Finding Aid to the San Francisco Recreation Department Records, 1927-1986 (bulk 1935-1951),
SFH 375
Wendy Kramer, Rene Radusky and San Francisco History Center staff
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
sfhistory@sfpl.org
April 27, 2022
Note
Finding aid originally created in 2015. Revised in 2022 to incorporate additional materials received.
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Title: San Francisco Recreation Department records
Date (inclusive): 1927-1986
Date (bulk): 1935-1951
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 375
Creator:
San Francisco (Calif.). Recreation and Park Department.
Physical Description:
4 cartons, 4 oversized boxes
(10.73 cubic feet)
Abstract: This collection is primarily visual documentation of the programmatic activities of the San Francisco Recreation Department.
Subjects pertain to administrative units of the department and include materials related to music, dance, drama, costuming,
holiday celebrations, pageants, doll shows and puppetry.
Physical Location: The collection is stored on site.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.
Access
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk
hours. Collections that are stored offsite should be requested 48 hours in advance.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], San Francisco Recreation Department Records, (SFH 375), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco
Public Library.
Provenance
The bulk of the collection was received in 2014 from the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, successor organization
to the San Francisco Recreation Department. Additional materials were donated by Robin Russell in 2018 (Lydia Patzelt materials)
and the Recreation and Parks Department in 2021 (Drama and Dance division files including scripts).
Processing Information
Processed by Wendy Kramer with additional processing by Tami J. Suzuki.
Organizational/Historical note
The history of the San Francisco Recreation Department can be traced to the 1860s, when the Department of Streets, Sewers,
and Squares began publishing Municipal Reports including expenditures on park improvements. A Park Commission under the jurisdiction
of the State of California was established in 1871, in part to oversee the development of Golden Gate Park. By 1900 the City
took over the Park Commission under the Home Rule Charter. In 1907 a separate Playground Commission was approved by voters.
The Playground Commission became the Recreation Commission in 1932, to support the establishment of the San Francisco Recreation
Department, which had become a municipal department in 1926. The history of services in San Francisco can be divided into
three periods: 1) 1907-1911 when the Playground Commission was established and the first playgrounds were built; 2) 1911-1926
when budgetary imperatives and uneven growth could not meet the demand for sports and other recreation programming at city
facilities; and 3) 1926-1950 when the city had a dedicated Recreation Department. In 1950 the Parks Department and Recreation
Department consolidated.
The history and development of the San Francisco Recreation Department is tied to the work of one of the first women to supervise
a major recreation department, Josephine Dows Randall who became the first Superintendent of Recreation in San Francisco in
1926, holding the position until 1951. After earning a BA and MA in Zoology from Stanford University, she became the Director
of Playgrounds in San Diego in 1913 and the Mid-West and Pacific Coast field representative for the National Recreation Association
in 1920. After conducting a study for the Special Committee on Recreation of the Council of Social and Health Agencies of
San Francisco from November 1924 through March 1925, she was named to the position she held for 25 years.
The 1930s were a golden age of municipal recreation, and playground expansion and improvement in San Francisco. Under Josephine
Randall's leadership, the community recreation program included drama groups, music clubs, dance programs, a community orchestra,
costume-making shops, puppetry groups, doll shows and recreation for commercial and industrial workers, including the 300,000
war industry workers flooding into San Francisco during World War II. She also initiated recreation programs in public housing
developments and successfully implemented community and school-based programs with the Chief of Police, the Chief Probation
Officer, and the Superintendent of Schools designed to reduce juvenile delinquency. The department was known for implementing
a high quality professional development program for staff.
By the time she resigned her position in 1951, in opposition to the proposed consolidation of the Recreation and Park Department,
San Francisco Recreation Department services had become part of a larger social reform movement designed to promote the health,
well-being, character development and participatory citizenship of urban dwellers.
Scope and Contents
This collection is primarily visual documentation of the programmatic activities of the San Francisco Recreation Department.
Materials date from 1927-1986; the bulk from 1935-1959. Subjects pertain to administrative units of the department and include
materials related to: music, dance, drama, costuming, holiday celebrations, pageants, doll shows and puppetry. Material related
to the department's participation in the Golden Gate International Exhibition (GGIE) and joint UNESCO programming is also
included. Some Drama division administrative files were added in 2022, including files of Lydia Patzelt who served as the
division's supervisor in the 1940s and 1950s.
Photographs and ephemera consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, holiday plays and skit scripts, music and dance scores,
scrapbooks, puppets, dolls, costumes, flyers, playbills, instructional material, press releases and background research material.
