Finding Books

Pan American Unity

Diego Rivera in General

Videos

Archives

Posner Room

Finding Articles

Web Resources

Additional Help

Diego Rivera and his San Francisco Murals Subject Guide

The Pan American Unity mural at the City College of San Francisco

Searching the Library Catalog for Books & Other Materials

To locate books and other materials in CCSF Libraries, select Find Books from the Library's Homepage. You will notice many ways to search, such as Title, Author, Subject, Video, Instructor, etc. There are also many books in the collection that have important sections or chapters on Diego Rivera so be sure to try the Keywords in Contents and Notes search as well.

There are articles in the City College of San Francisco newspaper, The Guardsman, about the mural and about two of the people in the mural, Helen Crlenkovich and Dudley Carter.

Information about Pan American Unity

There are very few titles that include specific information about Pan American Unity. There are copies of these titles in many locations including Reserve, Circulation, Reference and the Archives. Two titles were written by students as Masters Degree theses. We have learned a lot about the mural since they were written, but they are good sources to use for general ideas about the mural.

Barden, Merrill. Understanding the evolution of Diego Rivera’s message to the United States: an explication of the Pan American Unity mural. 1992.

Fuentes-Rojas, Elizabeth. Three San Francisco murals of Diego Rivera: a documentary and artistic history. 1980.
A former English and Humanities instructor at City College also wrote about Diego Rivera and our mural.

Zakheim, Masha. Pan American Unity: a fresco by the Mexican Diego Rivera painted for City College of San Francisco at the Golden Gate International Exposition, Treasure Island, 1939-1940. 1991.

Zakheim, Masha. Diego Rivera in San Francisco. 2001.

Whenever possible, we want to find Rivera’s own voice; what did he say about the themes and images in his mural? This next title is the text of an interview with Rivera.

Rivera, Diego. Diego Rivera: the story of his mural at the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition. 1940.

This is his autobiography, in which 4 chapters are about his time in San Francisco in 1940.

Rivera, Diego. My art, my life: an autobiography. Chapters: A visit with Charlie Chaplin; A salute by the U.S. Navy; A second time with Frida; More popular than Wendell Willkie.

At the East Reference Desk there are two large binders of material about the mural and the people and images represented in it.

Use the City Cat search Reserves by Course, ESL 79, to find folders on Reserve for all the people and images in the mural.

Here is a book that discusses Rivera’s three San Francisco murals, his influence on local artists, and the politics of the 1930’s.

Lee, Anthony W. Painting on the left: Diego Rivera, radical politics, and San Francisco’s public murals. 1999.

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Diego Rivera in General

This is the best book about Rivera’s life and work in general, and it is well illustrated:

Rivera, Diego & Detroit Institute of Arts. Diego Rivera: a retrospective. Detroit, 1986.

There are a few other titles which are good, general sources on Rivera:

Rivera, Diego, and Luis-Martin Lozano. Diego Rivera: art & revolution. Mexico, 1999.

Wolfe, Bertram. The fabulous life of Diego Rivera. 1963.

Easy Readers about Diego Rivera:

Braun, Barbara, and Diego Rivera. A weekend with Diego Rivera. 1994.

Cockcroft, James D. Diego Rivera. 1991.

Gleiter, Jan. Diego Rivera. 1989. In Spanish & English.

Gonzales, Doreen. Diego Rivera: his art, his life. 1996.

Holland, Gini. Diego Rivera. 1997.

Shirley, David. Diego Rivera. 1995.

Vazquez, Sarah. Diego Rivera: an artist’s life. 1997.

Venezia, Mike. Diego Rivera. 1994.

Winter, Jonah. Diego. 1994. Spanish & English.

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Videos

Many of the videos in our collection include interesting, original documentary film footage of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Find these by using the Advanced Keyword Search and limit your search to video recordings.

Rivera in America includes the Pan American Unity mural and an interview with artist and Rivera historian Emmy Lou Packard.

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The Rivera Collection in the Library Archives, R335

There are many unique and rare materials in the Rivera Collection. They can not be checked out, but most can be photocopied. Contact the Archivist, Christopher Kox, 452-5519 or Julia Bergman, 452-5494, for access.

There is a very important hour-long sound recording made by Rivera in 1955, two years before his death, where he talks about his life, his art, his politics, and Pan American Unity. It is in Spanish and there is a transcript of the recording in Spanish and in English.

There are dozens of photographs of Rivera and his assistants creating the mural. There is an article written by Rivera in December, 1940 titled “I am not a communist”. There is a copy of Rivera and Kahlo’s marriage license, issued by San Francisco City Hall in December, 1940. Hundreds of pages of letters and other primary material related to Rivera and his contemporaries have been photocopied from Archives around the United States and Mexico. Two file cabinet drawers contain folders of information about every person and image in the City College mural.

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The Posner Reading Room

A beautiful collection of framed photographs about the creation of the mural is on permanent exhibition in the Posner Reading Room in the Rosenberg Library. The collection contains photos of the mural in progress, the Golden Gate International Exposition, Diego and Frida, Edward G. Robinson, Emmy Lou Packard and others.

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Searching for Articles in Periodical Databases

Periodical databases group together journal, magazine, and newspaper articles by subject. They also usually provide abstracts (brief summaries) and the full text of the articles. Do you need help identifying the differences between scholarly journal v. popular magazine articles?

Note: Most periodical databases are part of the private, passworded Web, so you will need to have a current CCSF ID card with a barcode to access those that CCSF subscribes to. You get the free barcode from the Library either in person or online.

Infotrac (Gale)
Infotrac is a brand name for several databases with coverage from 1980 to the present. Most useful for art topics is InfoTrac Expanded Academic.

Ethnic Newswatch
Comprised of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press in America, this unique body of materials covers a wide range of current topics and countless other social, political and educational subjects. More than 200 publications covering 1995 to the present are represented, and searchable in both English and Spanish.

San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) – Electronic Resources, Magazines, and Newspapers (http://sfpl.org/)

The SFPL subscribes to many periodical and reference databases. Try: Art Full Text, or the Biography Resource Center. You must have a San Francisco Public Library card number to access them

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Web Resources

Use this website which is dedicated to the Pan American Unity Mural: www.riveramural.org. There are many additional Rivera-related Internet links available on this award-winning bi-lingual site.

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Need More Assistance?

Librarians welcome your questions and can help you with your research. For additional help you may go to the Reference Desk at any of the 5 CCSF campus libraries or telephone:

• Rosenberg Library: 415-452-5543
• Alice Statler Library: 415-239-3460
• John Adams Library: 415-561-1946
• Southeast Campus Library: 415-550-4353
• Downtown Campus library: 415-267-6513

eRef
Electronic Reference Service to CCSF students, faculty, staff and registered community users. Use this service when you are NOT in a CCSF library.

Library and Web Research Workshops
FIfty minute workshops are given throughout the semester on effective methods in searching for books, articles and information on the Internet.

Send comments or suggestions to:

Julia Bergman
Diego Rivera Specialist
(415) 452-5494
jbergman@ccsf.edu

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