The California Academy of Sciences is a world-class scientific and cultural institution based in San Francisco. The Academy Archives collects, preserves, and interprets records of the work done by the California Academy of Sciences, the history of science in the American West, and the research of scientists throughout the Pacific Rim. Our collections include over 70,000 digital images, 100,000 prints and negatives, 3,000 reels of film, significant natural history illustrations and paintings, manuscripts and assorted text, and a small (but growing) collection of software and other digital records. From the handwritten minutes of the first meeting of the Academy in April 1853 to backups of the Academy’s Twitter feed, the Academy Archives is the institutional memory of the California Academy of Sciences.
The California Academy of Sciences’ digital collection at California Revealed consists of moving image and audio recordings from the 1940s to the 2000s. The majority of the collection consists of educational videos on life sciences, including many complete episodes of the television program Science in Action hosted by Earl Stannard Herald. Also included are oral histories and documentary footage of Hik-A-Nation, a 1980 cross-country hike organized to draw attention to the state of America’s hiking trails.