The San Diego World's Fairs and Southwestern Memory, 1880-1940

5. The Legacies of 1915: The San Diego Century-of-Progress Exposition, 1935–1936

Chapter Five The Legacies of 1915 The San Diego Century-of-Progress Exposition, 1935–1936 The Panama-California Exposition created the cultural institutions of Balboa Park, which were bequeathed to citizens and visitors for eternal enjoyment. When the exposition closed, George Marston, Edgar Hewett, and members of the business community formed the San Diego Museum Association. The exhibitions acquired by the School of American Archeology and the United States National Museum would “remain as a permanent exhibit in the museum at San Diego.” Earlier in 1912, Charles Lummis presciently believed that “the remarkable task undertaken by San Diego” would be “a permanent contribution to the world’s knowledge” to illuminate the aboriginal and Spanish heritage of the Southwest.1 Perhaps the point was exaggerated, but the materials were significant for local cultural life. In 1915, the Museum Association proposed the “exhibits in the Science of Man building—will be the nucleus of a museum in San Diego.”2 The organization built permanent scientific collections in the California, Science and Education, and Indian Arts Buildings on the California Quadrangle. The exposition arranged transfer of the SAA and USNM collections to the Museum Association “in trust for the city of San Diego, and the inhabitants thereof.” Marston and the Association indicated the collections would be costly, at least $2,500. The Association preferred a nearly free sale of the materials because they “felt that the exhibit rightfully belongs to the people of San Diego” since municipal bond monies had paid for the ethnological collections. True to the public spiritedness of liberal San Diego progressives, they arranged the collections as a trust held by the city.3 By June 1916, the exposition authorities submitted the “Bill of Sale” for all “Archeological, Ethnological, and Anthropological” materials and transferred the buildings to the San Diego Museum Association —143— 144 Chapter Five for one dollar. The contract declared the collections would be “suitably displayed and be on exhibition at least six days of each week—to be open to the general public without charge not less than one day in each week.” To protect the permanence and integrity of their institution, the agreement guaranteed the Museum Association “shall not sell or otherwise dispose of said collections, or any part thereof.” San Diego now had its own cultural institutions located within the verdant acres of Balboa Park.4 With legal transfer finalized by 1917, Edgar Hewett, the new director of the San Diego Museum, generated public support for the institutions. He insisted the Park Commission and vested societies would cooperate to make the “benefits of the Exposition perpetual.” “No other Exposition ever held,” he said, “has left so much of a lasting character to the city holding it.” Since Marston had experienced trouble from San Diego’s wealthy citizens for the Nolen and Olmsted plans, Hewett’s efforts were crucial to make San Diego a city of culture. He possessed the forceful personality to bring subscriptions and revenue into the new museums, similar to his efforts at the Museum of New Mexico and the SAA. Hewett insisted the museums would “develop with the future growth of San Diego. Nothing less would be acceptable to the people.” “The museum is not to be a mere depository for collections,” he wrote, “but an active educational institution .” Commenting on the lasting impact of the museum, Hewett believed it “may, in fact, become nation-wide in its service. By doing so, it best serves the interests of its own locality.”5 There was consensus that the new museums start on a solid financial footing. The exposition authorities proposed the $6,500 balance left at the closing of the 1916 season be given to the San Diego Museum until its membership and corporate subscription fund became plentiful and self-sustaining.6 San Diego could now claim a place as a city of southwestern culture. During the 1920s, the museums of Balboa Park developed further as business, manufacturing, tourism, and population expanded in the San Diego metropolitan region. It is difficult to assess whether the exposition stimulated economic growth in San Diego. By 1920, the city had a population of 74,361 people. By 1930, the Harbor of the Sun doubled its population to 147,995.7 After the exposition, local politics centered 145 The Legacies of 1915 around whether San Diego would become an industrial city or a tourist resort. The mayoral campaign of 1917 framed...