Exhibits, Programs & Lectures
Randolph Delehanty has curated numerous museum exhibits and designed accompanying public and school programs while working with the Presidio Trust in San Francisco and the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans. They include historical, architectural, art, and environmental exhibits created with colleagues and partners. Craig Middleton, Michael Boland, Kay Voyvodich and Tia Lombardi were important supporters of his work at the Presidio. All Presidio Trust exhibits are copyrighted by The Presidio Trust. Below are highlights from some of his exhibits.
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Featured Exhibits
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War & Dissent: The U.S. in the Philippines, 1898-1915
An exhibition with public programs at the Presidio Trust, Golden Gate National Recreation Area
October 22, 2008 to February 22, 2009
Traveled to the National Museum of the Filipino People, Manila, Philippines
December 3, 2009 to March 7, 2010 with the support of Victoria and Victor Lopez and the Lopez of Balayan, Batangas Foundation.
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This exhibit began with a gift and a question. Mr. Allan Harlow, the grandson of Sgt. Hiram Harlow of the 51st Iowa Volunteer U.S. Infantry, donated his grandfather’s diary to the Presidio Trust Library because Sgt. Harlow had trained in San Francisco. Mr. Harlow wanted to know why his grandfather was in the Philippines in 1898-99.
As the historian at the Presidio Trust (an innovative federal agency charged with preserving the historic Presidio of San Francisco guarding the Golden Gate), I instantly saw how one soldier’s experience opened the door to the enormous transformation that the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine War (once known as the Philippine Insurrection) worked on the U.S. Army post at the Presidio of San Francisco, on America’s place in the world, and on the Philippines. These were destructive and divisive wars. A naval war to liberate one of the last vestiges of the Spanish Empire turned into a land war waged by the U.S. Army against the struggling-to-be-born Philippine Republic. Sharp dessert erupted in the U.S. when President McKinley decided to make the archipelago an American colony. Mark Twain and other dissenters saw this as a fateful shift from a republic of citizens based on the consent of the governed to an imperial, colonial system whereby the U.S. ruled subject peoples. Most Americans, and many Filipinos, know very little about these fateful wars. My exhibit examined that tragic conflict from multiple U.S. and Filipino points of view. Within the U.S. the split was between the imperialists (Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt and other expansionists) and the anti-imperialists, notably Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League. The Filipino American National Historical Society in the Bay Area enriched my perspective and lent materials for the exhibit. They alerted me to the Lopez Letters, an extraordinary series of letters written mostly by Clemencia Lopez, one of four sisters and six brothers, children of a coffee and sugar planter who was an early advocate of Philippine independence from Spain. The Lopez siblings were tight-knit and held a variety of political opinions from fighting for independence, to attempted neutrality, to cooperation with the occupying U.S. Army. Twenty-four year old Clemencia journeyed to Washington to argue for Philippine independence before congressional committees. Her letters back-and-forth to her siblings are a day-by-day record of the struggles of the Filipinos as they were happening. The exhibit included maps, drawings, photographs, graphics, art works, letters, a diary, uniforms, postage stamps, artifacts, original political cartoons, and word clouds. The exhibit occupied 9 galleries at the Presidio Officers’ Club:
The close of the exhibit summarized the consequences of the war and featured Daniel Burnham’s grandiose visions for an imperial Presidio; the Caribbean as an American lake with the Panama Canal Zone; the annexation of Hawaii and American Samoa, Guam, Wake Island, and Midway Island; and Later Landmarks in U.S.-Philippine Relations: Independence, Military Bases and Immigration. The panel covered the Great White Fleet calling at San Francisco; World Empires in their Heyday, 1905; and Peking and the “Boxers” in 1900. The United States was now a Caribbean and Pacific Ocean colonial power. Programs Accompanying the Exhibition:
The National Park Service recreated an army encampment of the period in the park. National Park Service Rangers and Docents also led walking tours of San Francisco National Cemetery where many Philippine War soldiers are buried, Buffalo Soldiers in a Jim Crow Army, and tours of buildings in the park built as a result of the Philippine War that transformed the post including Letterman Hospital. The gallery plan and the complete text of the exhibit appear in the box to the left. |
Plants + Insects | Art + Science
Through the Green Fuse: The Cameraless Photography of Robert Buelteman
The Lives of Insects: The Close-up Photography of Edward S. Ross, PhD
Presidio Officers’ Club Exhibition Hall
August 15 to November 19, 2006
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This exhibit, and accompanying programs, presents two contrasting ways that photographers look at Nature. Artist Robert Bueletman’s 24 large color photographs, made without a camera or lens, presents plants in a way never seen before. This new work shows how a creative person can change his or her art mid-career.