Scrapbooks compiled by department staff include photographs as well as newspaper clipppings from the 1920s through 1940s,
and provide an insider's view of the development of the department during those decades. Along with dolls and puppets is visual
documentation of three destroyed dolls that were displayed at the 1939-1940 world's fair, the GGIE.
This collection does not contain meeting minutes, agendas, budgets or other financial records. Other three-dimensional materials,
dolls and puppets deemed in poor condition were not accepted into the collection.
Arrangement
Material is arranged by subject series and then chronologically, by date.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Parks -- California -- San Francisco.
Recreation -- California -- San Francisco.
Randall, Josephine D.
San Francisco (Calif.). Recreation and Park Department -- Archives.
Series 1
Music Department,
1940-1945 and undated
Box 1, folder 1
Music Album Photographs
1940s
Processing Information Note
Materials were separated from a photo album and placed in a file folder along with a copy of the album cover.
Box 1, folder 2
Music Photographs
undated
Series 2
Drama and Dance Division
Biographical Note
Lydia Patzelt was the Drama and Dance division supervisor in the 1940s and 1950s.
Box 1, folder 3
Dramatics Album Ephemera
1935-1951
1935-1951
Proccessing Information note
Materials were separated from a photo album and placed in a file folder along with a copy of the album cover.
Box 7
Folk Dance Costume Correspondence for Golden Gate International Exposition
1937
Box 1, folder 4
Dramatics Album Golden Gate International Exhibition
1939 or 1940
Processing Information note
Materials were separated from an album and placed in a file folder along with a copy of the album cover.
Box 1, folder 5
Dramatics Album Photographs
1940s
Processing Information note
Materials were separated from a photo album and placed in a file folder along with a copy of the album cover.
Box 1, folder 6
Doll Show Photographs
1947-1964 and undated
Box 1, folder 7
Doll Shows
1950s
1950-1957
Box 1, folder 8
Puppet Teaching San Francisco
1927-1940 and undated
Box 1, folder 9
Puppet Teaching WPA NYC
1937-1939
1937-1939
Box 1, folder 10
Cinderella Pageant Photographs
1937
Box 4
Children's Costumes
undated
Box 2
Costuming Research
undated
Box 1, folder 13
Doll Documentation
1939 or 1940
Box 1, folder 14
Dancing Album Photographs
1940s
Processing Information note
Materials were separated from a photo album and placed in a file folder along with a copy of the album cover.
Box 1, folder 15
Dance Photographs
1943-1949 and undated
Box 1, folder 16
Bellydancing
1983
Scope and Contents note
Photographs and negatives of Hoda's Belly Dance Class, Sunset Recreation Center.
Box 1, folder 17
Dance Scripts
1940s and 1950s
Box 8
Subseries 2.3
Administrative Files
Costume Inventory,
1944-1951
Paper Costume Information
Costume Request Memorandum,
1944
In-Service Training,
1949
In-Service Training,
1971
Junior Drama, Recreation Arts Building,
1968-1969
Performance Standards and Supervisor's Duties,
1960
Pianists Budget,
1959-1961
Recreation and Park Department News Bulletins,
August-September 1951
Recreation and Park Department Plan for Action,
1971
Recreation Week,
1961-1966
San Francisco Doll Club,
1952-1973
Box 1, folders 27-38
Subseries 2.4
Lydia Patzelt Files,
1943-1951
Event Programs,
1943-1954
Summer Program Booklets,
1946-1949
In-service Training Course
1951
News Clippings,
1949-1954
Newsletters,
San Francisco Recreation,
1943-1950
Related Materials
A more complete set of the newsletter can be found in the library's catalog.
Photography Activities,
1949-1950
Press Release (of KCBS Radio), Glen Park Recreation
Photographs
Restriction
Gloves required. Photographs cannot be photocopied.
Box 1, folder 18-19
Christmas Scripts
undated
Box 1, folder 20
Christmas Research
1935-1944 and undated
Box 1, folder 21
Easter Scripts
1969-1975
1972-1973
Processing Information note
Materials were removed from a binder and placed in a file folder.
Box 1, folder 22
May Day Photographs
1958-1960
1958-1960
Box 1, folder 23
May Day Programs
1951-1964
1951-1964
Box 2
Scrap Book I
1920s and 1930s
Processing Information note
Materials were separated from a scrapbook and placed in mylar envelopes.
Box 1, folder 24-25
Scrap Book II
1920s, 1930s and 1940s
Processing Information note
Materials were separated from a scrapbook and placed in mylar envelopes