Recommendation to Receive an Annual Report on the Alameda Museum Archival Activities on Behalf of the City. (Recreation and Parks 280)
Okay. Archival activities. Yes. Okay. And I believe that's being presented by Recreation and Parks director Amy Baldridge. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Amy Wooldridge. Record the museum first rate. Oh yeah. Is it same person but different. Different presentation. You could do that. Which I'm so. Sorry. Jumping ahead. This is the Alameda Museum presentation. I am actually deferring to the president of the board of the Alameda Museum, Valerie Turpin. Oh, yeah. There she is. All right, come on at Ms.. Turpin. I think I last saw you at the home tour. Yes. Oh, right, right. See? So see if I can see if I know how to use this. Yes. All right. Good evening, Council and mayor. I'm Valerie Turpin. I am currently president of the Alameda Museum, which I took that position earlier this year. I had previously served on the board as secretary and been involved for several years. So I wanted to tell you. A brief. History of the museum, but mostly about what we were doing at the museum. The Alameda Museum was started as the Alameda Historical Society in 1948 by Frank Kroll, longtime city assessor in 1951, with help from Yes, 1951, with help from the city and the library board, the museum was first housed in the basement of the Carnegie Library . The museum then moved to the former auto body shop at Alameda High School, where it remained until 1991. The museum moved to a larger space at the Masonic Lodge building on Alameda Avenue in 1991. Then this is where we reside today. The museum holds city records that the public can research. We have exhibits covering a variety of topics and people that lived here. We have a gift shop which features books and videos about Alameda and donated items that the public donate to our shop. And we use that as a fundraising effort. We manage the historic Maya's house and garden. Our exhibits shown in two halls and the archives we accept must be relevant to the city of Alameda. Our history begins with artifacts of the Allen Tribe, our first inhabitants, and proceed with displays on city departments, city schools, our industrial history factories and maritime transportation, and the famed Neptune Beach, as well as personal histories. Of course, we feature our city founders and leaders, but we also feature the stories of residents such as Harold Gonzalez, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in World War Two. Ida Clinton, an early African-American resident who attended Alameda High School. We have the tools of woodworker John Unkovic, who built furniture to fund his emigration to the U.S. and settle in Alameda. And we even have the history of a local mom whose name was Phyllis Diller. She lived in Alameda when she started her comedy career. She donated some of her personal items a few years ago to the museum. And I recently discovered that our museum display is featured on her Wikipedia page. That was a surprise. Many items are visible in displays, but what the public sees during a visit is only part of what is available. Our searchable records are in the warehouse at the back of the building. When an archive is received, a form is filled out explaining its history. Its physical description is cataloged with the number and it is stored in a protected manner. The museum also has artifacts restored in the case of the portrait of RR Thompson, who built our water system shown here. Mold had started to grow on the edge of the. Photo. And this is being professionally treated as commonplace. Water because. In the warehouse we have shelving and drawers specifically made for maps and large leather bound books. City Assessor Records Date from 1852. Our collection of leather bound newspapers date from MM first newspaper The Post started in 1869. These books are reaching 150 years in age, so they are starting to crumble. The bindings are starting to come apart from much use. So we're going to look into this restoration of those many physical objects in our collection are stored in acid free boxes as the fraternal sash shown here. Research is available in the warehouse on Saturdays from 11 to 4. Curator George Gunn or another volunteer assist in retrieving records of interest. We offer a space to look at documents and ask that you use a pencil only that we usually provide to write with. Local authors frequently visit the museum for information. Shown here are books produced from that research. The most popular books requested by visitors are those of our Victorian and Edwardian residences. Anyone interested in the history of their home starts here at the museum, which is something I immediately did when I bought my home here in 1998. I heard, Go to the museum. Look at these books. It will tell you all those secrets of your house. The museum receives numerous phone calls and emails each year from people doing research. I personally have responded to inquiries from Britain, Canada, other states and of course, our own town. I recently provided an image of the gas station which sat on Phillip NEARY School's garden site to the instructor there. Also, I have sent a list of city monuments to a local Montessori schoolteacher so she could take her kids on a tour. The museum's photographic archives are a major resource of visual history. Many of us