Past Exhibitions

Behind the Book Blue Sky, White Stars: The Original Art of Kadir Nelson

posted: Sep 11, 2018

This exhibition features the original paintings by acclaimed artist Kadir Nelson that illustrate Blue Sky, White Stars, a picture book celebrating our nation’s most enduring symbol – our flag....

LET’S EAT! A TASTE OF HISTORY

posted: Jul 09, 2018

The San Diego History Center in partnership with the Lambda Archives brings the first exhibition EVER in Balboa Park, focused on San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community titled LGBTQ+San Diego: Stories...

Gaps in the Record: Vanguard Print Culture in San Diego

posted: Mar 13, 2018

"Gaps in the Record: Vanguard Print Culture in San Diego" documents the convergence of literary and visual art practices, and independent publishing activity, in the city’s mid-twentieth-century creative community....

Fashion Redux: 90 Years of Fashion in San Diego

posted: Jan 26, 2018

Ninety years of San Diego fashion is the “common thread” this year in the exhibition "Fashion Redux: 90 Years of Fashion," the annual fashion collaboration between the San Diego...

Mail Call

posted: Nov 04, 2017

A name is shouted out, and a parcel is handed through the crowd to its eager recipient—mail call is a moment when the front line and home front connect....

Exquisite Views

posted: Sep 08, 2017

Exquisite Views is the inaugural exhibition in the History Center’s new gallery dedicated to displaying works from the fine art collection. Many of these works have rarely, if ever,...

Legacy In Black

posted: Jul 14, 2017

The San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art (SDAAMFA) is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibit in collaboration with the San Diego History Center (Center). The exhibit will...

Part of the Patchwork: Reflections of African-American Life in the History Center Archives

posted: Mar 13, 2017

Inspired by the opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and as a Smithsonian affiliate, the San Diego History Center looked to its own archives to...

Celebrate San Diego! The History & Heritage of San Diego’s Jewish Community

posted: Dec 21, 2016

San Diego’s Jewish pioneers arrived with statehood in 1850 looking for adventure, good weather, better health, and, above all, the opportunity to make the American dream their own. Many...

Art & Heritage, Three San Diego Jewish Artists: Baranceanu, Braun & Sternberg

posted: Nov 28, 2016

Art & Faith: Baranceanu, Braun & Sternberg explores the artwork, lives, and Jewish heritage of three historically-important San Diego artists: Belle Baranceanu, Maurice Braun, and Harry Sternberg.

Irving J. Gill: New Architecture For A Great Country

posted: Sep 23, 2016

Architect Irving J. Gill was a San Diego architect, by way of Chicago, who relished the opportunity to work in this city during the end of the late 19th...

Of Animal Importance

posted: Apr 08, 2016

Of Animal Importance, a four-person exhibition, showcases the work of San Diego artists Laura Ball, Belle Baranceanu, Jeff Irwin, and Walter Haase Wojtyla. With the depiction of animals as...

San Diego Invites the World: 1915 Expo

posted: Feb 04, 2016

The definitive exhibition of the Panama‐California Exposition is celebratory and engaging, demonstrating the legacy of the Expo that put San Diego on the map and created the nation’s largest...

The Lore Behind the ROAR! 100 Years of the San Diego Zoo

posted: Jan 28, 2016

In collaboration with the San Diego Zoo, this vibrant family-friendly exhibition celebrates the Zoo’s centennial, telling the amazing story from its humble origins to its evolution as a world-famous...

It’s Raining Man!

posted: Jan 22, 2016

Jan 22, 2016 - Mar 13, 2016: One hundred years ago, San Diego withstood one of the most torrential downpours on record, the 1916 Hatfield Flood. The flood was...

The Border: A Line that Divides

posted: Dec 03, 2015

This photographic exhibition explores the evolution of the San Ysidro border crossing. Two border towns—Tijuana and San Diego—bestride the world’s busiest land-border.

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