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108-847: The San Diego Natural History Museum is a museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, California . It was founded in 1874 as the San Diego Society of Natural History. It is the second oldest scientific institution west of the Mississippi and the oldest in Southern California . The present location of the museum was dedicated on January 14, 1933. A major addition to the museum was dedicated in April 2001, doubling exhibit space. The San Diego Natural History Museum grew out of

216-643: A disc golf course . Among the institutions and facilities within the park's borders but not administered by the city's Parks Department are the San Diego Zoo, the Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), and San Diego High School . Other attractions in various areas of the park include chess and bridge outdoor tables, horseshoe pits , playgrounds, walking and jogging trails, sports fields and courts, and picnic areas. Clubs and facilities for pétanque and lawn bowling are based in

324-477: A nursery to propagate and grow for the park and the public. The park's gardens include Alcazar Garden , Botanical Building , Desert Cactus Garden , Casa del Rey Moro Garden, Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden , Japanese Friendship Garden , Bird Park, George W. Marston House and Gardens, Palm Canyon, and Zoro Garden . The main entrance to the park is via the Cabrillo Bridge and through

432-474: A "backstage" view into the museum's remarkable holdings. In 2003, the museum presented a major showing of paintings from its collection in the exhibition Plant Portraits: The California Legacy of A.R. Valentien. The exhibition, created in collaboration with the Irvine Museum, displayed 80 of the museum's 1092 watercolors of California plants painted in the early 1900s by Albert R. Valentien . Winner of

540-495: A Reception Center for sailors until 1944, when those activities were transferred to Camp Elliott ; this allowed for additional hospital expansion. It was returned to civilian authority in 1946, and repair costs to return the buildings and infrastructure to their pre-war status totaled $ 840,000, with the majority reimbursed by the Navy. In 1948, the funds were used to restore seven buildings that were deemed unsafe. A new addition to

648-532: A city-appointed committee hired an architect to review the buildings, and he determined that they could be restored by a slight margin over any costs to demolish the buildings. The necessary funds and materials for restoration were donated by San Diegans and the labor was financed by the federal government. Some of the buildings and infrastructure constructed for the Panama–California Exposition that still exist include: Balboa Park's second big event,

756-613: A former president of the city's short-lived Lyceum of Natural Sciences. The Cecil Hotel was eventually built on part of the society's lot, and in June 1912 the Society began to meet there. In 1910, the San Diego Society of Natural History hired Kate Stephens , an authority on terrestrial and marine mollusks , as curator for its collections. These included the personal collection of her husband, mammalogist and ornithologist Frank Stephens , who donated over 2000 bird and mammal specimens to

864-535: A large collection of historical photographs and many important field notes collections, such as those of herpetologist Laurence Klauber (available online at the Internet Archive), mammalogists Frank Stephens and Laurence M. Huey (available at the Internet Archive), and naturalist Charles Russell Orcutt . The library director curates the museum's permanent exhibition Extraordinary Ideas from Ordinary People: A History of Citizen Science , which draws from

972-662: A large display of fossils , dioramas , murals , models , and interactives, the exhibition chronicles evolution, extinction , ecology , and Earth processes from the age of the dinosaurs to the Ice Ages . The 2015 installation of Coast to Cactus in Southern California highlights the region's biodiversity. The permanent exhibition was honored by the American Alliance of Museums' "Overall Excellence for an Exhibition" recognition in June 2016. In 2016,

1080-586: A long row of ramshackle firetraps." Several proposals were developed for converting buildings to museums and several groups attempted to have some of the park land sold to finance other projects. During both the Great War and World War II, the park was handed over to the Department of the Navy to be used as a barracks and training ground and was an extension of Naval Medical Center San Diego . By 1917, after $ 30,000 in repairs and modifications were made to

1188-531: A more general non-technical audience, have been published as Occasional Papers. In addition, the museum has published the magazines Environment Southwest and Field Notes . The museum maintains online atlas projects including the binational Amphibian and Reptile Atlas of Peninsular California and the Plant Atlas of San Diego County. Recent publications include the Bird Atlas of San Diego County (2004),

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1296-475: A name change in 1910 with the name “Balboa” becoming the reigning champion. The second theory made by Nancy Carol Carter, historian and former director of the Legal Research center at USD states that this theory is false. Through her research she discovered that the naming of the park was a four month long effort from the parks commissioners. In October of 1910 during a meeting, the commissioners decided on

1404-556: A new law called the "Act to Insure the Permanency of the Park Reservation", was passed by the state legislature, which said, "These lands (lots by number) are to be held in trust forever by the municipal authorities of said city for the purpose of a park". It was around this time that San Diego residents were developing fondness for the park, as illustrated by their insistence on keeping the park intact when in 1871 there

