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Treasure Island Museum Collections

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Stay informed on our activities and progress with our occasional e-newsletters.

Browse through these highlights of the Treasure Island Museum collections held in our archives.
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Chinese Dragons: Our pair of three-foot tall dragons adorned the Chinese Village at the Golden Gate International Exposition. When the fair was demolished in 1940, the late Tom Do Hing rescued the dragons and occasionally displayed them inside and outside his shop, Chong Imports, on Grant Avenue in Chinatown.

When the store closed in 2015, the
family donated the dragons to the
nonprofit East Bay Depot for Creative
Reuse, where TIM Vice President
Mimi Manning found and adopted
them.

When our new museum is funded and opens, we hope to be able to restore our dragons and put them on display.

Masthead
Dragons

Navy Newspaper: The Masthead was the official weekly newspaper of the Treasure Island naval base from 1941 until the base was closed in the 1990s.

From our collection, the museum has digitized and placed online The Masthead from August 1944 to December 1945, covering the last year of World War II and the start of demobilization. The Mastheads were donated to the museum in 2017 by the daughter of Yeoman Carolyn Brown (Offe), who served on the Masthead staff during those years.

Click here to learn more and read The Masthead.

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Bowl

Siamese Bowl:  What does a 450-year-old ceramic box have to do with an island that is just 75 years old?

This small lidded box, made in northern Thailand in the 16th century, was imported for exhibit at

the Golden Gate International Exposition. It was a gift of Henry Gardiner, who was Director of the San Diego Museum of Art from 1969 to 1979.

Photos

From Our Photo Collection

 
Golden Gate International Exposition
Click to Expand
The Navy on Treasure Island
Click to Expand
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