Test Kitchen: Happiness is a full lunch bag!

[Mission High School students Dale Scholzen, Phyllis Cassidy and Ed Johnston eating lunch in Mission Park.] Nov. 12, 1958. Photo and caption courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

It's September again, and school-aged kids all over the country uttered a collective "Good grief!" In their honor, this month's Test Kitchen post is dedicated to the best part of the school day: lunch! Our recipes come from a title in the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor (SCOWAH): Charles Schulz's Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book, published in 1970 with recipes by June Dutton. There were plenty of tempting lunchtime treats to try, from "Lucy's Crabby Sandwiches" to "Good Ol' Charlie's Brownies," but we decided to go with that midday mainstay-- the peanut butter sandwich.

There are seven different recipes in Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book for "Stick-to-the-Roof-of-Your-Mouth Peanut Butter Sandwiches," and for this Test Kitchen we had most of the ingredients for all but one (peanut butter and chopped celery with catsup didn't make it to our table.)

Photo: L. Weddle

Here are the other six recipes:

1 T. chunky peanut butter
1 T. chopped raisins
Mix and spread on raisin bread.

1 T. creamy peanut butter
2 T. chopped apple
Mix and spread on white or dark bread.

1 T. creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 t. sweet pickle relish
Mix and spread on dark bread.

1 T. creamy or chunky peanut butter
½ T. honey
Mix and spread on white bread.

1 T. crunchy peanut butter
Banana slices.
Spread half the peanut butter on slice of white or wheat bread. Lay slices of banana on top, spread second slice of bread with peanut butter and cover bananas.

1 T. crunchy peanut butter
12 miniature marshmallows, chopped
Follow above proceedure.

Results:

While the peanut butter with fruit or honey recipes won the day, more adventurous types took on the marshmallows and relish recipes. The relish-- crunchy and tangy rather than sweet-- was a surprisingly good accompaniment to peanut butter. Even though the marshmallows could barely be distinguished from the white bread it was tested on, the result was declared to be "Great!"

One of the best things about peanut butter is its versatility. After trying out recipes, testers began throwing caution to the wind, resulting in all sorts of combinations! Photo: L. Weddle.

Just like school lunches, a trip to the San Francisco History Center/Book Arts & Special Collections on the 6th floor of the Main Library could be the best part of your day! Come up and find more about San Francisco schools, or just spend the day reading Peanuts comic strips.

The Complete Peanuts (1950 - 1976) - thirteen volumes of Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and Charlie Brown. Available here in the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor and at your neighborhood branch.

San Francisco Unified School District Records (.pdf - 1MB) are accessible through the San Francisco History Center and contain administrative circulars, photographs, scrapbooks, curriculum titles, pamphlets, newsletters, reports, district directories, handbooks, budget documents, salary surveys, and newspaper clippings documenting SFUSD's history from 1854 to 2005. If you were more into seeing what the cafeteria had to offer than bringing a sack lunch, check out the "Food Service Master Plan" from 1973.

You can find even more information on individual San Francisco schools in our vertical files under SF. SCHOOLS. [school name].

Our Current Exhibition: Thou Drawest All Things

Harry Washington Seawell (1865-1945) [Chinese men reading billboard] 1901 watercolor

Thou Drawest All Things: San Francisco by its Artists

Selections from the San Francisco History Center

Over the years, the San Francisco History Center has received donations of original works of art. This exhibit features a sampling of drawings, watercolors, lithographs and etchings capturing aspects of life in San Francisco in the 19th and 20th centuries. From Land's End to the county line, see how visual artists have interpreted this kaleidoscopic city.

September 1 - November 29, 2010
in the Exhibit Cases outside the San Francisco History Center, Main Library, Sixth Floor

Archives 101, Part 2: Accession

Archives 101, Part 2: "A" is also for Accession

And now for the second installment in our series (pardon the pun) on archival practice. In archival parlance, "accession" is used as both a noun and a verb. After the library appraises a collection and decides that it is worth keeping, that material is accessioned. Accessioning is the legal transfer of responsibility for the physical and intellectual care of the material. The material, called an accession, gets a unique identifying number (e.g. 2010-001). All collections, whether donated, purchased or transferred, are accessioned.

Physical care may include removing paperclips and staples and storing the collection in acid-free folders and boxes. Collections arrive in all sorts of conveyances--boxes are the most common--but some arrive in plastic bags or paper bags. Kirsten Michel brought her photographs to the library in a suitcase, which seems an apt metaphor for the legal and physical move into the collection's new home at the library. When the library accepts donations, we accept them as is, and then transfer the material into boxes and other housing that will safeguard it for the future. In this case, the rubber bands will be removed, the photos will be placed in archival storage, and an inventory will be made.