1512-536: A private museum corporation has that will permit it to occupy city-owned buildings in a public park is that the museum authorities maintain exhibits that will be free, i.e., without admission charges, and open at all times to the public." The museum eventually occupied three different buildings from the Exposition in Balboa Park, none of which was ideally suited to museum use. In 1917, the Society paid $ 500 to

1620-417: A reigning style for decades, and still the primary vernacular style in much of California. Goodhue's associate architect was Carleton M. Winslow, who is solely credited with the lattice-work Botanical Building and other structures. Goodhue's team, which included Kate Sessions and Lloyd Wright for landscape design , had won out over the local and more modernist Irving Gill to get the commission. One of

1728-473: A research collection of 250,000 specimens of native and naturalized plants of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. The collection consists primarily of vascular plants, with significant holdings of marine algae, mostly of the eastern North Pacific. The collection is particularly rich in specimens of the Crassulaceae and Cactaceae . Recent work includes research on floristic diversity in

1836-522: A row of arches under a balustrade; surprisingly, given the Spanish influences, the building did not have a tiled roof. The construction of the permanent headquarters was made possible through a grant of $ 125,000 from Ellen Browning Scripps , and by public subscription. However, the full amount needed for the building could not be raised in the Depression years. Only the first unit of the building, at

1944-519: A slight profit, which was donated to the San Diego Museum in the park. Roosevelt, approving of the buildings' architecture, recommended that the "buildings of rare phenomenal taste and beauty" be left as permanent additions. The majority of the buildings were only supposed to remain standing through 1916 and were not constructed with long-lasting materials. When the expo ended, several city discussions were held to determine what to do with

2052-491: A small but growing community eager for information about its natural resources. Early society members established a Volunteer County Weather Service in 1875, petitioned to create Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in 1885 and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park , and garnered support for the Zoological Society of San Diego . In 1887, the Society was given a lot on Sixth Avenue between B and C streets by E. W. Morse ,

2160-563: A song entitled "Balboa Park" focusing on the unpleasant aspects of the park. One of the Old Globe Theatre's starring actors was stabbed to death in the middle of the day in February 1985. A 36-year-old woman was gang-raped and murdered in the park in June 1986. To counter the increase in crime, city officials expanded police patrols in the park, and many of the individual museums hired security guards. After two murders in 1993 and

2268-540: A telegraph button in Washington, D.C., to symbolically open the ceremonies by turning on the power at the park. Yellow and red were the themed colors of the event and were displayed throughout. All of the employees, workers, security people, and management staff were dressed in period Spanish and Mexican military uniforms, and much of the park was filled with plantings of exotic plants . Over 40,000 red Poinsettia plants, all in full bloom, were used. The event attracted

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2376-521: A temporary outdoor stage, which was later upgraded to become one of the Globe's three theaters. The Old Globe Theatre itself was rebuilt and reopened in 1981. Queen Elizabeth II presented at the dedication ceremony for the theatre in 1983. Throughout the 1980s, there were multiple reports throughout Balboa Park of vandalism, murder, rape, arson, and minor petty crimes. The resulting negative publicity during this period inspired Bruce Springsteen to write

2484-548: A walking silver robot; and a strange new electrical device called a "television". Like the first exposition, the 1935 Fair was so successful it was extended for a second year. Opening ceremonies for the second season began when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a gold telegraph key in the White House to turn on the exposition's lights. He later visited the exposition; other notable guests included Herbert Hoover , Mae West , and Jack Dempsey . Funded at $ 20 million,

2592-522: Is a narrow strip bordering Sixth Avenue on the western edge of the park, which provides areas of passive recreation, grassy spaces, and tree groves, and a camp for Camp Fire . The Central Mesa is home to much of the park's cultural facilities, and includes scout camps, the San Diego Zoo , the Prado, and Inspiration Point. East Mesa is home to Morley Field and many of the active recreation facilities in

2700-452: Is conducted by the museum's departments of Birds and Mammals, Botany, Entomology, Herpetology, and Paleontology. In addition, the departments of Marine Invertebrates and Mineralogy house significant collections regularly consulted by scientists. Started with the collection of pioneer mammalogist Frank Stephens, acquired in 1910, the department's taxonomic coverage now includes 90% of the world's bird families and 58% of its mammal families, with

2808-553: Is especially strong in Coleoptera and Lepidoptera ; smaller but important holdings include Diptera , Hymenoptera , and Neuroptera . The type collection includes over 200 primary types and 500 paratypes with particular strength in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera . There are also 15 holotypes of Arachnids , mostly tarantulas. The collections are regularly used by the county's departments of Agriculture and Environmental Health,

2916-589: The Alta California authorities set aside a 1,400-acre (570 ha) tract of pueblo land in San Diego to be used for the public's recreational purposes. This land included the site of present-day Balboa Park, making it one of the oldest places in the United States dedicated to public recreational usage. No further activity took place until 1845, when a survey was done by Henry D. Fitch to map

