Appearances
Upcoming Talks
Gray Brechin delivering a talk.March 4, 2009: Urban Parasitism: The Case of Imperial San Francisco's Impact on the Pacific Basin
U.C. Davis Geography Group Distinguished Speakers Series on The History of California's Landscapes
Selected Past appearances:
2008
October 21 The Indispensable New Deal
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
October 16 Reviving the New Deal: A Time When Government Helped the People
A conference at San Francisco City College.
September 24 Progress Report on the California Living New Deal Project
California History Dinner, Institute for Research on Labor & Employment
July 29 WPA-PWA Bus Tour With Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith
Join Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith as they travel through history on a bus tour of historic sites built by New Deal labor. You will learn about the major contribution workers made during the Depression era in San Francisco. The tour is sponsored by LaborFest.
July 15 The New Deal in San Francisco’s Sunset District
West Portal Branch Library (WPA-built), 160 Lenox Way, San Francisco, CA
June 27 Lessons of the Living New Deal Project for New York City
New York Society for Ethical Culture, New York City
June 21 The California Living New Deal Project
Keynote at annual Roosevelt Reading Festival, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY
June 12 The New Deal in San Francisco
Koret Auditorium, Main Library, San Francisco
June 9 Adolph Sutro’s Tunnel to the Comstock Lode
Luncheon address for American Tunneling Association convention, Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco
May 14 Bus tour of New Deal sites in East Bay and San Francisco
Oakland Museum History Guild, CA
April 11 What the New Deal Has to Teach Us
California Federation of Teachers convention,
Oakland Marriott Hotel, CA
February 29 War, Nuclear Power, and the Environment: Past and Future
In discussion with Norman Solomon and Mark Dowie, The Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station, CA
February 25 The Living New Deal Project
With tour of PWA-built campus between talks. Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA
February 10 Last of the Gilded Age Fairs: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition
The Flagler Museum,
West Palm Beach, Florida | View this lecture online (audio with slides)
2007
December 13 The Living New Deal in the East Bay
Oakland Heritage Alliance lecture series, Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, CANovember 2 In conversation with Dr. Christopher Breiseth on the relevance of the New Deal today
Dr. Breiseth is the President and CEO of the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Ceremonial Hall, New York Society for Ethical Culture, New York City
November 1 In conversation with Professors Neil Smith and David Harvey on the Living New Deal
Graduate Center, City University of New York
October 31 The Living New Deal Project
Lecture for Professor Harvey Molotch class at New York University, New York City
October 30 The Living New Deal Project
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Lecture for Professor Andy Lamas class, “Community and Economic Development”
October 29 The Living New Deal Project: Excavating the Public Landscape of the Great Depression
University Seminar On The City, Faculty House, Columbia University, NYC
October 25 The Living New Deal Project, with Harvey Smith
Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA
October 26 The Living New Deal Project Three Years On
California Council for the Promotion of History Annual Meeting, Embassy Suites, Arcadia, CA
May 31 The Living New Deal
Alameda History Museum, Alameda, CA
April 28 2007 The Living New Deal
Keynote address, California Studies Conference, Berkeley City College, Berkeley, CA
April 9 Living With Nature: The Hillside Club's Role in the Design of Berkeley
Berkeley Public Library Main Branch
March 20 The Living New Deal
College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley
March 14 The Living New Deal
University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada
March 7 Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic
A conversation with Chalmers Johnson about his new book of that title, King Middle School Auditorium, Berkeley, CA
March 3 On the Edge of the Western World
Fundraising event for Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association at "Wildwood" in Piedmont, CA, the Maybeck-designed Frank C. Havens estate
February 6 The Living New Deal Project
Keynote address, CalTrans Cultural Workers Conference, Asilomar, CA
2006
November 5 The Road to Serendip: Adventures as a Bancroft Library Fellow
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
October 22 Memorial address for Willa Baum
Doe Library Morrison Room, U.C. Berkeley, CA