Some collections arrive piecemeal. There may be several reasons for that: boxes may have been stored in different places, perhaps there was too much material to bring in one trip, or maybe certain items were still of sentimental value to the donor and he wasn't ready to part with them. In the case of archival collections, we take care to note when and from whom the materials come, how much material is received, and its condition. Maintaining a paper trail helps should questions arise later about whether we received specific items, when, or from whom. In addition to the content of the collection itself, the underlying reasons for different accessions or accretions (additions) may serve to tell a story about the collection, too.

Intellectual responsibility may include handling copyright and any other rights connected with the content of the material. Most archives and libraries use a Deed of Gift to delineate the legal aspects of the transfer, since there are occasions when donors retain certain rights, such as copyright. The Deed of Gift provides information on how to handle specific questions or referrals. Similarly, records transferred from other city departments may include important information on what material is open for research, to whom, and when.

Thus far in Archives 101 we've explored appraisal and accessions. In our next installment, we'll address arrangement.

Zinesters Rise Up

Poster design by Jesse Reklaw
Courtesy San Francisco Zine Fest

Don't miss this weekend's 9th annual San Francisco Zine Fest, which takes place at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. You'll want to check out a wide range of  local zines, comix, artwork, workshops and panels. Meet the people behind the zines you love, learn about zine history, try your hand at silkscreening, or find out about DIY and small press journalism. It's all at the San Francisco Zine Fest.

While you're at it, why not make the Little Maga/Zine Collection your travel destination when visiting the city? Housed in San Francisco Public Library's Book Arts & Special Collections Center, this non-circulating research collection was founded by SFPL librarians, and opened to the public in the 1960s. The history of the alternative and underground press of the San Francisco Bay Area is documented here, with more than 4,000 items; the collection also includes ephemera and a reference collection. The Little Maga/Zine Collection is considered one of the most important collections of its kind in a public library. The collection is open to the public Tuesday through Thursday: 10-6; Friday: 12 Noon-6: Saturday: 10–6; Sunday: 12 Noon– 5. Closed Monday. We're always happy to accept donations of San Francisco zines.

                            

Mid-Century Madness

[Interior of the American Trust Company. 1959 Oct 20.] Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

Nostalgia - it's delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.
                                                                                                        - Don Draper, Mad Men

Those who have been following the AMC television series Mad Men know that the above quote refers to Don Draper's genius advertising strategy for a new type of slide projector, but he could just as easily have been talking about the show itself and the viewers' nostalgia for the 1960s America that it presents.

Many people come to the San Francisco History Center to search for stories from San Francisco's distant past, but there is plenty to study from the City's more recent history. If you're experiencing a "twinge" for mid-twentieth century nostalgia, come up and find what you're looking for on the 6th Floor. Here is a selection of materials to get you started:

Books -

• Mid-Century by the Bay by Heather M. David takes a look at the recent past "[f]rom the Bay Area's post-war suburbs ... to its futuristic commercial architecture and once numerous roadside attractions."
• Hi-Fi's & Hi-Balls: The Golden Age of the American Bachelor by Steven Guarnaccia and Bob Sloan. As Don Draper knows, "[t]he fifties and sixties were great times for the unattached and untrammeled single guy." Found in the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor.

BART -

While the nation was looking for a way to get astronauts to the moon, the Bay Area was creating a plan to get people to work. The San Francisco History Center has vertical files of information on Bay Area Rapid Transit; just ask for S.F. Transit. Rapid.

 Designs for BART cars from Industrial Design, October 1965 in the vertical file S.F. Transit. Rapid. Cars. The brochure states that, "[w]ith trains automatically timed to arrive at stations every 90 seconds during rush hours, BART is guaranteeing everyone of its passengers a seat."

Architecture -

From the suburbs to The City, we have plenty of resources to study for mid-century architecture:

• Eichler Homes: Design for Living by Jerry Ditto and Lanning Stern
• The vertical file S.F. Buildings. Hilton Hotel includes a special 16-page section of the SF Examiner that ran Friday, May 29, 1964, during the hotel's first week of operation.
• Architect and Engineer (through Nov. 1959, continued as Western Architect and Engineer through Dec. 1961)
• Arts and Architecture (Feb. 1944 - 1964, 1966 - July/Aug. 1967, fall 1981 - 1985)

Matches -

While we don't encourage Don and Betty Drapers' desire to 'light up' every few minutes, the SF Realia collection of Matchbooks can spark a brilliant trip down memory lane.

Tiki -

The fondness for all things Polynesian was alive and well in the mid-century Bay Area. Check out S.F. Menus for examples of the fare at Tiki Bobs, Trader Vic's, and the ever popular Tonga Room! Tiki may have become popular in the 1950s and 1960s, but the Tiki movement lives on in the San Francisco based zine Tiki News. Find it in the Little Maga/Zine Collection.

1964 cover of Tiki Bob's menu. Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.