3024-485: The Amphibian and Reptile Atlas of Peninsular California documenting biodiversity research using both Museum collection data and field observations from citizen scientists. In addition, the department makes search of its collection available via online databases. The Marine Invertebrates Department holds approximately 5 million specimens concentrated on mollusks and crustaceans of southern California, Baja California, and

3132-573: The California Pacific International Exposition , came in 1935. This Exposition was intended to promote the city and remedy San Diego's Great Depression ills. Balboa Park was reconfigured by San Diego architect Richard S. Requa , who also oversaw the design and construction of many new buildings, some to be permanent. Facilities added at that time and still in use include the Old Globe Theatre ,

3240-582: The California Quadrangle . That entry is currently a two-lane road providing vehicle access to the park. A plan to divert vehicle traffic around to the south of the California Quadrangle, so as to restore it as a pedestrian-only promenade, was dropped after legal challenges, but was reapproved after the legal challenges failed and was scheduled for completion in 2019. El Prado, a long, wide promenade and boulevard, runs through

3348-644: The Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Diego County (2014, 5th ed.), and the Mammal Atlas of San Diego County (2017). Balboa Park, San Diego, California Balboa Park is a 1,200-acre (490 ha) historic urban cultural park in San Diego, California . Placed in reserve in 1835, the park's site is one of the oldest in the United States dedicated to public recreational use. The park hosts various museums, theaters, restaurants, and

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3456-550: The National Register of Historic Places . Balboa Park contains museums, gardens, attractions, and venues. The park is essentially rectangular, bounded by Sixth Avenue to the west, Upas Street to the north, 28th Street to the east, and Russ Boulevard to the south. The rectangle has been modified by the addition of the Marston Hills natural area in the northwest corner of the park, while the southwest corner of

3564-564: The National Register of Historic Places . The following year two historic park structures burned down in two separate arson fires: the Aerospace Museum in the former Electric Building, and the 1935 Old Globe Theatre . The Aerospace Museum (now the San Diego Air & Space Museum ) lost over $ 4 million in exhibits, and was reopened after moving into the old Ford Building . The Old Globe Theatre produced its 1978 season on

3672-978: The San Diego Art Institute , the San Diego Model Railroad Museum , the San Diego Natural History Museum , the San Diego History Center , the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center , and the Timken Museum of Art . Other features along El Prado include the Reflection Pond, the latticed Botanical Building, and the Bea Evenson Fountain . Next to the promenade are the San Diego Air & Space Museum and

3780-654: The San Diego Automotive Museum . Theatrical and musical venues include the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, featuring one of the world's largest outdoor pipe organs; the Old Globe Theatre complex, which includes a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre as well as an outdoor stage and a theatre in the round ; and the Starlight Bowl – an outdoor amphitheatre . The Casa Del Prado Theater is the home of San Diego Junior Theatre,

3888-554: The San Diego Zoo . It is managed and maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of San Diego. Balboa Park hosted the 1915–16 Panama–California Exposition and 1935–36 California Pacific International Exposition , both of which left architectural landmarks. The park and its historic exposition buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark District in 1977, and placed on

3996-737: The Spanish Colonial architecture created during the Spanish colonization era in New Spain-Mexico and the lower Americas, with Churrigueresque and Plateresque detailing "updating" the already popular Mission Revival style—to create the Spanish Colonial Revival style . The buildings and the style were extremely well received by the public and design professionals in California and nationally, becoming

4104-549: The 1915 opening of the Panama Canal . Davidson believed an expo would help improve commerce (it would advertise that San Diego was the first U.S. port of call vessels encountered after passing through the canal and sailing north), build the city's population, and expand the infrastructure of the park. He later explained the significance of holding the expo in San Diego: "I felt something must be done to get our city on

4212-419: The 1935–1936 event counted 6.7 million visitors—almost double the total of the 1915–16 exposition. At the conclusion of the expo, San Diegans voted again on what to do with the park and its buildings. Banker Joseph Sefton Jr. called for the buildings' removal, "They are hideous and badly placed. Had we torn out the 1915 exposition buildings and landscaped the park we would have a beautiful place there now and not

4320-556: The 1950s. Surrounding the park are many of San Diego's older neighborhoods, including Downtown , Bankers Hill , North Park , and Golden Hill . Balboa Park is a primary attraction in San Diego and the region. Its many mature, and sometimes rare, trees and groves comprise an urban forest . Many of the original trees were planted by the renowned American landscape architect , botanist , plantswoman , and gardener Kate Sessions . An early proponent of drought tolerant and California native plants in garden design , Sessions established

4428-607: The 2004 Western Museums Association Excellence in Exhibition Award, the Valentien show toured museums in the United States through 2009. In 2007–2008 a collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls were on display, ten of them being shown for the first time in public. The show's attendance was close to 400,000 visitors, a record for any exhibit at the museum. The museum serves as the major biodiversity repository in