October 17 The Living New Deal Project
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
September 16 Megafollies
Alameda Forum, Alameda, CA
August 16 The Diaspora of Fortunes and Technology from Nevada City
Keynote address, 150th Birthday of the National Hotel, Nevada City, CA
June 10 Excavating the Public Landscape of the New Deal in Marin
Point Reyes Dance Palace Fundraising Event, The Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station, CA
May 8 Excavating the Public Landscape of the New Deal in Berkeley
Vista College and Berkeley Public Library talk, Main Branch, Berkeley Public Library, CA
April 19 The City, The Mine, The Battlefield: Toward an Explanation for Urban Imperialism
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
March 29 The New Deal Contribution to California’s Infrastructure
Society for Industrial Archaeology monthly meeting, Spenger’s Fish Grotto, Berkeley, CA
March 18 Excavating the Public Landscape: The New Deal Legacy Project
Keynote address, Sonoma County Historical Society Annual Banquet, Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club, Santa Rosa, CA
March 10 Learning from 1906, and from the New Deal
Hurricane Katrina/Environmental Justice Symposium, Boalt Hall School of Law, U.C. Berkeley, CA
January 24 New Deal Public Works as an Extension of the Arts & Crafts Movement
The Gamble House, Pasadena, CA
2005
September 14 Discussion of New Deal Legacy Project
Landscape Architecture Dept., College of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley, CA
September 11 The Value of Preservation
For the Folger Estate Stable Project, Fleishaker Estate "Green Gables", Woodside, CA
September 7 Mapping the Invisible Landscape: The New Deal Legacy Project
Geography Department Tea, U.C. Berkeley, CA
Selected Talks & Other Engagements
Between 1995 and 2000, Gray Brechin taught numerous classes on San Francisco history and architecture for the San Francisco Elder Hostel
Selected talks
10/25/02 Sierra Club Marin Group, Keynote Speaker
“Megafollies: Projects Stopped by Citizen Opposition”
10/24/02 UC Berkeley Art Museum
“Phoebe Apperson Hearst as Collector”
10/15/02 University of Wales, Aberystwyth
“The California Environment: Present Problems”
9/15/02 Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah
“Awakening from the California Dream: An Environmental History”
9/14/02 Contra Costa County Historical Society
“How Contra Costa County Played a Colonial Role to SF Industrialists”
8/7/02 Jack London Lecture Series, Sonoma State University
“The Myths of Wolf House”
7/6/02 NAMHO Conference, Aberystwyth, Wales
“The Comstock Lode and Sutro Tunnel”
5/9/02 Mendocino Land Trust
“The Destruction of the California Environment”
4/5/02 Pomona College
“Megafollies”
3/25/02 Foothill Club, Saratoga
“Julia Morgan and Bernard Maybeck”
1/18/02 Chico Museum
“Farewell, Promised Land”
11/15/01 Harvey Mudd College
“Imperial Urbanism: Elites and the Fiction of Nations”
10/25/01 National Society of Architectural Historians
“Bernard Maybeck and the First Bay Tradition”
7/29/01 Maybeck Foundation
“Bernard Maybeck’s Neighborhood”
7/11/01 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Lecture, U.C. Berkeley
“Phoebe Apperson Hearst as University Patron”
5/31/01 Alameda Historical Society
“Imperial San Francisco”
4/16/01 UCSF Founders’ Day
“Adolph Sutro”
4/3/01 Morning Forum, Palo Alto
“The Comstock Dynasties”
3/28/01 Mechanics’ Institute
“Imperial San Francisco”
3/24/01 Modesto Museum
“Farewell, Promised Land”
1/31/01 Victorian Alliance
“Imperial San Francisco”
1/28/01 Oakland Museum
“Arts and Crafts in San Francisco”
1/19/01 Word for Word, San Francisco
Discussion of Upton Sinclair’s Oil!
1/18/01 Chico Museum
“Farewell, Promised Land”
12/2/00 Willa Baum Retirement, Morrison Room
“Using ROHO Interviews”
11/16/00 Notre Dame University, Belmont
“The Ralston and Sharon Families at Belmont”
11/2/00 Stegner Center for the Environment
“Remembrances of Bob Walker, Photographer”
10/30/00 National Trust tour of San Simeon
“William Randolph Hearst”
9/27/00 Berkeley Pathwnderers
“The Legacy of the Hillside Club”
9/16/00 Tulare County History Museum
“Farewell, Promised Land”
9/9/00 Rededication of restored Sunol Water Temple
“The Meaning of the Temple”
7/12/00 University of Nevada symposium for schoolteachers
“Imperial San Francisco”
6/23/00 Environmenta Action Committee of West Marin, Keynote speaker
“Megafollies, and the Saving of West Marin”
6/14/00 Institute of Classical Architecture, New York
“The Architecture and Planning of Imperial San Francisco”
6/11/00 San Mateo Historical Society, Keynote speaker
“Imperial San Francisco: The San Mateo Dynasties”
5/18/00 Santa Cruz Museum Association
“Waking from the California Dream”
5/13/00 UC Berkeley, Geography Department, Commencement speaker
“Do We Learn?”
