86 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM HOLLYWOOD COMES TO THE PENINSULA PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: SFO MUSEUM ECLECTIC COLLECTIONS Back at the San Francisco: City of the World exhibit, a couple of travelers pause to check out memorabilia from 1940s Chinatown nightclubs. Nearby, a mother pauses to rummage around in her bag while her little boy runs circles around the display cases in frog-print boots. “I’m very proud of this show,” says Nicole, explaining that multiple local historical societies banded together to make it happen. Cases in a Golden Gate-red hold a wealth of items. A wool bathing suit from Sutro Baths, a thick section of steel strands from a cable car, an air vent grill from Alcatraz, a 1950s book titled Don’t Call it Frisco—each artifact a glimpse into this city’s big personality. Nicole points out some battered items salvaged from the 1906 earthquake. “That’s a teapot from the rubble,” she says. “Our photographer on staff, that was passed down from his grandmother.” Besides other museums, Nicole collaborates with private collectors—and it’s one of her favorite parts of the job. Take Brian Coleman, an antiquarian from Seattle who lives in a colorful Queen Anne painted with sunflowers and griffins. “His whole house is bedecked floor to ceiling in the Victorian era. It’s quite spectacular,” Nicole marvels. Among his many loans to the museum: a pair of Victorian beaded slippers for Stepping Out: Shoes in World Cultures and an ornate nut bowl decorated with tiny silver squirrels for Eclectic Taste: Victorian Silver Plate. FIRST-CLASS MUSEUM
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