Picture This

Artifiacts in this featured collection are part of the OMCA's Picture This website. More about the context and history of each of these artifacts is available at Picture This

About Picture This: California's Perspectives on American History is a resource for teachers and students to learn about the experiences of diverse peoples of California by using primary source images from the Oakland Museum of California's collections. Organized into eleven time periods spanning from pre-1769 to the present, more than 300 photographs, drawings, posters, and prints tell stories from the perspectives of different ethnic groups. Historical contexts are provided to offer a framework of California's role in relation to American history.

The National Archives state that primary sources, "fascinate students because they are real and they are personal: history is humanized through them." Picture This invites students to examine the historical record, encouraging them to connect history with real people and explore how images tell stories and convey historical evidence about the human experience. History becomes more than just a series of facts, dates, and events.

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photograph Oakland Tribune 6-Jul-34 The caption on the back, July 6, 1934-- "Warfare in which no quarter was given or taken raged in the strife-torn Embarcadero area as 6000 strikers clashed repeatedly with 700 police armed with...	photograph Oakland Tribune July 13-18, 1934 Handwritten on the back, "Strike, San Francisco, Calif." Photo shows a large crowd walking down a sidewalk in San Francisco. In the background is the Ferry Building. The crowd is walking down a...
photograph Michael Macor 19-Oct-89 Photograph shows a policeman and several other rescue workers lowering a man on a stretcher down a fire ladder which is leaning up against the collapsed Cypress Structure which they are standing...	photograph Leo Cohen 23-Aug-65 Caption reads, "Peace Picket John Seltz leaps from path of troop train. Locomotive thundered through Berkeley amid cloud of steam."
photograph Kenneth Green 18-May-69 Caption on back "Showdown: A solitary azalea symbolized the protest movement in Berkeley as National guardsmen stand by." Photo shows National Guardsmen, wearing gas masks and holding rifles with...	photograph Howard Erker 30-May-69 Caption on back "The Berkeley park the masses fought so hard for in the '60's, right, has now become an eyesore to those who are opening their eyes to golf. Even rock 'n' rollers like Greg Kihn,...
Bobby Seale Checks Food Bags Howard Erker 31-Mar-72 Photo shows Bobby Seale standing among grocery bags. Two trucks in the background and several people and members of the Black Panthers. According to the Oakland Tribune, March 31, 1972, article...	photograph Howard Erker 30-May-69 A woman in a floral sun dress and carrying a bouquet of daisies stands pensively next to a National Guardsman, who carries a riffle and bayonet. Behind them both is a military truck.
photograph Associated Press 1968 Caption reads: "Chavez 1968 Hunger Strike -- Cesar Chavez, farm labor leader, center, eats a piece of bread to end his 25-day fast while Sen. Robert F. Kennedy looks on in Delano, Calif. in a 1968...	photograph Associated Press 10-Jul-39 Caption, verso: "Bridges Embarks for Hearing -- Harry Bridges, West Coast CIO leader, is shown with his daughter, Jacqueline Betty Bridges, 14 (left) and his defense counsel, Miss Carol King, as...
photograph Associated Press 5-Jul-37 One photo of a cotton field with a farmer standing guard with a gun watching over four workers bent over in parallel rows picking cotton with long cloth bags trailing behind them. There is also...	photograph wirephoto Associated Press 14-Jul-64 Typed above the image, "San Francisco, July 14--- Californians Demonstrate for Goldwater-- Members of California's delegation, 86 strong, wave gold-colored balloons imprinted with their candidates...
snapshot ca. 1906 April 19, 1906. Mission and Third streets. Aronson Building on the right. Snapshots of San Francisco. Earthquake and fire, 1906.	photograph Photographs of S.F. fire & earthquake
photograph Pat Greenhouse ~ photographer \| Oakland Tribune \| Oakland 8/29/88 Image of Dolores Huerta, wearing a United Farm Workers of America t-shirt (with its Phoenix logo design) that has a phrase printed across it: "Fast for Life," underneath which is printed, "[Ju]l....	lantern slide President Theodore Roosevelt on Glacier Point
photograph 1900 The photo is of the San Diego Mission and Indian School. There are two primary buildings, a long rectangular stucco building, and a european style three story house. Both are on the crest of a...	photograph C. 1920 North Central Sierra:California Indian
subpoena 1904 Document - Subpoena. Description: Subpoena for court appearance dated Sept. 12, 1904 served on Fong Hing for violation of Chinese Exclusion Acts. Several small tears along edges where fold lines...	postcard c. 1905
political button c. 1970 Protest Button. Description: Button bearing black and white photolithographic image of Angela Davis, and legend: "Free Angela". Good condition. Dimensions: 5 cm in diameter.	negative photoprint c. 1904 Entrances to two mine shafts; man with shovel standing in the uppermost one. c. 1904. Two copy prints
photograph 12-Apr-06 Chinese loading stores and belongings aboard salmon packet to Alaska. April 12, 1906. San Francisco waterfront. Photograph. Description: Photograph, Chinese loading stores and belongings aboard...	lantern slide Lantern slides. Description: Scenes of San Francisco. "Pre-Fire Chinatown"