California Building (pictured) in San Diego's 1,400-acre
Balboa Park is home to the Museum of Man. It was built in 1915 for the
Panama - California exposition.
Balboa Park is recognized as the best urban park in North
and South America. Host to one unofficial expo in 1915 and one
official world expo in 1935, it houses 14 museums and art galleries, four
theaters, a pipe organ and San Diego Zoo. Around 15 million annual
guests visit the numerous park attractions. San Diego architects designed the 1915 buildings around
a Spanish Colonial architecture, of which the Museum of Man is a good example.
Beneath the magnificent blue dome and giant bell tower at the
California Building is Museum of Man. It is open daily, closed Christmas,
New Year's and Thanksgiving.
Please call for admission prices and hours of operation
or visit their web site @ www.museumofman.org
Mummy masks and sacred amulets can be found in one of
the museum's permanent exhibits. Life and Death on the Nile: Sungods
And Mummies In Ancient Egypt, displays artifacts over 3,000 years
old. Other exhibits: Kumeyaay: Indians Of San Diego,
Early
Man, Life Cycles And Ceremonies, Primates Past
and Present and Peoples of the Southwest.
The museum is dedicated to educating people in anthropology through
docent tours, internships, a teacher resource center, and educational programs.
The Casa de Balboa, built for the 1915 Expo, now houses
several museums, including the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the Museum
of San Diego History, The San Diego Hall of Champions, and the Museum of
Photographic Arts.
The U.S. military used Balboa Park as extra barracks and
headquarters during World Wars I and II. After World War II, the damage
done to the Park during those wars was repaired and many of the museums
which currently inhabit the Park were incorporated.
