Archive for the ‘Schools’ Category

See Sutro’s Mummies

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Egyptian artifacts and mummies were part of the decor at Sutro Baths. Adolph Sutro’s Egyptian collection is now held at San Francisco State University and part of it will be on display for the next month:

Wings over the Pyramids: Will Egypt’s Treasures Survive? is an exhibition of modern and historic photography documenting the effects of pollution and urbanization on Egypt’s cultural monuments on display from 11:00am to 4:00pm, Monday through Friday, April 4-May 4, 2011, at the University Museum, located in the Humanities Building 510 on the SFSU campus. Admission is free.

In addition to the photography, artifacts from the University’s Egyptian collection will be on view in the gallery. Issues of museum conservation and provenance will be examined through selected objects relating to the religious and everyday lives of the ancient Egyptians. Visitors can also view the mummified remains of priest Nes-Per-N-Nub and a rare, triple-nested sarcophagus from the University Museum’s Sutro Egyptian Collection.

Posted in Events - Other, Museums, Other Organizations, Schools, Sutro Baths | 2 Comments »

Hail Poly

Friday, September 17th, 2010

I’ve been meaning to spread the news about the “Hail Poly,” Web site, an homage to Polytechnic High School, for a while now. Jim Ferry emailing me this page about high school life in 1950s San Francisco reminded me to get on it. Bob ZImmerman paints a vivid picture of the Eisenhower years. Some of it you’d expect: saddle shoes, pegged pants and rock n’ roll. But other details—pachucos, gym class runs to Stow Lake, boys able to leave campus for lunch while the girls were trapped in the cafeteria—make you blink.

For all the younger folks, Poly High was on Frederick Street, across from Kezar Stadium, right between the Haight and Inner Sunset, until the 1970s. The old gyms that flanked the main building are still there, used by Acrosports and a circus school. In between is now a dense complex of town houses and apartments. Intended as an institution to prepare youth specifically for work (rather than college), the old “Commercial School” originally featured a curriculum of “manual training.”

By the time the school moved to the Frederick Street site after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire it had become Polytechnic High School, complete with a “polly” parrot mascot.

Just the yearbook covers alone make this a mesmerizing Web site to browse through…

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Posted in Schools, Sunset | 1 Comment »