have seen images of Park Street, Webster Street and Neptune Beach, but in our archives also are images of people, buildings and our museum. Quarterly features never before images of Alameda. Shown here is the high street water wells where Thompson Avenue is today and refugees after the 1906 earthquake. Living in tents at the Elks Camp on their property, it is our goal to fill the newsletter with interesting stories of local people, events and neighborhoods in hopes that our readers are always learning something new about the city they live in. The Myers House and Garden was the family home of noted Bay Area architect Henry Miers. The grounds contain the family home, a garage, architecture studio and the carriage house. His three daughters were successful women in their own right, and they lived at the home throughout their lives. Janette was the manager of the Dry Creek Ranch. Mildred was an architect, and Edith, a physician who had a hand in starting Girls Inc here in the city. The museum maintains the house and the grounds, and volunteers offer tours monthly. At the main museum, we offer tours for schools. Our past president, Dennis Evans, has continued to provide guidance for visiting classes. Groups have included retirement communities and museum groups from other cities. And we we've had various tours over the years for all of these. The museum has a lecture series which I've provided a hand out also for you to look at tonight. This year the Transcontinental Railroad was included, which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its completion. Black military history and the Port Chicago tragedy was covered. Led by an NHS veteran who leads a black military reenactment group, Alamy, two sports legends focused on players from the Japanese Baseball League here in Alameda. We had a large turnout by the Japanese community, who had a really great time reminiscing, telling stories of their family and sharing memorabilia. The Museum and the Architectural Preservation Society hold the Legacy Home Tour in September. The event staffed by 140 volunteers of both organizations this year and the general public, raises awareness of Almeida's architectural heritage and promotes preservation efforts among homeowners. Over 800 people attended this year. And thank you, Mayor, for being a docent in the General Electric House. For the past three years, the museum has staffed a booth at San Francisco History Del. Days held at the old Mint. This has been a terrific opportunity to not only promote our museum, but the five museums we have here in town which are listed here. On this slide, we talk about Alameda. In general, people have lots of questions. It used to be, where's Alameda? But it has turned to. Yes, I've been there. I visited a certain location. We have a wonderful portable display and we pass out walking tour maps of the city, which we also have available at the museum for free. Patrons are donated, donating significant items to our collection lately. We've acquired a coastal scene by Hugo Melville Fisher, whose artistic family settled here in 1886. His works are held in the Oakland Museum and the DeYoung We've gained another piece by artist Edwin Siegfried, which included these Canadian geese shown here. And this just proves to me that they were at home here in the 1800s just as much as they are today. We received original portraits of the Cohens from their great granddaughter shown here. And dinnerware. That was from the Fern site estate, which had ended up in New Zealand. And this was returned to the museum. In 2019, our board retained longtime members and acquired new members with experience in historical research, internship programs and technology. We are currently in the process of electing five new board members for 2020. I was very excited to see the response we had from our ad in the Alameda Sun and on Facebook. We had really strong interest from the public and everyone we interviewed had great ideas and really strong candidates. It was hard to pick only five. So on our agenda for the future, we're hoping to create a rotating exhibit space to keep new exhibits happening for people to visit. Address Almeida's diverse population with topics showcasing cultures that contribute to our city history. Our photo archives have been scanned by a student from the College of Alameda, but we don't have a searchable database for that currently, and we also don't have a searchable database for our archive catalog. So that's something we're actually talking to someone about programs this week. We'd like to continue recording oral histories from the community and strengthen our internship program. We've had interns from the high school, the college and people doing master thesis, and we'd like to organize that more and continue with that. The Imelda Merlin book shown here, Alameda A Geographical History is out of print. This book was sold by the museum for many years and is carried in the reference section at the library. Although it was written in 1964 and is outdated in many ways, it still contains substantial historic content about the development of Alameda. We are almost finished with an e-book version and I'm guessing that may be up in the next couple of weeks on our website where we plan to post that. Our future plans are substantial and they are time consuming and will require funding. The museum has one