If, by chance, you’ve got some time before or between flights at San Francisco International Airport, you’re in luck.
That’s because the SFO Museum has just kicked off a new exhibition featuring more than sixty examples of early gambling devices, including the first automatic payout, three reel slot machine.
According to the exhibition notes, at one time San Francisco was a hotbed for these types of games:
“In no part of the world did gambling take place so openly and on such a large scale than in San Francisco during the Victorian era. The city’s residents were largely pioneers or one generation removed from those who risked all to relocate and gamble on a new life in the West. San Franciscans wagered in nearly every possible manner, including horse races, sporting contests, card games, wheels-of-fortune, and impromptu barroom arguments on every conceivable subject. At the beginning of the twentieth century, more than 3,000 machines operated freely, enticing customers from busy sidewalks into the saloons and cigar stores that proliferated throughout San Francisco. “
The devices on display range from very early models that rely on simple clock mechanisms and a payout by the bartender to automatic slot machines with elaborate carved-wood, cast-iron, or painted-aluminum bodies – and each was designed to part a person with a small bit of their money.
All the objects in this exhibit (and all photos used here) are courtesy of Joe Welch American Antique Museum in San Bruno, California and will be on display at SFO Airport in Terminal 3, Boarding Area F through June 18, 2017.
You can see descriptions of the gambling devices featured here – and photos of others – in the SFO Museum’s online exhibition. But I bet the exhibition is far more entertaining if you see it in person.
The Amazing Answer Board c. 1944 Courtesy Eugene Orlando_Museum of Talking Boards_SFO Museum
It’s Halloween season and a perfect time for the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport to host an exhibit of Ouija boards and other “talking boards” from the 1890s to the present.
These devices can be dated back to 1886, when news spread of Spiritualists in Ohio using a “talking board” with letters, numbers and a small wooden device, called a planchette, that pointed to the letters. With that set-up, the living could ‘simply’ hold their hands on the planchette and then spirits could move their hands to letters and words and spell out messages. (“Water the plants.” “Bring home milk” “You snore..” are some of the messages I imagine…)
Official “Ouija” boards began being produced in 1890 and a variety of knock-offs were issued with imagery that included Egyptian sphinxes, swamis, fortune tellers and witches.
Here are some images from the exhibition, The Mysterious Talking Board: Ouija and Beyond, which is on display at San Francisco International Airport through May 7, 2017, post-security in Terminal 2.
Can’t make it to Terminal 2 at SFO before next May, 2017? Here’s a link to the online version of the exhibition and here are links to an online Museum of Talking Boards and an online Oujia board you can use to communicate with a spirit of your choice.
All images courtesy SFO/ Eugene Orlando/Museum of Talking Boards
Early Woody and Woody – cast urethane resin Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios –
Included in Toy Story at Twenty are maquettes, modeling sculptures, creative props and images that illustrate the development of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang. Look for the fun exhibit, pre-security, in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby through May 22, 2016.
Carp lantern 20th century Japan – courtesy SFO Museum
The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport is hosting an exhibition of traditional Japanese arts – mingei – in the International Terminal Main Hall through January 2016.
The objects on view include lanterns, fans, iron kettles and toys and are on loan from the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, which collects and exhibits the arts of daily use.
Maneki neko 20th century Japan – clay From Mingei International Museum – courtesy SFO Museum
Charcoal caddy possibly 1800s gourd, paint Mingei International Museum -Courtesy SFO Museum
