The Spring 2008 Volume XXXXIX, Number 2 NewsletterTimes for the San Diego Historical Society Learning, Learning Everywhere! SDHS offers today’s youth a different kind of classroom Also inside... Events Calendar Teens as Museum Advisors SDHS loans painting to binational exhibition From the Interim Executive Director Greetings from the northeast corner of the Casa and we have a body of enthusiastic volunteers who work in de Balboa. I am honored to be seated in this prestigious the Research Library, our museums and historic buildings, corner office, and to be undertaking the leadership of the and our education programs. With your incredible gifts, San Diego Historical Society for the next six months. An we successfully completed the 2007 Fund for the Future executive search firm specializing in the placement of campaign instituted by a very generous anonymous donor. museum professionals has been engaged by the Board of Trustees, with the expectation that a permanent In June, we’ll host placement will be made around the first of July. While History Makers, which the executive search will proceed quietly, with candidates gives us a chance to vetted and evaluated by the firm before they are referred celebrate ourselves and to the Board, the membership will be kept informed of others in the community, progress to the extent possible. Candidates are already who have made emerging in response to a Board-approved position significant contributions description that has been placed in major nationwide to its history. We’ll be museum and historical society publications. participating in cultural and historic events In the interim, the Board has asked me to work on a community-wide, number of projects and issues: and planning our own innovative and • Prepare the budget for 2008-2009 for adoption by informative special the Board lectures and programs. • Implement the Board’s plans for History Makers The Journal of San • Evaluate efficiencies in all areas of museum and Diego History will historic home administration continue as the premier Linda A. Canada, • Submit grant applications to support the Society’s academic historical journal Interim Executive Director activities and programs of our region. • Aid staff in preparing for the AAM reaccreditation • Prepare a transition plan for the new Executive Director Thank you for your confidence, and the opportunity to serve the Society. Assuming this position is a great honor, and I am happy to be working among such competent professional staff. During my 12 years of involvement with the Linda A. Canada Society in many different capacities, ranging from Showcase volunteer, to Costume Council member, to Table of Contents contract curator, to professional researcher, I know and have worked with many of the staff. My experience as a 1 Letter from the Interim Executive Director department manager for a major local bank, and as an 2 Development Update & Board Spotlight owner of small businesses, gives me management and strategic planning background to successfully run the 3 Website/E-blasts & High School Interns business aspects of the organization. 4 Early San Diego Artists & Historic Places Having reported all that dry detail, I want to say how 5 Education & Teen Outreach excited I am to be here! I have heard from many of our donors, volunteers and community members, who 6 Programming & Events Calendar themselves are very supportive of my role as the interim 7 Jane Booth Remembered director. The staff, from top to bottom, has been enthusiastic and welcoming. I take the reins of this 80 8 Collections Department Update year old organization at a time when it is in its best shape. 9 Contributions We have new and interesting exhibitions and programs Cover: Ms. Miller’s 3rd Grade class explores the Cactus Garden to gain a deeper understanding of how the Kumeyaay lived in the desert. 1 The Times Fund for the Future Spotlight: Board of Trustees It is with pleasure that the Society reports the VP, Donna Long Knierim final amount contributed to the Fund for the Future by members and friends of the Society came to just over $1.3 In this newsletter, the Society would like to million. This is nearly double the amount that supporters highlight the qualifications and accomplishments of its have given in any other year, and as staff and trustees, we Board of Trustees Vice President, Donna Long Knierim. are humbled at the confidence these gifts exemplify. Ms. Knierim graduated with honors from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Mathematics; she later obtained At the donor’s request, the matching gift of $1.3 her MBA, also with honors. For over 30 years, Ms. Knierim million has been placed in the Society’s Investment worked with NYSE-listed corporations and universities Account, and it is our hope that it will seed a new in a variety of key management roles, including Director beginning for a true Endowment Fund. Long