paid employee, our curator George Glenn, and the museum mostly relies on many volunteers who devote their time to community outreach and making the museum an educational place to visit. The Alameda Museum has been preserving the past for the future since 1948. Tonight, I hope the City Council will continue to support us in making our history accessible to the public and sharing what has made Alameda a unique city in the Bay Area with others. So thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Pyne? This man asked. Me, so thank you. I want to thank Ms.. Turpin. She and I met yesterday morning and discussed a few things. I'm curious. I know we talked about this yesterday, but if you were able to get any more information about kind of accessing the archive and how many people are doing that every year. Okay. And I do have our curator here with us. Do you have a number? He can come on up to the microphone. So, yes, generally Saturdays, because we like to have someone overseeing the work being done and be with the person in the archives and we get out the items for them. Some of them are they're heavy, they're on big rollers shelves. And so we don't expect people to just look around and find it themselves. Come on, Mr. Guy, we just have a little more time for this item. Do you have a number of people, do you think that come? We have a lot of. If you could speak into the microphone and everyone can hear you. We have a lot of people that come in about their. Homes and. They want to restore them. They want to know the history behind it, which. Took me 15 years to produce a book chronicling these houses because we didn't have permits in Alameda until May of 1909. Before 1909, you just built, there was no rules. And when they did finally produce a building codes, they took up two pages in the newspaper. So not to rush you, because it is always fascinating to listen to you. But the question the vice mayor posed was, I believe, do you know how many people at least approximately access the museum's archives each year to see the city's archives in the museum? We have them sign a guestbook. So maybe we should start with the guestbook notating. That's. What they the purpose that they came to the museum for. The museum is the first introduction to Alameda history visually. And there's so much that we can cover in such a small area. But I'm always amazed at the things that are given. And again, as our president says, we don't accept things that don't have a connection to aluminum. And just to thank you. Vice Mayor, anything further? Well, I just want I want to thank you all for the work that you do. But at the same time, and I raise this concern yesterday, we live in one of the most diverse communities in the East Bay. And, you know, I would really like as as the city is 20 on funding, 25% of the budget of the museum on an annual basis. You know, and I believe this is the only community group that we are providing funding for. That's not a nonprofit that's providing direct services and whatever else. My hope is that as we do these annual things, we'll be able to start seeing kind of some change in our. You know, I'd like to see, you know, kind of how are we doing outreach to the communities of Alameda. We're 36% Asian American in Alameda. And I notice, you know, I appreciate the lecture series, but there is one out of the 17 lectures that have been given in the last three years that has somewhat of a focus on, you know, that part of our history, the history in Alameda of the way in which Japanese Americans were you know, I know you've had special. Presentation. Special presentations, etc., on those. But I worry because you're right, they are. I mean, a museum is the place where people get their introduction to Alameda. And I really do. I am I'm a little concerned that there's a good chunk and an important chunk of our of our history that is missing. You're talking to somebody that agrees with you thoroughly. Great. But you cannot depict any subject if you don't have items in which to illustrate it. I let him finish. And then. This is what we're. Trying to do. The average person my age don't think that they have a history and we're trying to train them to give things of their period rather than the 1800s, you know, the 19th century. Early 20th century. Yes. And when we get these items, we're we will display them. But it's training the public that the period in which they lived, lived is important. We do have two displays on this African-American family that came here in 1889, and they were allowed to buy property with no problem. And then we have a young man that was killed in in the war. Yeah. And what was it? About a week. Before the war. So and we appreciate that. And I just want to make sure I hear from our council members before we need to move on to the next item. Councilmember Vela, I want to hear from Heather. So I am to echo the vice mayors point or to add on to it, I do know that there are a couple places in Alameda that do have a robust collection of items related to the Japanese-American internment. And I would love to make sure that you get connected with them. Reverend Yoshi at the United Methodist Church has facilitated the collection, and there's a number of members of his congregation who. You grew up in Alameda and were interned and who whose stories they have started to collect. And I think that would