DEFENDERS OF THE GATE: A SOLDIER'S STORY
Defenders of the Gate: a Soldier’s Story tells the story of the men and women who were stationed or passed through the Army based in the San Francisco Bay area. From California's earliest days, soldiers have been present in the area, establishing a strong military presence in the state and playing a key role in the California's history. In particular, from the early Spanish and Mexican occupation until the transfer of the Army’s property (the “Presidio”) to the National Park Service in the late twentieth-century, areas within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area have been a critical location to many who have served our country. The exhibit aimed to teach the public about these soldiers and their history through three main interpretive themes that capture and highlight those special stories.
Interpretive Themes and Curation
Work: The purpose of this theme was to demonstrate how military life was a constant, on-going operation. Once the United States Army established their presence in the Bay Area, soldiers were needed to maintain the on-going efforts of the surrounding posts. To explore this theme, research about the former Letterman Army General Hospital was conducted and included in the exhibit. Letterman Hospital, built in 1898, was the Army’s response to the growing number of sick and injured soldiers during the Spanish American War. For the next one hundred years, Letterman was a state-of-the-art facility and a place for advances in medicine and medical research, as well as being the first Army general hospital to employ women of the Army’s Nurse Corps. Additionally, I conducted research and included information about the Buffalo Soldiers of the Army’s Cavalry and Infantry because of their significance on local and national history. For example, in addition to serving in the Spanish American and Mexican American wars, the men of this segregated unit, who were stationed and dispatched from the Presidio, were some of the United States’ first park rangers. Traveling by horseback, the Buffalo Soldiers were also sent to National Parks throughout California, including Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon. Significantly, over three hundred Buffalo Soldiers are buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, which is located inside the Presidio’s Main Post.
Life: The theme that represented daily soldier life was an important one, because daily life routines can be made accessible to a range of audiences, and because initial research suggested that daily life for soldiers did not consist exclusively of the stereotypical activities of drilling, training, and regimented lifestyle that is commonly associated with military life. As a result, research on family life, athletics, and recreational activities for soldiers who lived on post was conducted. The final text developed was designed to communicate that idea that aside from a very few non-commissioned officers, soldiers were not allowed to have family posted with them, a rule that remained until the later part of the twentieth century. At the same time, research indicated that in some ways soldiers had the best of both worlds living on post with many on-site activities available, the soldiers also lived and camped in San Francisco’s backyard.
War: When developing the third interpretive theme, I conducted research about the impact of war on soldiers who were based locally, and concluded that it was important to discuss the experiences of soldiers who were stationed on the Presidio and neighboring camps. I found that conditions were terrible and over-crowded for the soldiers, many of whom became sick and died. In fact, the impact of the arrival of an enormous number of troops involved in various conflicts prompted the Army to build and maintain Letterman Hospital. Moreover, the region continued to play a key role over time, including during the Cold War, when the Army established a system of missile sites throughout the Bay Area, and I decided to tell this part of the history of the area as well. As a result, the Army’s system of coastal defense sites and how soldiers maintained the security of the country and the Golden Gate was outlined in the exhibit.