SFO Int’l Airport

A memo from SFO Airport: See this typewriter exhibit

Art, Exhibits, , ,

With all this talk about a ban on laptops and larger-than-smartphone electronic devices being from some airline cabins, consider for a moment the pre-computer age of the typewriter.

Courtesy SFO Museum

A fresh new exhibit at San Francisco International Airport, organized by the SFO Museum, traces the history of typewriters (remember those?) and typewriter technology, from early writing machines to modern portables.

 

courtesy SFO Museum

“A marvel of industrial engineering and ingenuity, it revolutionized communication and was an essential tool for countless writers. To comprehend the typewriter’s impact, consider a world where typing did not exist and handwriting was the main form of non-verbal communication.  The ease and speed of communication on paper increased dramatically when typewriters became available in the late 1800s. Typewriting was efficient, created clear and legible documents, and easily produced multiple copies using carbon paper,” the exhibition notes tell us.

Courtesy SFO Museum

The Typewriter: An Innovation in Writing is post-security in Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport through January 28, 2018.

Courtesy SFO Museum

Happy 90th anniversary SFO Int’l Airport

History,

Courtesy SFO Museum

San Francisco International Airport is celebrating its 90th anniversary, marking the day – May 7, 1927 – when the City of San Francisco officially commissioned “Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco,” which would eventually become known as ‘SFO’.

Here’s a short (5 minute), archival image and information-packed video the airport put together to mark the occasion.

 

California’s regional airlines at SFO Museum

Airports, Museums, ,

SFO MUSEUM CA REGIOAL PSA

There’s yet another great exhibit at San Francisco International Airport,courtesy of the SFO Museum.

This one is all about the California regional airlines that flew between the 1950s and the 1980s.

According to museum notes, although numerous regional airlines existed during the late 1920s, they mostly went bankrupt or merged into larger, trunk-carrier airlines by the time of the Great Depression. But California-based commuter air service resurfaced during the economic boom of the 1950s and 60s, bringing PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) in San Diego, Air California (later AirCal) in Newport Beach, and Pacific Air Lines (later Air West and Hughes Airwest) in San Francisco to compete within the California Corridor with the larger carriers, including TWA (Trans World Airlines), United Air Lines, and Western Air Lines.

The Catch Our Style exhibit is on exhibit at SFO’s Aviation Museum & Library (pre-security, Departures Level 3) and presents the legacy of these California commuter airlines through a collection of flight and ground crew uniforms, inflight service items and equipment, ephemera, and promotional materials.

Here are some images from the exhibit and a link to others.

SFO Museum regional Hughes

Hughes Airwest flight bag and R.O.N. (Remain Over Night) amenity kit 1970s vinyl, metal. Courtesy: SFO Museum –

Hughes Airwest air hostess boots 1970 Designed by Mario Zamparelli, Los Angeles Manufactured by Portrait Clothes, a Division of Barco California plastic, leather. Courtesy SFO Museum

Hughes Airwest air hostess boots 1970. Designed by Mario Zamparelli, Los Angeles. plastic, leather. Courtesy SFO Museum

SFO MUSEUM SEATS

PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) Boeing 727 seats 1970s. plastic, metal, vinyl, polyester . Courtesy SFO Museum

Rock on at SFO Int’l Airport

Art, Exhibits, , , , , ,

Here’s another reason why it’s a good thing when you have a long time to spend at
San Francisco International Airport: the current exhibition of music posters from the late 1960s.

SFO Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead January 24–26, 1969 Artist: Rick Griffin. Courtesy of Mark Rodriguez –

The posters on view hail from San Francisco from 1966 to 1971, when very cool and now collectible graphic art was produced and printed on handbills and flyers to promote concerts put on by the likes of Bill Graham at the Fillmore and Chet Helms, leader of the Family Dog, which produced concerts at the Avalon Ballroom.

SFO Van morrison

Van Morrison October 20–22, 1967 Artist: Wes Wilson Courtesy of Ron Schaeffer –

Poster artists of the time took inspiration from such varied sources as Art Nouveau masters, advertising art, the art of of hot-rod car culture and, clearly, ‘trips’ they took to far off places.

SFO 13th floor

3th Floor Elevators (Zebra Man) September 30–October 1, 1966 Artists: Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco From the collection of Marilyn and Michael W. Lucas

The exhibit includes more than 150 posters, postcards, handbills tickets and other ephemera on loan from members of the Rock Poster Society and will be on display through March 2015 in the pre-security area of the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport.