A Grand Tour of Europe at SFO

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A Grand Tour of Europe at SFO
New Exhibition Presents Model Miniatures of the Great Buildings and Monuments of Europe.

SAN FRANCISCO — The “Grand Tour” of the great cities of Western Europe originated as an educational rite of passage for wealthy young Englishmen during the late seventeenth century. Travelers returned with marble busts, paintings, prints, and other artifacts representing classical antiquity for display in their studies and libraries.  When the advent of mass transit made the Grand Tour accessible to greater numbers of travelers in the nineteenth century, the variety of keepsakes grew to include detailed miniatures of the buildings and monuments viewed along a fairly standardized itinerary that included lengthy stays in Paris and Rome.

Grand Miniatures - 19 ^th Century Souvenir Buildings from the Collection of Ace Architects, now on view at San Francisco International Airport, features more than sixty miniatures of monumental columns, obelisks, triumphal arches, cathedrals, and other historic structures from the Collection of Ace Architects. Most were produced during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Some of the objects document buildings as they existed only at a particular time in history, while others depict structures that no longer exist.  Some are not true souvenirs, but were made singularly as project proposals or elaborate gifts.  All the miniatures, however, convey the architectural essence of the buildings they represent.  The objects also suggest the range of structures considered important to those nineteenth-century travelers to Europe wishing to return with a symbol of their cultural inheritance.

Grand Miniatures -19 ^th Century Souvenir Buildings from the Collection of Ace Architects is on view in the International Terminal Main Hall through May 22, 2011. The exhibition is located pre-security and open to the public free-of-charge, 24-hours a day. 

Images from the exhibition are available online at: http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/about/news/pressres/exh-miniatures.html.

San Francisco Airport Museums  

The San Francisco Airport Museums program was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purposes of humanizing the Airport environment, providing visibility for the unique cultural life of San Francisco, and providing educational services for the traveling public. The Museum was granted initial accreditation from the American Association of Museums in 1999, reaccredited in 2005, and has the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport. Today, the San Francisco Airport Museums features approximately twenty galleries throughout the Airport terminals displaying a rotating schedule of art, history, science, and cultural exhibitions, as well as the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, a permanent collection dedicated to the history of commercial aviation. For more information, please visit www.flysfo.com/museum.

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About San Francisco International Airport

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) offers non-stop links with more than 31 international points on 29 international carriers. The Bay Area's largest airport connects non-stop with more than 69 cities in the U.S. on 20 domestic airlines. For up-to-the-minute departure and arrival information, airport maps and details on shopping, dining, cultural exhibitions, ground transportation and more, visit www.flysfo.com. SFO was voted “North America’s Best Airport” in 2008 by passengers for its outstanding customer service and amenities.