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San Diegans organized their first Historical Society on
January 24, 1880, describing it as an organization "for the diffusion of a
general knowledge of natural and civil history." The members demonstrated
their broad interests as they set about collecting artifacts for their
"cabinet of curiosities," including such diverse objects as ore samples,
the skin of a jelly fish, and a bit of "Pele's hair" thrown up from Hawaii's
Mauna Loa volcano. They debated topics such as "Resolved: That the Indians
have a right to the soil of America" and "Resolved: That the Temperance
Societies do more injury than good." They sponsored lectures on hawks and
owls, ferns and "forest trees," as well as on historical subjects.
The Historical Society continued in this vein for
slightly less than a decade and then lapsed into inactivity. The community's
interest in things historical found an outlet through such organizations as
the Native Sons and the Native Daughters of the Golden West, both of which
were first organized in San Diego in 1887; and later, in the Pioneer Society
of San Diego, incorporated in 1911. The Pioneer Society began collecting
documents and records as well as a few artifacts, which ultimately were to
become the nucleus for the present museum and library collections of the Historical Society.
In 1928 San Diegans took a renewed interest in a
historical society. On December 13, with George White Marston as founder
and first president, the San Diego Historical Society was incorporated as a
nonprofit cultural and educational organization. The stated objectives and
purposes were "for the discovery, collection and preservation of books,
pamphlets, maps, genealogies, portraits, paintings, relics, manuscripts,
letters, journals, surveys, field books and any and all other books, articles or materials
which may establish or illustrate the history of Western America, particularly
the County of San Diego and the State of California, and the publication and
dissemination of such historical matter as this corporation may authorize."
The formal organization of the Historical Society was
prompted by a growing concern for the preservation of various landmarks and
other historical materials which were being obliterated or obscured by urban
growth and population increase. This was true especially of Presidio Hill, where
the Franciscan Padre Junípero Serra and Captain Gaspar de Portolá had
established the first mission and presidio in Alta California. Many felt that
the site was as important as Plymouth Rock. A member of the Board of Directors
of the Historical Society wrote in 1929 that: "San Diego has
had such an influx of residents in recent years that they hardly had the
opportunity of acquainting themselves with the traditions, origin and history of
San Diego. . . . And it was primarily for the purpose of disseminating this
knowledge that the San Diego Historical Association was formed, and the prelude
on the [Presidio] Hill undertaken. . . . San Diego has a double claim to fame,"
he wrote. "It was alike, the first point of discovery on the Pacific Coast of
what is now the United States [Cabrillo in 1542], and the first place of
settlement as well [Serra and Portolá in 1769]."
Motivated by his desire to preserve and protect this historic
site, George White Marston, a San Diego businessman and philanthropist, began
acquiring land on Presidio Hill in 1907. By 1928 he had about twenty acres. He
hired John Nolen, a noted city planner and landscape architect from Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and developed the land as a park. He then constructed an imposing
building designed by architect William Templeton Johnson in the Mission Revival
style; and the park and building were dedicated on July 16, 1929, to commemorate
the accomplishments of Padre Serra and the early Spanish explorers.
Marston presented the Serra Museum building and the park land
to the City of San Diego as a gift with the understanding that it would be the
home of the newly formed Historical Society. As the crowning feature of the
landscape&medash;with a commanding view of the city, the bay, the ocean, and the
mountains&medash;Serra Museum in Presidio Park stands as a monument to the heritage of
San Diego. Today, Presidio Hill (a designated National Historic Landmark) and
Serra Museum symbolize the endeavors of the Historical Society to protect,
preserve, and interpret San Diego's history. Below the museum on the grassy
slopes in Presidio Park (now encompassing forty acres, with several historical
monuments and markers) are rolling mounds where Historical Society
archaeologists are unearthing evidence of the beginning of European civilization on the Pacific
Coast of the United States. The artifacts recovered and displayed in the museum
offer an opportunity to gain new insights into San Diego's first century.
When the Historical Society established itself in Serra
Museum in 1929, Marston purchased fifteenth through eighteenth century
artifacts, furnishings, and works of art in Spain and brought them to the
museum for exhibit on the theory that they were representative of the period of
the Spanish explorers and missionaries. The museum also became the depository
for the Historical Society Library and Manuscripts Collection, which had
acquired the records and documents collected by the defunct Pioneer Society of San Diego.