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4536-598: The 2013–2016 Sierra Cacachilas biodiversity study (which resulted in the discovery of a new species of spider, Califorctenus cacachilensis ), a status survey of the flora and fauna of Isla Guadalupe (2000), the Agua Verde and Punta Mechudo (2003) expedition (a binational, multidisciplinary expedition explored the southern end of the Sierra de La Giganta), and the 1997 study of the Sierra San Francisco and

4644-524: The 47,000 acres. Three years later, the Mexican government was forced by the Mexican–American War to cede Alta California, including San Diego, to the United States. On February 15, 1868, the city's Board of Trustees was asked to create a public park out of two 160-acre (65 ha) plots of land just northeast of the growing urban center of "New Town"—present-day Downtown San Diego . The request

4752-571: The Baja California peninsula, bringing together scientists from various disciplines and fostering collaboration between participating institutions in the United States and Mexico. The expeditions also support the enhancement of the institutions' scientific collections, conservation efforts, management of natural resources, and environmental education. The BRCC was established in 2002 to focus research and collections on regional biology, biodiversity, and geology. Representative expeditions include

4860-724: The El Prado side. Located in the eastern third of the park is Morley Field Sports Complex , which includes the Balboa Park Golf Complex, which contains a public 18-hole golf course and 9-hole executive course; the San Diego Velodrome ; baseball and softball fields; cross country running course; the USTA -honored Balboa Tennis Club and tennis courts; archery ranges; the Bud Kearn public swimming pool; and

4968-480: The Foreign Arts Building proved too small, the museum expanded into the 1916 Canadian Building (previously the 1915 Commerce and Industries Building). This new space was opened to the public on December 9, 1922. The museum's intention was to eventually combine the buildings. From 1922 until his death in 1946, Clinton G. Abbott was the museum's director. During Abbott's period as director, the museum

5076-598: The International Cottages, and the Spanish Village. The 1935 Exposition left behind colorful stories of its exhibits and entertainments. The Gold Gulch was a forerunner of the many "frontier town" themed areas of later amusement parks. The controversial Zoro Garden Nudist Colony , "Midget Village", and sideshow entertainments including fan dancer Sally Rand added to the lore. The Exposition also provided visitors with early glimpses of 'Alpha',

5184-508: The Medical Examiner's Office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and private environmental consultants. The Herpetology Department houses over 76,000 catalogued specimens, including one of the largest rattlesnake collections in the world. Both regional and worldwide species are well represented in the collection, with specimens from throughout the southwest United States, northwest Mexico, and islands globally. The department hosts

5292-616: The Panama Canal opening, the majority of the funds went to the San Francisco expo. In anticipation of the exposition, many of San Diego's business and city leaders began to develop separate plans for the park. John D. Spreckels , owner of the San Diego Electric Railway , wanted to shift the location of the main public plaza to add room for exhibitors — and to allow his streetcar system to traverse

5400-587: The Panama–California Exposition Corporation for the vacant Nevada State Building. The Society moved its growing collections and library into the building in February 1917, thus creating the San Diego Natural History Museum. Frank Stephens served as the first director of the museum from 1917 to 1920. The Board identified its mission as being "to educate and help people know and love nature". Using specimens from

5508-477: The SDZL collects and documents zooarchaeological information (specimens and literature) for use by the scientific community, fosters cooperative research, and communicates with the public about zooarchaeological research in the region. In addition, the SDZL provides training to students and volunteers in zooarchaeological techniques and methods. The museum's refereed scientific publications date back to 1905, reflecting

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5616-451: The San Diego Society of Natural History, which was founded on October 9, 1874. The Natural History Society was founded by George W. Barnes, Daniel Cleveland , Charles Coleman, E. W. Hendrick and O. N. Sanford. It is the oldest scientific institution in southern California, and the second oldest west of the Mississippi. In its initial years, the San Diego Society of Natural History was the region's primary source of scientific culture, serving

5724-404: The Sierra Guadalupe, located in northern Baja California Sur on the eastern edge of the Vizcaíno Desert . The San Jacinto Resurvey, conducted by the museum in cooperation with the Universities of California, Berkeley and Riverside from 2008 to 2010, retraced the 1908 expedition of Joseph Grinnell and associates to the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County to make a detailed comparison of how

5832-417: The Society in 1910. In June 1912, Katherine and Frank Stephens installed the Society's first museum exhibits at the Hotel Cecil, where they could be viewed by the public on selected afternoons. The Sixth Avenue property hosted the museum's exhibits for a very short time, roughly 1912–1917. However, it remained the property of the Society until 1987, when it was sold to the Trammel Crow Company. Money raised by

5940-416: The board adopted a firm policy to restrict collections to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The museum continued its steady growth with post-war San Diego, despite periods of financial stress. The American Alliance of Museums accredited the museum in 1974. In 1991, Michael Hager took over the position of President and CEO of the San Diego Natural History Museum. With Robert F. Smith, he led

