California Historical Society Review

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Papinta. The Flame Dancer made her home in the San Francisco area with the purchase of a 160 acre ranch with her husband Billy to raise Thoroughbred race horses. Papinta was the most famous performer and the highest paid performer for fifteen years. Papinta was the first dancer to incorporate hundreds of yards of fine silk fabrics and suspend them in the air at the she time to create incredible forms that imitated forms in nature. Papinta The Flame Dancer is buried in Martinez, CA. Papinta made her debut at the 1893 cChicago Worlds Fair with her Modern Dance at the first electrified performance in history in front of the Chicago Ar Museum. Papinta was the head line performer at the 1900 Paris Worlds Fair under the new Eiffel Tower. Papinta worked every day for fifteen years. She performed all over the world in every major capital. Papinta found her solace in the shadows of Mt. Diablo on her ranch. Papinta's husband harnessed the energy of the Pine River lighting up their entire ranch. Papinta is buried in Martinez CA next to her husband Billy. Papinta died on stage in Dusseldorf Germany two years after the death of her young husband Billy. Papinta's contributions to the Performing Arts is making a resurgence with the young historians, performers, and artists of all mediums.

Fascinating exhibit on Juana Briones, an Indian settler who became prominent in the city's earliest period as Yerba Buena, helped a number of other people and achieving much despite her lack of education and poor origins. As an easterner I really appreciated learning about how the city was born and grew so rapidly in the mid 19th century, a totally different settlement process from the eastern US. Texts are generally bilingual. A drawback is the dim lighting of much of the exhibits, no doubt a precaution for their preservation. Of particular interest in this exhibit was the treatment of the socio-cultural aspects of the early Bay area, under Mexican and later American governments, portraying contrasts in these two very different social systems.

Small gallery space for the society's exhibitions. The 2015 exhibition on the Panama Pacific Exhibition is well worth visiting.

Very small exhibition space seems to limit the current exhibition to one specific topic. You may want to call before going to see if the current exhibition is of interest to you.

The California Historical Society has a great collection of reading material and souvenirs. The store also has a great selection of clothing items such as T-shirts, scarves, sweaters, umbrellas, and ball caps. This is a great place to spend time for reading and browsing. The printed materials are well covered and interesting. There is so much more to mention. This store is a must stop if you have time.

In a very handsome building, with an interior harkening back East, put on great exhibitions and events around them, and offer an intriguing book shop stocked with all things historical California.

Could be bigger and better . Small but informative . They tried but space was limited.

Totally not worth the forced $5 "donation" and the time/trip to visit. The exhibit only took 5 minutes to explore and was very disappointing.

Hit or miss with the new exhibits, decent permanent collection.

Excellent resource for California history and sociology. There's a small museum space with periodic exhibits of varying depth and breadth, and a bookstore.