on the occasion of the building's 100th anniversary at 57 Post Street in 2010. The documents are available online at Project: Mechanics Institute (last accessed February 2, 2020). Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , pp. 73f.
  23. ↑ For more information, see Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 80.
  24. ↑ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 64 speaks of the fact that the Mechanics' Institute chess club was one of the strongest clubs in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century: “By the beginning of the twentieth Century, the Mechanics' Chess Club had gained an international reputation one of the strongest regional clubs in the United States ".
  25. ↑ On this and the following Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , pp. 80f.
  26. ^ "In San Francisco, in a place called the Mechanics' Institute", here quoted from Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 81.
  27. ↑ a b See Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 89.
  28. ↑ “There shall be a Chess Room”, quoted here from Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 89.
  29. ↑ Reinhardt thus follows the assessment of George U. Hind, former President of the Mechanics' Institute, who in 1942 described the sharp decline in the number of books loaned as a direct result of competition from radio (“the time heretofore spent in reading has been much lessened by the use of radio ”, quoted here from Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 83).
  30. ↑ On this and the following cf. Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 83.
  31. ↑ See Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 94.
  32. ↑ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 101.
  33. ↑ Mechanics' Institute Annual Report 2019 , p. 3.
  34. ↑ Matt Haber, Valerie Demicheva and Kathleen Richards, Beyond the cube: Co-working spaces offer a hipper take on the office , in: San Francisco Chronicle of July 21, 2016, last accessed on February 17, 2020.
  35. ↑ So Sam McManis, Discoveries: Mechanics' Institute an egalitarian oasis in fast-changing SF , in: The Sacramento Bee of November 27, 2015, last accessed on February 17, 2020.
  36. ↑ See the MechanicsChess channel on Twitch, last accessed on February 17, 2020.
  37. ↑ According to the "Audited Financial Summary, Fiscal Year Ended August 31, 2019", in: Mechanics' Institute Annual Report 2019 , p. 5, the revenue generated by the rentals represented almost 44% of the total income in the 2019 financial year.
  38. ↑ Reinhardt, Four Books, 300 Dollars, and a Dream , p. 69.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 13, 2020 in this version .