5/9/00 University of California, Davis
“Imperial San Francisco”
5/4/00 National Trust for Historic Preservation tour
“San Francisco Architecture”
4/14/00 California Preservation Conference, Keynote Speaker
“The Development of Bay Area Architecture”
3/25/00 Huntington Museum
“San Francisco Dreams of Pacific Empire”
3/20/00 Microsoft Reseach Group, Seattle
“High Technology Control of the Hinterland”
3/19/00 Berkeley Art Museum
“Inverting Space, Inviting Nature: John Galen Howard’s vs Bernard Maybeck’s Competing Visions for the Berkeley Campus”
2/23/00 Friends of Free Speech Radio, Sonoma
“Media Dynasties”
2/10/00 UC Berkeley Art Museum
“The Phoebe Hearst Architecturla Competition for U.C. Berkeley”
1/28/00 Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle
“Imperial San Francisco”
1/25/00 Powell’s Bookstore, Portland
“Imperial San Francisco”
11/22/99 Town & Gown Club, Berkeley
“Megafollies”
11/14/99 California Library Association, Coulter Lecture
“Mining the Commons: The Privatization of Everything in the Age of the Silicon Gold Rush”
11/13/99 Dawson’s Book Store, Los Angeles Salon
“Farewell, Promised Land”
10/27/99 UC Department of History
“Following the Bloodlines: Dynastic Research for Imperial SF”
9/16/99 Bancroft Library Roundtable
“Crime and Reward: The Untimely Death of William Chapman Ralston, the Triumph of Senator Sharon, and the Birth of the Bureau of Reclamation”
9/23/95 Ed Hardy Seminars
"Julia Morgan and Her Times"
7/29/95 Micahel H. deYoung Museum
"Healing Landscapes"
7/8/95 Labor Conference, San Francisco
"Labor Murals in San Francisco"
2/17/95 U.C. Planners
"The Phoebe Hearst Memorial for U.C."
2/4/95 California Studies Conference
"Energy Shapes the City"
3/30/94 American Association of Geographers
"Destiny's Gunsight: Symbolism of the Golden Gate"
3/29/94 American Association of Geographers
"The Conquering Grid" [Keynote address to national convention]
3/26/94 Ishi Symposium at Oakland Museum
"Ishi Meets 'The End of the Trail'"
2/24/94 New College of California
"San Francisco's Oligarchy"
2/20/94 California Studies Conference
"Suicidal Utopias: California Cities in 1915 and Now"
11/9/93 San Francisco Historical Society
"Imperial San Francisco"
9/30/93 Foundation for San Francisco's Architectural Heritage
"The Imperial Dynasties"
5/30/93 Association of International Educators, National Convention
"Development of San Francisco"
1/28/93 Art Libraries Society of North America, National Convention
"The Architecture of San Francisco"
10/23/92 California History Center, DeAnza College
"The World We Lost: California in 1915 and Now"
9/14/92 Friends of Filoli
"Olmsted in California."
6/28/92 College of Notre Dame @ Belmont
"Quicksilver: California's Forgotten Bonanza"
5/9/92 Humanities West
"Imperial San Francisco"
4/22/92 Stanford Humanities Center
"Imperial San Francisco"
5/1/91 New York Academy of Sciences
"Imperial San Francisco"
3/19/91 National School Boards Association, National Convention "Building A City On Gold"
11/12/90 Exploratorium, 75th Anniversary
"The Panama-Pacific International Exposition and the Palace of Fine Arts"
Other engagements:
Commonwealth Club
U.C. Committee for Arts and Lectures
College Art Association
College of Marin
Smithsonian Associates
American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architectural Students
American Society of Interior Designers
American Institute of Urban Planners
American Association of Neuroscience Nurses
American Bankers’ Association
SPUR
Diablo Forum
Levi Strauss
Crown Zellerbach
Associated General Contractors of America
San Francisco Architecture Club
Berkeley Architectectural Heritage Association
Hearst Corporation
German Marshall Fellows
The Gamble House, Pasadena
San Francisco Tomorrow
San Francisco Beautiful
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
Friends of the Orinda Public Library
Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights
Sons of Harvard
Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods
Strybing Arboretum Society
San Francisco Natural History Group
California Creeks Conference
California Water Policy Group
Institute for Historical Research
Scotch Whiskey Information Center
Oakland Heritage Alliance
Headlands Center for the Arts
San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum