Guerrilla History in the Streets

A mysterious Guerrilla Historian installing one of our OpenSFHistory posters out in the neighborhood. (Courtesy of David Gallagher)

From its launch in 2014, the purpose of our OpenSFHistory Program was to make San Francisco history easily accessible to people. This is why each image on the website features a prominent “Download” button to the right, allowing anyone to take watermarked photographs and use them on websites or social media free-of-charge. History often suffers from Gate Keeper Syndrome, with “experts” claiming exclusive territory over specific subjects, but we believe community history is a community project. We want our hard work highlighting our shared history out in the world, not under glass behind a locked door or a paywall.

Fast forward to 2020. As the shelter-in-place order went from March to April to May, we pushed more of our programming online but worried about those of you who weren’t born-digital and aren’t computer savvy. Then our friends at San Francisco Heritage began seeing our OpenSFHistory images printed and posted in windows and on telephone poles. This is what we’d been looking for: a family-friendly activity to get people away from their computer screens and out into the streets, sharing the joy of history with their neighbors.

In May, David Gallagher had the genius idea to turn over 50,000 photographs on OpenSFHistory.org into easily printable posters. Simply hitting the “Poster” button next to every image reformats the photograph with a shortened description and a QR code, linking people back to the website in case they want to learn more. We can’t spread this joy alone so we asked you to join the WNP Street Team and become a Guerilla Historian. Goodness gracious, did you answer the call. We knew it was a neat idea but we were overwhelmed by all the attention it received. Posters began popping up all across the city and all over the internet. Your work caught the attention of local journalists Peter Hartlaub, who profiled the project in a San Francisco Chronicle article; Amber Lee, who featured us in a segment on KTVU Channel 2 News; and Teresa Hammerl, who wrote a great article on it for Hoodline.

Seeing the city’s past in situ provides context and enables a richer understanding of how our neighborhoods came to be in the present. We may be physically distanced but at least we can gather around a shared sense of place, one poster at a time. Who knows how long this pandemic will last but we look forward to seeing you in the streets soon.