6048-453: The buildings were kept. Donated funds allowed for improvements to the buildings' integrity and interiors. During World War II, the park was renamed Camp Kidd , after Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd . Buildings within the park were used for multiple purposes, including hospital wards, training facilities, and barracks . After the attack on Pearl Harbor , many of the wounded were transported to Camp Kidd's hospital wards. Camp Kidd also served as

6156-675: The buildings. Goodhue recommended demolishing the buildings, saying "They are now crumbling, disintegrating and altogether unlovely structures, structures that lack any of the venerability of age and present only its pathos, and the space they occupy could readily be made into one of the most beautiful public gardens in the New World." Joseph W. Sefton Jr., president of the Society of Natural History, also called for their demolition, citing fire hazards: "All those old exposition buildings are nothing but fire traps. ... They are pretty to look at, but we may wake up any morning and find them gone, and our million dollars['] worth of exhibits with them." However,

6264-512: The city and private charities such as the Committee of 100 undertook a major effort to restore the park's historic buildings. Most of the original Exposition buildings were continuing to deteriorate with some lacking foundations and minimal structural support. By the 1990s some of the Prado buildings were deteriorating so badly that "pieces of plaster regularly fell off the walls." Several crumbling buildings were torn down and replaced with permanent structures which were carefully detailed to maintain

6372-447: The collection and curation of paleontological fossils from land designated for development and provides consulting services such as paleontological resource assessment of properties and paleontological mitigation plans. The department maintains an online paleontology database of more than 137,000 species lots representing 1.4 million specimens, primarily from the southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico regions. Recent work by

6480-410: The collections contain 90% of bird families worldwide, represented by 1,605 species. Over 1,000 complete mammal skeletons and 20,000 skulls are currently housed, and the collections continue to grow. In-house scholars provide expertise in the specialities of paleontology, marine invertebrates, entomology, herpetology, and botany. Providing interpretation and perspective on the use of animals in antiquity,

6588-423: The country's oldest children's theatre program. The House of Pacific Relations International Cottages collected on El Prado offer free entertainment shows. The Botanical Building, designed by Carleton Winslow , was the largest wood lath structure in the world when it was built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition. It contains large specimen palms and other plants and sits next to a long reflecting pool on

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6696-453: The department has included radiometric dating of the Cerutti Mastodon site . Library collections include a complete natural history reference library, the rare book collection, the Klauber Herpetology Library, and the map collection. In addition, the Library's art collection includes treasures such as the botanical watercolors of A. R. Valentien and wildlife paintings by George Miksch Sutton and Allan Brooks . The Library's archives include

6804-461: The different varieties of native and exotic plants in the park. Her work was so progressive that she was in fact the first woman awarded the Meyer Medal for "foreign plant importation" by the American Genetic Association . Other developments from this time include two reservoirs, an animal pound in Pound Canyon (later renamed Cabrillo Canyon), and a gunpowder magazine in the area now known as Florida Canyon. The earliest recreational developments in

6912-537: The eastern Pacific, with 134 primary and 700 secondary type specimens. The Mineralogy Department maintains 26,000 catalogued specimens of minerals, meteorites, and precious gems, including an extensive collection from southern California and a synoptic collection from around the world. The collections of the Paleontology Department include fossil vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants primarily of Mesozoic- through Cenozoic-age sites in southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico. The PaleoServices unit assists in

7020-480: The exhibition buildings. Several new museums opened during the 1960s and 1970s: the Timken Museum of Art in 1965, the Centro Cultural de la Raza in 1970, and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in 1973. The 1915–1916 exposition's Food and Beverage Building was rebuilt and reopened in 1971 as Casa del Prado. Balboa Park, and the historic Exposition buildings, were declared a National Historic Landmark and National Historic Landmark District in 1977, and placed on

7128-430: The expo; he made major decisions such as locating the expo on the park's central mesa, using California Mission Revival Style architecture for the buildings, and featuring "human progress" as the theme. A similar fair, the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition , was also planned in "far to the north" San Francisco to celebrate the canal opening. Although $ 5 million had been set aside by Congress for celebrations of

7236-505: The first women to hold the position in the museum's 150 year history. In December 2009, the San Diego Natural History Museum was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design−LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M) Certification. It is one of the oldest privately owned institutions to achieve the award. With the addition of the new wing to the museum, areas for permanent exhibitions were created, along with five new exhibition halls. Also added

7344-449: The infectious diseases ward. Some renovation took place in the facility, including the addition of an elevator designed to handle hospital gurneys and a nurses' station between floors. Both features remain in use today. The U.S. Navy takeover of the museum building for the duration of World War II resulted in damage to the collections, exhibits, and the building itself. The main library and its librarian were moved to San Diego State College ;

