San Francisco Museums

San Francisco (Spanish for Saint Francis) was founded in 1776 when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and nearby the Mission San Francisco de Asís named for St. Francis of Assisi.

The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, and San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856.

A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks.

San Francisco has many excellent museums and the museums that will be featured by the “Joy of Museums” include:

A Virtual Tour of Museums in San Francisco

Asian Art Museum – San Francisco
De Young Museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Legion of Honor Museum
Walt Disney Family Museum
Exploratorium

Other popular Museums in San Francisco

California Academy of Sciences
Contemporary Jewish Museum
Museum of the African Diaspora
San Francisco Cable Car Museum
USS Pampanito (SS-383)

Highlights Tour of Museums in San Francisco

Asian Art Museum – San Francisco

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, also known as the Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, has a comprehensive Asian art collection with more than 18,000 works of art in its permanent collection.

The collection covers all major Asian countries and traditions, with a focus on South Asia, Iran and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, China, Korea, and Japan.

De Young Museum

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco consists of two separate museum locations, the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park.

The American art collection of the de Young Museum consists of over 1,000 paintings, 800 sculptures, and 3,000 decorative arts objects. The Museum’s textiles collection includes over 13,000 textiles and costumes from around the world.

The Africa, Pacific, and the Americas collection is more than 1,400 objects of Art.

The de Young Museum collection includes American Art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles, and costumes, and Art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is an art museum with a collection of over 33,000 works of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design, and media arts.

Legion of Honor Museum

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco consists of two separate museum locations, the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park.

The “Legion of Honor” is the name used both for the museum collection and for the building in which it is housed.

Walt Disney Family Museum

The Walt Disney Family Museum features the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The museum uses the latest technology and historic artifacts to bring Disney’s achievements to life.

The interactive exhibits include early drawings and animation, movies, music, listening stations, and a model of Disneyland. There is also a Theater that screens Disney films daily.

The Walt Disney Family Museum is a non-profit organization that is not formally associated with The Walt Disney Company.

The museum is located in The Presidio of San Francisco, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco.

Exploratorium

The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco. The museum is noted the participatory nature of its exhibits and informal learning focus.

The Exploratorium was founded by physicist Frank Oppenheimer and opened in 1969 at the Palace of Fine Arts. In 2013, the Exploratorium moved to Piers 15 and 17 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero.

About 600 participatory exhibits are available at any given time. The exhibit-building workshop space is open to view.

The museum has inspired an international network of participatory museums working to engage the public with general science education.