The City of San Diego accepted Marston's gift of the park and
museum reluctantly, and refused to allocate funds for maintenance or
improvements. While the city did agree to provide water, Marston continued to
pay the expenses of maintaining the park and the costs of any additional
plantings or other improvements for nearly a decade.
Early in 1930 Marston hired the Historical Society's first
curator, John Davidson. Davidson and his wife Winifred, along with the second
president of the Historical Society, State Senator Leroy A. Wright (who served
in that elected office for thirteen years), dedicated themselves to building the
library and manuscripts collections. For twenty-four years Davidson worked
diligently, but with limited funds, to enhance the collections. When he retired
as executive director in 1954, Gerald F. MacMullen was appointed and served for
a decade, steadily building the museum collections and adding to the library.
During the next five years, the Historical Society had two different executive
directors and an interim director. In 1969, on the 200th anniversary of the founding of San
Diego, the Historical Society had six employees, an annual budget of $60,000,
and 800 members; and in that year the society appointed James E. Moss as executive director.
For forty years Serra Museum served as the major facility for
the Historical Society's projects. In 1969 the society began an expansion
program by acquiring and restoring the Villa Montezuma because of its historical
and architectural significance, and because it could serve as a combined
historic house museum and cultural center. Built in 1887 by Jesse Shepard at
1925 K Street in San Diego's Golden Hill area, the Villa Montezuma is the city's
most fascinating historical landmark of the Victorian period. A magnificent
example of eclectic Victorian architecture with a Queen Anne flavor, designed by
architects Comstock and Trotsche, it is a monument reflecting the architecture,
life, and times of the city's most gaudy and exciting boom period.
The Historical Society raised the funds to purchase the
property, restore it, and have it surveyed and recorded by the Historic American
Buildings Survey. The Villa was placed on the National Register of Historic
Places, and it was then deeded to the City of
San Diego. In November 1972 the Historical Society opened it
as a public museum interpreting the Victorian period, but also with a broad
range of educational and cultural activities. The programs and exhibits are
directed toward expanding audiences among nontraditional museum patrons, with
special emphasis on ethnic culture and traditions.
In 1973 the Historical Society obtained the use of a city
owned building in Balboa Park for a permanent archival facility,
which also permitted expansion of the accessions and catalog departments.
In 1976 provisions were made for another major expansion when
Miss Mary G. Marston, daughter of George Marston, gave her house and gardens to
the city and asked that they be designated for use by the Historical Society.
George Marston built the structure in 1904 on 41/2 acres contiguous to Balboa
Park. Architect Irving Gill&medash;whose simple but bold techniques gained him a
national reputation as an innovator in the emerging American
style of architecture&medash;designed the building, which has been placed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
With the enthusiastic encouragement of Miss Marston, the
historic structure is being developed by the Historical Society as an Urban
History Center with interpretive exhibits and programs focusing on the early
twentieth century in San Diego. When fully developed it also will provide
quarters for the Publication and Administrative
Offices, and serve as a location for other historical, educational, and cultural activities.
The Society's Historical Collections took on a new and
greatly expanded dimension in 1979 when the San Diego Title Insurance and Trust
Company, a subsidiary of TICOR with headquarters in Los Angeles, presented to
the Society their splendid Historical Photograph Collection containing in excess
of 140,000 images. At dedication ceremonies in April, this magnificent donation
was officially accepted and a combination photograph research facility and
exhibition gallery opened at the company's building at 220 A Street in downtown San Diego.
With some 2,220 square feet made available by Title Insurance
and Trust Company in the heart of the metropolitan San Diego area, the
Historical Society expanded and enhanced its capability to serve the general
public as well as scholars and researchers, and increased its visibility and
effectiveness as a cultural and educational force. Photographs capture the
imagination unlike any other method of historical documentation and have long
been recognized by historians as a valuable historical resource. This vast
number of photographs from the Title Insurance and Trust Company affords the
Society an uncommon opportunity to preserve and interpret a most unique part of
San Diego's past.
With these five facilities the Historical Society provides a
full range of historical activities. It maintains a major library, manuscripts,
and iconographic collection; engages in the preservation of significant
historic structures; conducts a traditional museum program with exhibits and
attendant lectures, tours, and educational activities; sponsors an
archaeological excavation; and carries on a substantial publication program.
The publication program includes an illustrated quarterly
magazine, The Journal of San Diego History, first issued in January 1955;
a monthly newspaper, San Diego History News, issued initially as a
newsletter in 1963; and, beginning in 1976, a number of books on California and
San Diego subjects.