term, the of Training and Development for Alaska Airlines, VP of Society’s goal is to create a $25 million Endowment to Great American Bank and Director of Corporate Education support our programs, exhibitions, education, and for UCSD Extension. Since 1995, she has been an research. We hope to expand our regionally important Independent Training/ Management Consultant for collections of artifacts, documents and images, fine art, companies such as SDG&E, Intuit, and CBI/Gen-Probe, to decorative art, and costumes, to conserve these name a few. In 2006, Ms. Knierim became a member of the collections, and most important, to make them available Society’s Board of Trustees, and this fiscal year, she stepped in numerous ways to the public. into the role of Vice President. Ms. Knierim is also involved with the San Diego Now is not the time, however, to sit back. Raising Museum of Art as a docent funds for this Endowment and for day to day operations, and teacher, and is herself an remains the single most important challenge the Society accomplished artist. She works faces. Your continued support is not something we take in oils, pen, ink and color lightly—we know it must be earned, and our staff is pencils. She loves to create committed to excellence in all our programming. We travel journals in pen and ink hope you will continue with your generosity, and support with a watercolor wash. the Society as an integral part of a robust cultural and intellectual environment in San Diego. - Angela Sieckman, Public Relations & Events Thanks to all of you. Coordinator - David Watson, Former Executive Director Donna Long Knierim SDHS Board of Trustees The TIMES Newsletter President Robert F. Adelizzi Published since 1964 by the Vice President Donna Long Knierim San Diego Historical Society Vice President Arthur G. Peinado Secretary Helen Kinnaird Editorial committee: Linda Canada, David Krimmel, Treasurer Michael P. Morgan Angela Sieckman, Chris Travers, Kate Vogel Past President Hal Sadler Graphic Design: Kate Vogel Thomas Anglewicz Robert A. McNeely Photography: Chris Travers Diane G. Canedo Virginia Morrison James R. Dawe Linda Mosel The TIMES (USPS 331-890) is published quarterly by August J. Felando John Sinnott the San Diego Historical Society, Office of Publications Kenneth Golden Marc Tarasuck 1649 El Prado, Suite 3, San Diego, CA 92101 Ann Hill John Vaughn Periodicals postage mailed at San Diego, California. David M. Klauber Nell Waltz Polly Liew Send address changes to: The TIMES, San Diego Historical Society Executive Director Linda A. Canada 1649 El Prado, Suite 3, San Diego, CA 92101 Development Update & Board Spotlight 2 You’ve Got Mail!™: SDHS Student Internships As part of our commitment to the community, the Public Program Guides San Diego Historical Society offers volunteer and internship opportunities to students as well as the general public. We Emailed Direct to You have partnered with the High Tech High School academic internship program since January 2005 and the most With technology making communication faster and recent semester was no exception. Both the exhibits and more efficient, the San Diego Historical Society will soon collections departments welcomed High Tech High interns be giving you the most up-to-the-minute access to the Loretta Davis, Josh Cervantes and Andrew Love. happenings of the Society! With a simple click of the mouse, you will have access to a detailed listing of public programs, Loretta researched the history of Balboa Park’s special events, and receptions. This will give you a chance expositions and architecture and designed an informational to sign up for programs via email, as soon as they become kiosk with our exhibits department, which now graces our available. If you forget to sign up the first time, we will send atrium. Josh photographed objects which were used in our periodic email reminders to ensure that you will not miss that exhibit Dressing a City: Selected Styles from Marston’s special program you want to attend. Department Store, 1978-1961 and created over one hundred catalog records of prints for our photograph archive. Andrew In addition to our program listings, you will also be kept processed manuscript collections and real estate reports and up-to-date on the current exhibitions available for viewing developed new ways of helping our visitors find information. at the Museum of San Diego History, improvements at our Assistant Archivist Julia Cagle comments, “His work was a historic properties, and updates on the collections and the big help, as each collection that is fully processed is another Research Library. The E-blast will keep you informed of one that becomes available to our patrons.” new collection pieces being introduced in our galleries, development of new exhibitions, and the chance to hear We thank each of them for their contributions and wish first-hand from our Executive Director.