Book Shelf: The Internet Archive and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition

You can stroll through the the Panama Pacific Exposition vicariously by perusing these three publications I found on the Internet Archive.

First there's the "Official Guide" filled with everything a visitor would have wanted to know about the Exposition including black and white images of various buildings, a list of paintings for sale in the Fine Arts Building,* maps of the exposition and ending with a list of all the plants on display throughout the grounds.

[The Official Guide Book of the Panama-California Exposition San Diego 1915
The Internet Archive, contributed by The Committee of One Hundred]

Next from the Library of Congress there's an "Official Publication" that is filled with hand-colored photographs of the Exposition.

[Official publication : Panama California International Exposition, San Diego 1916 : hand-colored
The Internet Archive, contributed by the Library of Congress]

The Library of Congress is also the source of "Exposition Memories" that has perhaps too much text devoted to local poets and authors (and not enough pictures of Balboa Park). However I appreciated the photograph of Juanita Miller in costume and the description of the "garland dance" she performed on November 16th, the day of celebration of her father, the poet Joaquin Miller.**

[Exposition memories by James, George Wharton, 1858- [from old catalog]; Tyler, Bertha Bliss. [from old catalog]

*Sadly the prices of the paintings (which included those of Childe Hassam, George Bellows and Maurice Prendergast, among others) was not printed in this guide although a price list was available to visitors upon request.
**A description of her dance is to be found on page 65.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday Drive: Currey

Because sometimes the Sunday drive is in a boat...the Curreys boat (left) next to their friend Herb's in San Diego harbor in the winter of 1931, perhaps at the Southwestern Yacht Club which they belonged to at the time.*

[Photos from my personal collection]

A year earlier, Harold had been named as Port Captain for the yacht club.

[Sunday, December 7, 1930   Paper: San Diego Union (San Diego, California)   Page: 21  

This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Bit of Sweden Restaurant in San Diego

It's amazing what you can find on the Internet!  An image Bit of Sweden in 1966 from a postcard (wasn't much different when I went there during the 1970's).

Every now and again I think about going to Bit of Sweden with my dad and Grandmother (Margaret Fister Hartley) as a child.  Grandmother's parents Ben and Mary were from Norway, and Grandmother's mysterious maternal grandfather, Gustav Andersson Bergehoin, was from Sweden.


As a kid I never thought to ask Grandmother if this was like the food her mom cooked, although I always assumed it was.

Bit of Sweden featured in a 1953 Food Basket ad (talk about blast from the past).  "Another Food Basket "Super Service" Mary Morgan reveals first of Famous-Restaurant Recipes; This Week: "Bit of Sweden," advertisement, San Diego Union, 22 Jan 1953; Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 8 Aug 2015).

They sold shoes beginning about 1965!  "Shoe Sales in a Restaurant?," advertisement, San Diego Union, 6 Feb 1970, p. 23; Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 8 Aug 2015).

I likely ate his cooking when I went to Bit of Sweden.  "Harry Prather Succumbs at 87," obituary, 18 Feb 1980, page 24; Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 8 Aug 2015).

I wonder if this Chicago Bit of Sweden was from the same people?  So now I wonder, did Grandmother eat there in Chicago?  She did work in Chicago in the 1930's as a secretary, where she met and married my grandfather George Hartley, Jr (1907-1977):

"Favorite Swedish Dishes Provide Changes," San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram, 15 Apr 1936, page 9; Genealogybank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 8 Aug 2015).

Image of the Bit of Sweden's entrance from Dan Soderberg's 2007 blog post Little Sweden, where he commented: "I remember when Bit Of Sweden at 2850 El Cajon Blvd. was open for business. I probably ate there. It is now a banquet facility for rent. And sometimes it is also referred to as Vasa Hall or Club."

A shadow of its former self.  On the corner of El Cajon and Utah.  From Google Maps Street View, March 2015.

You can get a similar food experience now at Ikea.  I love this kind of food, and I suspect you can go to Illinois and Minnesota and find places like this now.  Scandinavian smorgasbords are hard to find here in San Diego.

Now I'm really hungry.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

San Diego Views: From the California Building

Thanks to the caption below these two photos, we know where the almost-19-year-old Harold Delbert Currey* went on that Saturday in 1921 and what he saw.

[From my personal collection]

Now housing Balboa Park's Museum of Man, the tower of the California Building is once again open to the public.

*He was born on December 31, 1902.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Bernice Evangeline Grenfell (1902 - 1980)

I'm resting on my laurels today. In case you missed my posts last week honoring the 113th birthday (on June 17th) of the mother who raised me, you can find them here: one, two, three, four, five, and six.

[Bernice at Mission Cliffs Gardens on April 16, 1922, photo from my personal collection]

Learn more about Mission Cliffs Gardens, where the above snapshot was taken, in this video:

[Profiles San Diego's Mission Cliff Gardens, a once-popular and world-famous park that experienced its heyday in the early 20th Century. Produced and edited by Andy Tolley.]

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

San Diego Views: La Playa

This photo (probably taken about 1920*) proves that Coronado wasn't the only place in San Diego where you could pitch a tent to be near the water.

[From the Currey family photo album in my personal collection]

*But certainly no earlier than 1912 because the flag has 48 stars. Someone who knows more about the history of the development of Ft. Rosecrans on Point Loma could date this more precisely.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.