7452-543: The long history of the San Diego Society of Natural History as a leader in research of the geologic past and present biodiversity of western North America and beyond. All of the museum's scientific publications are available online. The journal Transactions of San Diego Society of Natural History preceded the currently published Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History as the museum's major scientific publication. In-depth volumes of Memoirs have treated topics comprehensively, while shorter works, often written for

7560-401: The map and advertise it to the rest of the world. I knew we had something here that no other city had, and that all that was necessary was for the people to know about it." It has been long debated as to how Balboa Park’s name changed from City Park to Balboa Park. The most popular theory states that in order to prepare for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, city officials held a contest for

7668-421: The most celebrated of these early usages was a 36-acre nursery owned and maintained by local horticulturist and botanist Kate Sessions, who is often referred to as "the mother of Balboa Park." Although owned by Sessions, by agreement with the city the nursery was open to the public, and Sessions donated trees and plants to the city every year for its beautification. Sessions is responsible for bringing in many of

7776-595: The most significant improvements to the park from that time was the construction of the Cabrillo Bridge across a major canyon in the city. The bridge connects the main portion of the park with the western portion and with Laurel Street. A lavish groundbreaking ceremony for the fair's construction was held in July 1911. On December 31, 1914, the Panama–California Exposition opened, with Balboa Park "crammed full" of spectators. President Woodrow Wilson pushed

7884-536: The museum renovated space in the Research Library to create the Eleanor and Jerome Navarra Special Collections Gallery, which contains the new permanent exhibition, Extraordinary Ideas From Ordinary People: A History of Citizen Science . Extraordinary Ideas received Honorable Mention in the 2017 AAM exhibition competition. In 2017, the museum drew on the abundance of material in its collections to create

7992-523: The museum through a strategic planning process that focused the museum's collection strategies on southern and Baja California , and led to the development of the Biodiversity Research Center of Southern California, a collaborative Environmental Science Education Center for the United States and Mexico , and a major capital campaign for the expansion of the museum itself. In April 2001, new design and construction more than doubled

8100-527: The museum's collections, the institution developed educational outreach programs with city and county schools. Unfortunately, many of the buildings at the Exposition had been intended as temporary structures. The two-story Nevada building, with its arcades, flanking wings, and Spanish-Renaissance trim, was not built to last. The museum obtained permission from the Park Commission to move to the 1915 Foreign Arts Building, which it remodeled in 1920. When

8208-584: The museum's holdings extended by its status as a repository for specimens from the San Diego Zoo . Field work by the department has resulted in the publication of two major regional distribution and identification guides, The San Diego County Bird Atlas (2004), and The San Diego County Mammal Atlas (2017). Recent work includes study of environmental pressure on Southern California bird populations. The Botany Department actively collects in San Diego County and Baja California, and its herbarium houses

8316-427: The name Balboa. San Diego would be the smallest city to ever hold a World's Fair; its population at the time was less than 40,000. The expo was organized by a group of San Diego business leaders, including Ulysses S. Grant Jr. , and was funded at an initial cost of $ 5 million (including $ 1 million from voter-approved bonds for landscaping). Developer and civic leader D. C. Collier was chosen as General Director of

8424-457: The national attention organizers had sought. Even Pennsylvania's Liberty Bell made a brief three-day appearance in November 1915. The event was such a success the fair was extended through 1916. Over the two years, it drew more than 3.7 million visitors, including Henry Ford , William Jennings Bryan , Thomas Edison , Theodore Roosevelt , and William Howard Taft . The expo actually turned

8532-475: The new exhibition, Unshelved – Cool Stuff from Storage . Specimens curated by the several departments that comprise the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias (BRCC) contributed. Meticulously preserved and catalogued material from the research collections of Birds and Mammals, Botany , Entomology , Herpetology , Marine Invertebrates , Mineralogy , Paleontology , and the Research Library provides

8640-587: The original appearance. The Science and Education Building and the Home Economy Building were demolished to make room for the expansion of two new wings for the Timken Museum of Art . The loss of these two buildings along with the Casa de Balboa , the House of Charm , and the House of Hospitality , resulted in the formation of the independent organization, Committee of One Hundred, to attempt to preserve

8748-544: The original buildings, over 5,000 U.S. troops were using the park for training. Coinciding with the Panama–California Exposition, the Commandant of the Marine Corps instructed 2nd Battalion of the newly established 4th Marines to represent the Marine Corps at the event. On December 19, 1914, Marine Barracks, Balboa Park , was established as the second, and during its period, and only Marine base in San Diego. It

8856-566: The park and extend to the North Park and University Heights neighborhoods. The Exposition's lead designer and site planner was architect Bertram Goodhue , well known for his Gothic Revival style churches in New York and Boston, who sought a regionally appropriate aesthetic to use in Southern California . Goodhue and associate architect Carleton Winslow chose to use the styles of highly ornamented Spanish Baroque architecture with

