This c. 1875 photo album of Japanese life is part of a 10 piece set by Felice Beato. He was one of the first war photographers, having traveled with the British Army to the Crimea. He eventually settled in Japan and opened a studio where he captured Japanese life and culture.

'Okay how does it smell?' — the best question to be asked in a special collections library!
Last week, we welcomed Professor Rodriguez's HIST331 The High Middle Ages class SF State. They got to interact with #Medieval and #Renaissance books from our rare book collection! #libraries

You might think these Renaissance uniforms occupy the realm of yesteryear, but you'd be wrong! These are the costumes of the Swiss Guards who guard the Pope/Vatican still today! They recruit Swiss unmarried Catholic men between 18-30. #SwissGuards #militaryuniforms

Happy #AAPIMonth ! Last month, Sutro Library and @globalmusuemsfsu collaborated on the exhibit 'Land of the Unexpected A Journey to the South Pacific.' It featured artifacts & books exploring Papua New Guinea's diverse culture & ecosystems. #libraries

Martha and Luis have been researching at Sutro Library for months, and we're so glad to have been able to work with them! Their work involves some of the oldest books printed in the Americas, many of which had firebrands on their pages to identify them. buff.ly/3WcWB4y

Happy #FairyFriday everybody! We couldn't resist sharing this charming book called 'British Goblins,' published in 1880! #supernatural #libraries #specialcollections #archives

#OnThisDay in 1906, in the early morning hours, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck #SanFrancisco . Here is a letter written describing the experience, as well as images of the deadly scene. #earthquake #libraries #history

There is a section of our Sutro Library branch called 'tiny town,' where all of their smallest books are shelved. Some of these teeny volumes are hundreds of years old! #books #librarians

Happy #NationalLibraryWeek , everyone! We love this map of Massachusetts libraries circa 1904 by George Hartnell Bartlett. MA State Library #PublicLibraries

We work at a library, of course we tell everyone we know to get a library card! Happy library week, everyone! #librarians #LibraryWeek

Enjoy these satisfying page turning sounds, straight from 1677! 📚

There's a lot of excitement building around the April 8 #SolarEclipse , which got us digging around in our vault. This 1645 book has truly fantastic images, including lucid images of the lunar seas — plains of solidified lava which appear dark on the Moon's surface! #libraries

Explore #Polynesian family history at a free #genealogy talk, 4/12 at 1pm! Join speaker Miya Jensen as she discusses the culture of genealogy in #Oceania , the variety of records available, and the wealth of knowledge via Oral Genealogies of the Pacific. bit.ly/genealogy-0424

We found this Aztec Calendar and Cycle of Festivals in our collection. Divided into 18 months, this solar calendar had each month consisting of 20 days. Every month was dedicated to a specific god, with a ceremony held in their honor.

#aztec calendar #mexico #aztec #history

After the #MexicanRevolution , political and business leaders needed to entice foreign investment to help rebuild a broken economy. This 1930 pamphlet illustrates this push and was distributed by the Departamento De Turismo.
#history #tourism #archives #ephemera

This month @usnatarchives #hashtagparty is #ArchivesWomenInSTEM — so we thought we'd highlight the brilliant sister of astronomer Tycho Brahe, Sophia Brahe. She was a horticulturist fluent in astronomy, medicine and chemistry and she often worked with her scientist brother.

Today we unboxed a new accession, a game called 'What Shall I Be?' from 1976, created by the same designers as Scrabble. The previous version of the game, from 1966, had only six professions for women: model, actress, nurse, teacher, flight attendant, and ballet dancer.

According to the website Bay Nature in 2023, the California golden chanterelle, native to California and Baja, became the first state mushroom! Here is a lovely mushroom from circa 1797, engraved by Botanical artist James Sowerby 1757-1822. #mushrooms #California #libaries

Yesterday we welcomed SF State Professor Haeyoung Kim and her #ImperialChina history students to look at some of our materials related to Asian and Chinese history. They really loved our map of #SanFrancisco Chinatown from 1885! #libraries #archives #specialcollections

Today we have an #AmericanRevolution class coming in to see our amazing primary resources! This letter bemoans the fall of the #BritishEmpire after the 'late fatal Contest with her Colonies now become sovereign and independent' SF State #archives #libraries #specialcollections