On Thursday, November 19, the Bancroft Library will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International exhibition by inviting students and members of the public into the archives. Using the Historypin platform, students will attach rarely seen photographs of the world’s fair to a  historic map of the PPIE fairgrounds. 

The New Deal, that constellation of economic stimulus policies and social programs enacted to lift Americans out of the Great Depression, was about more than building post offices and bringing electricity to rural folk. Asking for the participation of millions of Americans effected a conceptual shift in how the nation thought of itself. Indeed, the New Deal promoted a sense that our past, present, and future were best understood by drawing together multiple voices and experiences.