Scientist Edward S. Ross’ 80 scientific, patiently photographed close-ups alter the viewer’s sense of scale and reveal intimate details about the lives on insects. Dr. Ross’ life exemplifies how one grade-school teacher can trigger a childhood fascination that leads to a lifetime’s work in science. Six Wednesday evening talks explored camera-less photography, the lives of insects, the Presidio as an island of biodiversity, invasive plants, the evolution of insects, and monarch butterfly migration. Seven Saturday programs brought artists and scientists into the gallery. Seven walks with experts in the Presidio explored the plants and insects in the park. “In beauty of displays, thoughtfulness of layout, clarity of presentation, educational enlightenment, and moral earnestness of underlying motivation, this exhibit can hardly be bettered. The more I look, the longer I look. The more I see, the more I learn. I find myself at the verge of an emotional wave, the primary sense of which is gratitude. The artistic mating in this exhibit of Dr. Ross’ insect photographs with the artwork of Robert Buelteman on plants and Kochi Hara’s oak sculptures [North Brother and South Brother] is quite sublime.” Comment in visitors’ book, August 31, 2006 |
Before the Bridge:
Sight and Sound at the Golden Gate
An exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary of the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge
May 23 to November 18, 2012 / 103 Montgomery Street Barracks
Presidio of San Francisco / Golden Gate Nation Parks
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“Open Your Golden Gate!”
The entrance to the San Francisco Bay is one of the most dramatic harbor entrances In the world. This exhibit of sight and sound celebrates the incomparable Golden Gate Strait. It has given its name to the iconic bridge whose 75th anniversary we Mark this year (2012). From a window in the North Gallery, you can glimpse the Gate and the bridge. Other museums are telling the story of the bridge. This exhibit and its accompanying programs explore the waters and lands that frame it. It surveys the dramatic geology, unique fog patterns, eventful history, art and poetry of the Golden Gate Strait itself. The Golden Gate is not only scenic; it is also hidden, dangerous, commercially important and strategic. Military installations long commanded, and preserved, The high grounds that flank it. When advances in military technology, especially aircraft, made static costal defenses obsolete, Bay Area park activists and political leaders worked to transform these federal lands into the great national park we enjoy today — The Golden Gate National Parks. This exhibit of historical quotations, poems, maps, paintings, photographs, and artifacts including an old fog horn was accompanied by a specially created soundscape of the sounds of the ocean, ships and sailors, marching soldiers, cavalry horses, and foghorns. The introductory image was a dramatic blow-up of a high-resolution, multibeam echosounder oblique view of the sea floor at the Gate created by the U.S. Geological Survey; National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration; California State University, Monterey Bay; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the Center for Integrative Coastal Observation, Research and Education/ 2006 http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2006/2944/ Graphic Design: Becky Carpenter and Renée Schultz, Presidio Trust Image Acquisition: John Bertland, MLIS Soundscape: Michael Romanowski & Chris Burdett Panels included:
Programs accompanying the exhibit included:
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Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age:
Woodblock Prints from the Meiji Era, 1868-1912
Selections from the Sharf Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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The Presidio's second exhibition, Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Woodblock Prints from the Meiji Era, 1868-1912, comes to us from the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, one of the world's most important repositories of Japanese art. It features 70 choice triptychs assembled over the years by Boston art collector and scholar Fredrick Sharf.
We first heard about these prints from Cherilyn Widell, the Trust's historic compliance officer who studied in Japan. When Trust staff, including myself, went to Boston to view the temporary exhibition, we realized how much this art would be appreciated in the Bay Area. The Trust was especially interested in exhibiting the prints, because they are stunning documents of the process of modernization and cross-cultural influences, topics that relate to the Trust's mission of bringing challenging cultural programs to our national park. The MFA had no plans to travel the show, since prints are sensitive to light and fade quickly. But they listened to our desire, and the reasons behind it, and decided to lend the art. The exhibit in Boston was two-thirds war prints and one-third images showing domestic progress in Victorian Japan. We wanted to reverse that mix, and feature domestic prints while including some war images. The MFA again supported our decision and allowed us to create our own "mix" of images. It was a fascinating and enriching experience for me to go through the MFA's print holdings with Louise E. Virgin, MFA's curator of Asiatic art. The next step was to lay out the exhibit and tailor it to the six-gallery pattern of our Officers' Club Exhibition Hall. We wanted a spacious, serene feeling in the galleries. I grouped the prints into six "chapters" to tell a coherent story. Then, we sought loaned objects that would compliment the narrative established by prints for all but the two war galleries, in which we wanted to retain a sober and severe atmosphere. The outstanding graphic design was executed by Becky Carpenter and Renee Schultz of the Presidio Trust Graphics Department. Patrick Bell at Color 3 Lab in San Francisco printed the panels. We created a Teacher's Guide to the exhibit with readings and questions to help teachers guide their classes through the exhibition. Here is the plan we designed:
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Crown Jewels:
Five Great National Parks Around the World and the Challenges They Face
Curated by Randolph Delehanty, PhD
Produced by Jeff Weik, manager of public programs
Public programs by Lisa Hillstrom, Mira Bieler and Jackie Engstrom
