Museums & Galleries in South San Francisco

Established more than a century ago inside Golden Gate Park, the Conservatory of Flowers houses a vibrant array of rare, exotic, and tropical plants and flowers. Mosey through the National Historic Landmark’s aquatic plants display, where peaceful sounds of cascading water complement the sight of giant Amazonian water lilies with pads up to 6 feet in diameter, leading to their frequent use as trampolines for spider monkeys. The highland tropics area invokes the appearance of misty cloud forests on tropical mountaintops blooming with hundreds of delicate orchids and a forest of stunted trees. A century-old giant philodendron resides in the lowland tropics display alongside the conservatory's cycads, which predate the dinosaurs and many veteran game-show hosts. The potted plants display shows off nature's bounty inside copper urns from India and hand-incised ceramic pots from Burkina Faso, and the temporary Playland at the Conservatory re-creates the historic Playland at the Beach from San Francisco's West End with model trains, miniature famous attractions, and memorabilia from the fair.

Since 1963, the Chinese Historical Society of America has collected the documents and artifacts that chronicle the history of Chinese American citizens. The society's permanent collections are typified by pieces such as One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in America, a vivid mural by Chinatown native James Leong that charts the progress of Chinese Americans over the course of 100 years. On a smaller scale, the Chinatown Miniatures Collection depicts three-dimensional scenes of San Francisco's Chinatown as it looked before artist Frank Wong built his shrink ray. Other exhibits change frequently, often in conjunction with special events hosted for members and their guests.

The museum can't contain every bit of Chinese American history, however. With that in mind, the society’s guides lead school groups on walking tours through the bustling streets and alleyways of San Francisco's Chinatown. Free from the confines of the museum, they point out the neighborhood’s distinct architectural landmarks and underlying social significance. Throughout the year, the museum also puts out publications such as the CHSA Bulletin, which chronicles different stories within the Chinese American community.

Established in 1968 in honor of Ernest Orlando Lawrence, UC-Berkeley's first Nobel laureate, The Lawrence Hall of Science aims to inspire the scientists and innovators of the future. Their hands-on exhibits allow children and adults to see and touch a fascinating variety of displays and projects. The animated, interactive Science On a Sphere globe, for example, uses actual scientific data to depict the expanding wave patterns of tsunamis and the massive storms triggered by thoughtless butterflies. To learn more about seismic activity, guests head to the Forces That Shape the Bay outdoor park to ride an earthquake simulator. Kids can climb atop a life-size model whale or through the double helix of a huge DNA sculpture, or work with students from the Berkeley Engineers and Mentors program to design and build a prototype in the Ingenuity Lab.

The museum also sparks imaginations with an interactive planetarium and 3-D theater. Its affiliation with the university makes it an ideal spot for educational camps and classes, as well as community events, including robotics competitions.

In the 1940’s, the Boeing School of Aeronautics hangar at Oakland International Airport’s North Field housed some of the company’s brightest aeronautical engineers. Their work produced several early Boeing planes, including the Thorp T-3 and T-5, both of which are now on display thanks to the hangar’s current resident, the Oakland Aviation Museum.

Most of the museum’s exhibits focus on celebrating local aviation history, such as The American Legion’s involvement in the Bay Area and the history of native Californian and Medal of Honor awardee General James “Jimmy” Doolittle. However, the museum’s collection of aircraft features a broader mix, including a replica of the Wright Brothers’ EX Vin Fiz, a TAV-8A Herrier that can take off and land vertically, and the Short Solent III flying boat that was used in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

More interactive sites include flight simulators, a kid’s area, a research library, and occasional Open Cockpit Days that let visitors climb into the cockpit of a real Korean fighter jet and turn the radio up really loud. The knowledgeable staff operates the museum with the goal of both educating visitors about aviation’s proud history on the West Coast and throughout the U.S., as well as to inspire visitors by linking aviation’s past to the future of aeronautical invention.

1903 was the year of the first transatlantic radio broadcast, which sent a message from President Theodore Roosevelt in Cape Cod to King Edward VII of England on a cold January night. That same year, San Francisco Chronicle editorial writer Edward F. Adams founded The Commonwealth Club as a public service, spreading political and cultural savvy among laymen via discourse. Prevailing human rights discussions gained a larger audience in 1924 via a weekly radio broadcast that is the oldest in the nation, and the establishment of the California Book Awards in 1931 encouraged John Steinbeck and Amy Tan to develop their art.

Today, a talkative group of 18,000 members supports the non-profit, which in turn enriches their dinner table conversations with panel discussions on the current president or "Capitalism in an Era of Climate Change." Breaking news arrives straight from the source with lectures from neuroscientist David Eagleman and political commentator Rachel Maddow, as well as from the effervescent babble of Jefferson's cup of knowledge.