The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum was an outgrowth of the California Mid-Winter Exposition of 1894, and was built in Golden Gate Park with 75-thousand dollars’ profit left over from the exposition.

Michael de Young of the Chronicle publishing family was the driving force behind the museum which housed 6,000 objects left over from the exposition, his own collection, as well as thousands of items donated by San Francisco families who wished to preserve artifacts of the Gold Rush era.

The building pictured opened March 25, 1895, but was savagely damaged by the 1906 earthquake.

The museum soon outgrew the building, and Mr. de Young donated funds to begin construction of a new wing in 1917. That was followed by a second wing in 1925. However, the original 1895 building was condemned as unsafe in 1926, and a third wing was built in 1931.