be a nice partnership. I would also recommend connecting with the Buddhist temple of Alameda. They also have a display and items. And I and I know that there are a number of families I've gone to see presentations there by folks. And I think it would be nice to, you know, find some way to partner together. I know that they both both places have a number of items that have been donated and both oral and written stories and histories from Alameda. And we I have been talking to the the board and members of the Masonic Lodge because there is a building behind us that is now empty that they own, but they want $7,000 a month rent and it only take several hundred thousand dollars to improve the property. But see, when that is actually not before us tonight, we're just accepting. But I'm just telling you that we have we are trying to expand. So you'd like more space. Too, you know, and because we have. Again, so many items. Great. So I want to hear from any councilmember. Is it still want to speak? Okay. Back to you, Vice Mayor. So I wanted to thank you. I do understand, especially as a curator, you can only curate the things that you have. And I did want to just point out, though, I know you have a new board you have new board members coming in all the time. If you're going to, I think, build trust with the community to encourage them to bring the bring items in, making sure that members of those community are part of the leadership and a major part of the leadership is an extremely important thing. And I guess as we move forward, I would love to hear a little bit more about the proactive steps, not just ads in the paper or ads on Facebook with Proctor Steps going out and building that trust and communication. It would be would be very important because I think that, you know, the museum should tell the story of Alameda. The story of Alameda is very broad and very deep. And I think, you know, as I look at that, that great photos of the kids in the presentation, I don't see what is being presented to them as the Alameda history is reflecting the actual history of the kids that are in that in that thing. So it's just a comment. I'm not asking you to do anything, but. But I will be. No, you know, I appreciate. Thank you for your. Observations. We need to know that. And I'll just add that when I'm appointing members to the city's boards and commissions, I've tried to make sure as best I can. I mean, you can't always just handpick who you want, but I've had pretty good success making our boards and commissions look like our city. So we're not an all white city, and we are certainly a different city now than we were in the past. But I think to the vice mayor's point that I'm not trying to put words in his mouth. It would be nice going forward if you could make a point of reaching out. If we can if we can. Illustrate magic. Yeah, well, even getting a more of an access, I shouldn't say that I don't know about your board, but you know what, everyone, I've got people in the audience waiting for a couple more agenda items. And we really appreciate your time. I encourage everyone to visit the museum. It's fascinating. What we're being asked to do is to accept the to receive the annual report on the museum activities on behalf of the city. Do we want a motion or is that just direction? No emotion. Okay. And so I. Okay, I do have come it. Cause. Me I've been I been the curator for 47 years. Yeah. So I'm. I'm not a beginner. Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember de SAG to accept the report. I'll second and I'll make an appointment. And that's been seconded by Councilmember o.T. Any further discussion? All in favor. I opposed abstain and the report is accepted unanimously. Thank you so much for coming tonight. Sure. Thank you so much for letting us present. And thank you for your motion. And we are listening. We are listening, Mr. White. Absolutely. I am sure you are. Thank you. Okay, counsel. Important decision to make. Do you want a quick break now or should we hear the study first? Because I do think we have a number of speakers in the audience, but I will defer to my colleagues. I'm happy to continue. Okay. Take this item and then do break. Okay. Okay. Come on back, Mr. Aldridge. Okay. So now, Madam Kirk, can you introduce the next item. Please? Yes. A public hearing for me to consider adoption of resolution amending Master P resolution number 12191 to add and revise recreation and park fees. So what we do is we'll hear the staff report first and then I believe we have public speakers and we'll hear public speakers and then the council will deliberate and take a vote. So this work, I guess yourself. Thank you, Mayor. Amy Aldridge, Recreation and Parks Director. So tonight you have before you the to the 2020 recreational park user fee schedule. This comes before you on a separate rotation from the rest of your citywide fees. They implement the fees implement for January 1st, 2020 except for fee for rentals, facility rentals generally be it picnics, club gym fields that are already reserved. So they implement throughout the year as as new bookings come up. So this recommendation comes before you. It was everything you see before you was recommended by the Recreation and Parks Commission. It was put together after looking at other comparable recreation programs in nearby cities, as well as, in some cases, local