May 2017
My Life in History: Iris Engstrand Retirement Event
After nearly five decades as a distinguished professor of history at the University of San Diego, Dr. Iris Engstrand is retiring. Join us as the San Diego History Center pays tribute to her educational service through an intimate evening of conversation and recollection.
Find out more »Franciscan Frontiersmen: How Three Adventurers Charted the West
Drawing on the diaries and correspondence of three Franciscan friars, Pedro Font, Juan Crespí, and Francisco Garcés, as well as his own exhaustive field research, Robert A. Kittle weaves a seamless narrative detailing the friars’ striking accomplishments, beginning in Spain, encompassing the remote Sierra Gorda highlands of Mexico, and through the deserts of the American Southwest and coastal California. Each man’s journey played an important role in Spain’s eighteenth-century conquest of the Pacific coast, but today their names and deeds are little known.
Find out more »August 2017
Mah-Jongg in the Museum
“Four Crak! Three Bam! Eight Dot! Mah-Jongg!” Since being imported to the U.S. from China in the 1920s, mah-jongg has been a favorite living room game among American Jews, offering a companionship, relaxation, and a way to raise money for worthy causes.
Find out more »From Prairie Poverty to Princess of Publishing: Ellen Browning Scripps
Join us for a lecture and book signing with USD history professor and author, Dr. Molly McClain on beloved San Diego philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps.
McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836–1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer who used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education.
Find out more »September 2017
San Diego Jews, World War I, and the Growth of Local Benevolence
This year, 2017, marks the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I. In commemoration of that and as part of the program series related to Celebrate San Diego! The History & Heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community, the San Diego History Center is hosting a public lecture by Laurel Schwartz of the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego on the impact of WWI on San Diego’s Jewish community.
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