The Historical Society's collection of documents and artifacts has reached major
proportions and contains a remarkable and continually increasing
amount of materials dating from 1542 to the present,
including approximately 3,000 catalogued artifacts reflecting the history of
San Diego and over 15,000 books, reports, unpublished manuscripts, theses, and
dissertations concerning all facets of San Diego's development.
The San Diego Historical Society Library and Manuscripts
Collection covers a wide range of source material. Strong in twentieth century
materials as well as documents of the earlier periods, and with a rapidly
increasing number of records relating to San Diego's urban history, the
collections are balanced, covering all periods. There are a number of published
and unpublished accounts of the ranchos established in San Diego County. Among
these is the collection assembled by Captain William Murray Kerr, U.S.N. Ret.,
and the account book and ledger of the W.W. Fish Baja California Ranch,
1842-1861 and 1880-1883. In addition there is a splendid collection on the
American period in the oral history section, with over 470 typescripts from
tape-recorded interviews with early settlers.
One of the strongest sections of the library is that dealing
with people. In addition to the material contained in diaries and the
typescripts and tape-recordings, the library has a complete file of San Diego
business directories, county histories, and census records for 1850, 1860, and
1870 for San Diego County. This collection is augmented by biographies of
individuals in 374 notebooks which contain primary material on thousands of San
Diegans. There are also larger accumulations of the records and letters of
persons active in the life of San Diego.
Cultural and social organization materials include fraternal
and patriotic societies, lodges, literary and musical clubs, and churches. There
is a large mass of material on civic improvements, which cover parks, harbor
developments, city planning and public housing, health (hospitals and doctors),
and the 1915 and 1935 Expositions. The society has recently embarked on a
program for the preservation of historic houses, and the library contains data
on individual houses plus information on streets and a complete
section on place names in San Diego County.
There is material on the natural resources of San Diego
County covering mineral, timber, and land resources. This is supplemented by
files on the flora, horticulture, and agriculture of the region. Because San
Diego County is semi-desert, water is a resource of primary importance. The
holdings of the library range from the U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply
Papers and overall studies of the Colorado River to local reports and the early
water projects of Colonel Ed Fletcher and reports and studies of the irrigation
districts formed in the county.
The Historical Society conducts an active
campaign to acquire business and industry records; files and publications on
banks, utility companies, land developments, the fishing and canning industry, manufacturing,
shipping and transportation companies, and wholesale and retail stores. In the
last few years a program has been inaugurated to increase the holdings of
architectural drawings. Today the library has over 450 drawings of schools,
churches, residences, and public buildings throughout the San Diego area' The
library is also the depository for official city and county records, with
present holdings exceeding 2,000 linear feet. Covering the period 1873 to 1950,
these records include minutes from the Board of Supervisors, Board of Aldermen,
and Common Council; correspondence from the County Sheriff's Office, and
proceedings from the superior, municipal, and probate courts.
The Historical Society makes special efforts not only to
collect materials on various ethnic groups in San Diego County, but also to
stimulate research and writing in these and other areas through an Annual
Institute of History. The institute awards monetary prizes and arranges
publication of winning papers in The Journal of San Diego History.
Observing its fiftieth year as an incorporated educational
and cultural institution, the San Diego Historical Society has taken its place
as one of the nation's most energetic and successful historical societies of its
kind. With an annual operating budget of $410,000 for 1979, a staff of
twenty-five and a membership numbering 2,500, the Society has developed a broad
based program for achieving the goals outlined in its Articles of Incorporation.
It has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and has enriched
the lives of thousands of San Diegans of all ages. As the San Diego Historical
Society further expands its programs and holdings, it will continue to remain a
prime influence in San Diego's future development.
The Journal of San Diego History, XV (Summer, 1969), Published by
The San Diego Historical Society.
Marston, George W. Manuscripts and Papers. San Diego Historical Society
Library and Manuscripts Collection, San Diego, California.
Marston, Mary Gilman. George White Marston, A Family Chronicle.
2 Vols. Los Angeles: Ward Richie Press, 1956.
San Diego History News, XXIII (February, 1977), Published by The San
Diego Historical Society.
San Diego Magazine, V (July, 1929), Published by The San Diego Chamber of Commerce.
Whitehill, Walter Muir. Independent Historical Societies. Boston: The
Boston Athenaeum, 1962.