Educational program for grades 8 through 12 by Mary Maya
Graphic design by Becky Carpenter and Renée Schultz
Panels printed by Patrick Bell at Color 3 Lab / San Francisco
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Parks are among the greatest of human political creations and embody
important social, scientific, and spiritual values in addition to their ecological importance. Parks now face many challenges including pollution, global warming, habitat fragmentation, invasive plants and animals, the loss of top predators, the extinction of species, and changes in technology (the smartphone) and in the leisure habits of the younger generations, It was my great privilege to serve as the first historian and exhibition curator at the Presidio Trust in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area from 2000 to 2013. The Trust is an innovative federal agency created to preserve the historic Presidio of San Francisco on the Golden Gate by restoring its many varied buildings, renting them out, and using that income to conserve and enhance the park. I was part of Public Programs at the Trust. Our mission was to interpret the park’s historic and natural resources and to bring life to the park with house tours, lectures, musical events, exhibits, kids’ programs, and to work with teachers to connect the park with the community. "Crown Jewels” was my swan song at the Trust and my way to sum-up what I see as the future challenges that lay ahead for all national parks around the world. The American Alliance of Museums in Washington saw the value of this effort and published my work in a handsome, full-color book. This photographic exhibit was installed in two large spaces in one of the 1890s brick barracks at the Presidio of San Francisco’s Main Post. Because the rooms had windows on three sides, I hung 40 two-sided photo panels from the ceiling and kept the walls free. Visitors walked around the “floating” panels arranged in five clusters. Each cluster featured one important national park on its continent. They included a nature reserve, a wildlife park, an archeological park, an Indigenous reserve, and an underwater park. Each park was seen through the eyes of an expert with a lifetime’s experience in that part of the world. The work of many photographers was included. The five sites were:
Lectures and Programs Accompanying the Exhibition:
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Boundaries, Barriers, and Bridges
The initial symposium of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art
March 20 and 21, 1998
Entergy Rotunda of the Patrick F. Taylor Library / University of New Orleans
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This symposium of artists and experts was the first program of the future
UNO Ogden Museum of Southern Art that opened in 2003. The goal was to explore the definition of southern art and the ways in which the visual arts connect with diverse audiences in the region. Keynoters showed slides and kicked off discussions with the audience. It was a participatory symposium. Twenty-four artists and scholars from across the country attended. Participants ranged from Willie Birch, a New Orleans artist, to Philip Linhares, director of the Oakland Museum of California. Directors and curators from the Morris Museum of Art (Augusta, GA), the Greenville County Museum (SC), the New Orleans Museum of Art, Xavier University (New Orleans), the Bluffer Gallery (Houston), Southern University at New Orleans, the Louisiana State Museum, the Amistad Research Center (New Orleans), Louisiana State University, and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia participated. Artists included Willie Birch, Josephine Sacabo, John Scott, musician Ellis L. Marsalis, and writer Kalamu ya Salaam. Several panels focused on the role of African Americans in the cultural life of the region. Peggy Morrison Outon, Associate Director of the Ogden Museum, secured funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and the University of New Orleans Foundation. |
The Baroness de Pontalba and the Rise of Jackson Square - A Tricentennial Exhibition
Louisiana State Museum / The Cabildo on Jackson Square
December 2, 2018 to October 13, 2019
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser
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Programs Accompanying the Exhibition
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The Almonaster and Pontalba Legacies
How a Father’s Philanthropy and a Daughter’s Determination Created the Urban Heart and Architectural Look of Old New Orleans St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, the Presbytère, the twin Pontalba Buildings, and gated Jackson Square form the monumental core of Old New Orleans. This architectural ensemble is the legacy of Don Andrés Almonester (1728-1798) and his daughter Micaela Almonester Baroness de Pontalba (1795-1874). It’s the story of a self-made father’s hard-earned legacy and his formidable daughters determination. The story spans two continents, the Spanish and American eras, the life of New Orleans’ first philanthropist, an arranged marriage that was deeply troubled, a family tragedy and an attempted murder, resilience in the face of adversity, life in a grand hôtel particulier in Paris and a chateau in Picardy, and an architectural mystery: Who designed the Pontalba Buildings? The Baroness completed the core of New Orleans at the peak of the antebellum boom of the 1850s. This exhibit tells that story inside the landmark Cabildo, the Spanish capitol funded by Don Andrés. The current Baron de Pontalba opened his family’s archives in Senlis, France, to me and allowed the museum to borrow a great portrait, rare documents, and opulent tableware from the Baroness Micaela’s mansion. Two never-before-seen architectural renderings of the Pontalba Buildings, two never-before-seen daguerreotypes of the Square in 1851, commissioned color photographs, and succinct texts fill three galleries. The final gallery looks out the window onto Jackson Square and the flanking red brick Pontalba Buildings with their fine cast-iron galleries that became New Orleans’ architectural signature. The text provided here is a revised and augmented version of the exhibit and incorporates excerpts from the legal proceedings brought against the Baroness by builder Samuel Stewart with testimony from architect Henry Howard. These court records are our best —if incomplete— account of the design and construction of the landmark Pontalba Buildings. |