8964-898: The park during the post-war 1940s was the carillon in the California Tower (1946), which chimes the time every quarter-hour. The San Diego Junior Theater, a program of the Old Globe Theatre, was established in 1948, performing in the Prado Theatre. The amphitheater formerly known as the Ford Bowl became the Starlight Bowl , home of the Starlight Musical Theater (also known as the San Diego Civic Light Opera and as Starlight Opera), which performed Broadway musicals outdoors in

9072-612: The park were in the "Golden Hill Park" area off 25th street. The National Register listed the rustic stone fountain designed by architect Henry Lord Gay as the oldest surviving designed feature in the park. Other attractions in the area included a children's park, walking trails, and a redwood bird aviary . Indigenous Californians and Bajenos began to flock to the Kumeyaay village in Florida Canyon looking for work in San Diego during this period. A Native Californian urban exclave

9180-538: The park's center. Most of the buildings lining this street are in the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture style, a richly ornamented mixture of European Spanish architecture and the Spanish Colonial architecture of New Spain - Mexico . Along this boulevard are many of the park's museums and cultural attractions, including the Museum of Us , the San Diego Museum of Art , the Museum of Photographic Arts ,

9288-466: The park. The park is crossed by several freeways, which take up a total of 111 acres (0.45 km ) once designated for parkland. In 1948, State Route 163 was built through Cabrillo Canyon and under the Cabrillo Bridge . This stretch of road, initially named the Cabrillo Freeway, has been called one of America's most beautiful parkways. A portion of Interstate 5 was built in the park in

9396-474: The park. There is also Spanish Art Village which consists of art shops. Prior to the establishment of the park, the area was home to a Kumeyaay village informally known as Hatam's Village (or Hata'am) in Florida Canyon just south of what is now Naval Medical Center San Diego . Its existence survived the 1852 effort to remove Kumeyaay villages within half a mile of the city. The village was kept active under Jośe Manuel Polton, also known as Hatam, who transformed

9504-464: The rectangle is occupied by a portion of the Cortez Hill neighborhood of downtown San Diego and San Diego High School , both of which are separated from the park by Interstate 5 . Also encroaching on the northern perimeter of the park is Roosevelt Middle School. Two north-south canyons—Cabrillo Canyon and Florida Canyon—traverse the park and separate it into three mesas. The Sixth Avenue Mesa

9612-708: The region's wildlife changed over the century. The Flying Squirrel Study, with support from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve, UCNRS, and the Big Bear Zoo, was launched to determine the distribution and habitat use of the San Bernardino Flying Squirrel ( Glaucomys sabrinus californicus) and incorporates the iNaturalist platform to allow citizen scientists to upload their observations to databases used by scientists. Current research

9720-435: The region, conducting field research across a range of scientific disciplines and providing an important source of flora and fauna distributional data for environmental systems protection, land use planning, environmental surveys, and development mitigation. The museum and its research unit, the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias (BRCC), conduct biological expeditions and field research in Southern California and on

9828-488: The rest of the treasured and fragile exhibits were hastily packed, crated and moved into a total of 32 separate places. Exhibits too large to be moved were stuffed into the north wing on the main floor. Director Clinton G. Abbott and a staff of four were allowed only limited access to an area of the basement. Once staff were allowed to reoccupy the building, on July 1, 1949, major renovations commenced. Forced to look at all collections and exhibits by this rehabilitation process,

9936-473: The rich resources of the library's varied collections. The San Diego Zooarchaeology Laboratory (SDZL) identifies faunal assemblages from archaeological sites in San Diego County, the western United States, and the ancient Near East, referencing the San Diego Natural History Museum's scientific collections. Founded in 2010, the SDZL collections include over 46,000 bird specimens and 22,650 mammals. With 7,000 complete bird skeletons, and over 1,400 partial skeletons,

10044-467: The sale became part of the Museum of Natural History's endowment fund. Various supporters of the 1915 Panama–California Exposition at Balboa Park expressed interest in repurposing buildings from the Exposition. This was complicated because the actual title to the land in Balboa Park remained with the City of San Diego. In June 1916, museum supporter G. S. Thompson proposed that "The one legal ground that

10152-510: The shooting of a young drama student walking across the Cabrillo Bridge in 1994, nighttime lighting in the park was increased, and video cameras were installed in several locations to allow park rangers and police to better monitor the area. In 1998, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center opened a larger building at its present location. The following year, the Hall of Champions Sports Museum moved to

10260-464: The size of the 1933 building, from 65,000 square feet (6,000 m) of usable space to approximately 150,000 square feet (14,000 m). The entrance received a new Postmodern style facade and glassed atrium . The project architects were Richard Bundy and David Thompson Architects Inc. The expansion also provided new space for the museum's research, educational, and administrative activities. In 2016, Judy Gradwohl succeeded Hager as President and CEO,

