SFO Museum

Take a free museum tour at SFO Airport

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Arriving early for a flight or spending a long layover at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) can be a treat because SFO is one of the few US airports with an official museum program.

At any one time, the airport’s SFO Museum hosts up to a dozen temporary exhibitions and keeps an eye on a vast public art collection.

(The Author & Her Story– Jason Jägel – Courtesy SFO Museum)

Occasionally, the SFO Museum staff offers public tours of its exhibitions.

And starting April 8, the museum is offering free weekly public tours of its exhibition, “Rosie the Riveter: Womanpower in Wartime”, which is located post-security in Harvey Milk Terminal 1.

The exhibition tells the story of Rosie the Riveter and the great accomplishments made by women in the World War II workforce.

The exhibit features a treasure-trove of related objects, including uniforms, welding masks, ID badges, images, and period music.

Tours begin April 8, 2025, and run every Tuesday until the exhibition closes on May 11, 2025.

Sign up for a tour here.

SFO Museum celebrates San Francisco

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Here’s a great reason to plan or be thankful for a long layover at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

The SFO Museum‘s newest exhibition, San Francisco: City of the World, offers travelers a thoughtful, fun and educational look at the iconic city’s colorful history.

Find it post-security in Terminal 2 through July 6, 2025.

A preview of images and information from the exhibit is below.

Content and images courtesy of SFO Museum.

In 1848, gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The following year, more than seven hundred ships arrived in San Francisco.

The Gold Rush transformed the region into a bustling city of approximately twenty-five thousand inhabitants, including thousands of Chinese immigrants who established California’s oldest and largest Chinatown.

Andrew Smith Hallidie (1836–1900) tested the first cable car in 1873 on Clay Street and public service began in September that same year.

By the turn of the twentieth century, San Francisco was known as the “Paris of the West,” until the 1906 earthquake and resulting fires leveled the city.

The resilient metropolis was quickly rebuilt, and during the early 1900s numerous San Francisco landmarks, such as Coit Tower (1933) and the Golden Gate Bridge (1937)—the most photographed bridge in the world—were built. In addition to its natural beauty and historical sites, San Francisco has long served as a meeting ground for diverse groups of people and countercultures, which are also explored throughout the exhibition.

Fresh art at SFO Airport: Rosie the Riveter

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One of the newest SFO Museum exhibitions at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) tells the story of Rosie the Riveter and the accomplishments of more than 16 million women who joined the workforce during the Second World War.

More than sixteen million women were employed at the peak of wartime production in 1944—with over three million in skilled factory positions to support the massive increase in war-related industries. Many of those jobs were in aviation.

Here’s the story of “Rosie the Riveter” from the exhition notes:

The Second World War had a profound impact on working women in American society. After the United States entered the war on December 7, 1941, millions of men left manufacturing jobs for military service and recruiters scoured the country in search of replacements. Women joined the workforce in record numbers and filled industrial positions previously denied to them. Migrating from diverse regions and cultures, women converged on the nation’s industrial centers and quickly learned skills that traditionally took years to master. Popular culture and propaganda launched the legend of “Rosie the Riveter,” the anonymous, bandanna-clad woman in coveralls who produced all manner of wartime equipment on the home front.

Look for Rosie the Riveter: Womanpower in Wartime post-security in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport through May 11, 2025.

(Images courtesy of SFO Museum)

Tour the ‘secret’ SFO Museum facility

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Flying boat airliner model aircraft. Courtesy SFO Museum

Yesterday we shared a video from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SFO) featuring the real-life magician pictured in the 180-foot-long “High Wire” mural from the airport’s art collection.

In that video, we get the answer to the riddle: How is a magic trick like an airport?

Today we’re sharing a charming video from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) offering a never-before look into the ‘secret’ storage facility of the SFO Museum.

Tag along and then be sure to take in a few of the great exhibits at SFO Airport next time you’re there. We’ve arranged a long layover at SFO this week just so we can see the Airplane Model exhibit in the International Terminal.

Airline Travel Posters from the SFO Museum Collection 

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Artists of the Airways: Airline Travel Posters from the SFO Museum Collection is the newest exhibition at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

On view in the Aviation Museum and Library in the SFO’s International Terminal, the exhibit features the work of some wonderful airline poster artists from the early 1930s to 1980s.

Here’s a bit about the art of airline posters from the exhibition description: 

With the advent of commercial aviation in the late 1910s and 1920s, and the novelty of traveling by airplane, artists initially illustrated aircraft on their posters to attract customers through this emerging medium of mass production.

During the 1930s, as commercial carriers expanded their fleets, routes, and services, artists soon began incorporating illustrations of the destinations as well, in conjunction with the airlines’ appeal to their target audience of primarily affluent American tourists.

These often included landscapes, landmarks, people, flora, and fauna intended to promote the airline’s service to the viewer. Although posters usually contained descriptive text, poster artists created images that were designed to convey a message the viewer would immediately understand.

All the posters reproduced in this exhibition are from the SFO Museum Collection, which consists of nearly thirteen hundred airline posters, from the 1920s to the present.

Look for Artists of the Airways: Airline Travel Posters from the SFO Museum Collection pre-security in the Aviation Museum and Library in the International Terminal of San Francisco International Airport through October 5, 2025.