10368-601: The south end of the lot, and one wing extending toward the north, could be built. The north and east exterior facades were left plain as temporary walls slated for future expansion, and remained so for 60 years. The $ 175,000 Natural History Museum building was formally dedicated on January 14, 1933. The Society was notified on March 8, 1943, that the United States Navy wished to take over the Natural History Museum for hospital use at once, becoming

10476-735: The southwestern United States and northwestern Baja California. The Botany Department provides online access to records via two portals, the Flora of Baja California and the San Diego County Plant Atlas , with most specimens georeferenced. In addition, the Botany Department has fully indexed and published online the field books of botanist Reid Moran . The collections of the Entomology Department include over 900,000 specimens. The insect collection

10584-412: The summer. In 1959, the city hired an architectural firm to map out a plan for the park based on the suggestions of San Diegans along with the firm's recommendations. The initial review called for 13 of the original 1915 buildings to remain while replacing 11 others with new buildings in their place. The plan also called for adjusted roadways, additional landscaping, and improvements in parking. By 1967,

10692-411: The village into an urban Native American neighborhood for urbanized Native Californians and Baja Californians in San Diego seeking jobs. The neighborhood lasted into the 1890s through the advocacy of Hatam and his successor Juan Gonzales before it was dismantled and became Balboa Park. Spain and later Mexico made a practice of setting aside large tracts of land for the common use of citizens. In 1835,

10800-581: Was a major benefactor of the proposed building project. In 1932, San Diego's leading architect, William Templeton Johnson , was commissioned by the Society of Natural History to design its new museum building on Balboa Park's East Prado. Johnson had earned his reputation with his design of the Fine Arts Gallery (now The San Diego Museum of Art ) and the downtown San Diego Trust & Savings Bank, among other buildings. The museum building combined Spanish and Moorish touches. Yellow and blue tiles mark

10908-421: Was able to build and move into long-term quarters. Other notable naturalists and curators of this period include Guy Fleming , Laurence M. Huey , and Laurence M. Klauber . In 1925, a nearby fire raised concerns about the safety of the existing museum buildings. Community leaders recognized the need for a permanent museum of adequate size that would be both fire-proof and earthquake-proof. Ellen Browning Scripps

11016-533: Was an attempt to overturn the state law so as to allow for private purchase of some of the park land. At the urging of would-be land speculators and the city attorney, State Senator James McCoy quietly introduced a bill in the California state legislature to repeal the 1870 law. A San Diego resident learned of the plan and informed higher powers at the state level in Sacramento, California . The conspiracy

11124-420: Was built up in the canyon, which lasted up until the 1900s when the neighborhood was torn down in preparation for the Panama–California Exposition. Preparations for the 1915 Panama–California Exposition created much of the park's present-day look-and-feel and designed amenities. Beginning in 1909, San Diego Chamber of Commerce president G. Aubrey Davidson suggested that the park hold an expo to coincide with

11232-558: Was established by Marines under the command of Colonel Pendleton . It remained in place until 1921, when a more permanent base was established in Dutch Flats , itself a predecessor of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego . Under the conditions of usage, upon closing, the Marine Corps returned the buildings they had used in the exact condition that they had received them. Although some buildings were scheduled to be demolished due to disrepair, several San Diego groups organized to ensure

11340-514: Was home to bobcats, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and other wildlife. Numerous proposals, some altruistic, some profit-driven, were brought forward for the development and use of the land during this time, but no comprehensive plan for development was adopted until 1902. Nevertheless, some buildings were constructed, including an orphanage and women's shelter (later burned down), a high school (Russ High School – later San Diego High School ), and several gardens maintained by various private groups. One of

11448-512: Was leaked to the press, exposing the city officials involved. A public safety committee formed and collected signatures supporting the current existence of the park. Their plea was successful and the bill was killed in the legislature. San Diego was the second city in the U.S. to dedicate a large park after New York City's 1858 establishment of Central Park . For the first few decades of its existence, "City Park" remained mostly open space. The land, lacking trees and covered in native wildflowers,

11556-497: Was made by one of the Trustees, E. W. Morse , who had picked the site in coordination with real estate developer Alonzo Horton . There is a sculptural group of Horton, Marston, and Morse by Ruth Hayward in the park. Subsequently, a resolution to set aside for a large city park not just two plots of land, but nine plots totaling 1,400 acres (570 ha), was approved by the city's Board of Trustees on May 26, 1868. Then in 1870,

11664-465: Was the state-of-the-art Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan Theater with a 56' screen and a Dolby Digital 3D projector. The new display installations eliminated the formerly popular Old Mine mineralogy gallery, that had displayed mineral specimens , gemstones , and fluorescent rocks and minerals . Fossil Mysteries is a highly interactive exhibition tracing the 75-million-year fossil-rich prehistory of southern California and Baja California, Mexico. With

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