Like many first books, Empress San Francisco began many years ago as my dissertation. And like my children, it has grown and developed in sometimes unexpected ways. What has remained constant are the many debts I have accrued along the way. My training in history began at Carleton College, where Robert Bonner introduced me to the formal study of the history of the American West and Kirk Jeffrey guided me through the senior thesis project that convinced me that this could be my career. At the University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison, I encountered a host of excellent scholars and teachers who taught me how to do the work I do today. The guidance of Bill Cronon, the late Jeanne Boydston, Susan Lee Johnson, and the ever-patient Nan Enstad helped bring my dissertation to fruition. I am particularly grateful to Nan for her support of my personal and professional choices throughout the dissertation process. Camille Guerin-Gonzales provided an important outside perspective. Many other excellent scholars and teachers at Madison, including Judith Walzer Leavitt, Florencia Mallon, Francisco Scarano, Steve Stern, and Steven Kantrowitz, helped me grow as a scholar.
Other scholars provided assistance throughout this project. The ever-generous Robert Rydell offered support and advice and even helped me find an editor. His generosity toward younger scholars is a model for all. T. J. Boisseau and I met at a conference and immediately found common ground in our interest in women and fairs. The result was our coedited volume and a friendship and mentorship that has sustained me through this project. Alan Bain, Judy Yung, Yong Chen, and Janet Davis all provided answers and helped me locate resources for the project. Sarah Moore, Andrea Radke-Moss, and many other fellow world’s fair scholars have provided valuable feedback on conference papers. Thanks to Lauren Rabinovitz and my fellow junior faculty fellows at the 2008 University of Iowa Workshop on Women of Color in Popular Culture for offering excellent comments on my work in progress. Amanda Cannata, Robert Chase, and Jamaica Hutchins pointed me to essential primary sources at critical junctures. Ben Rosenberg and Winifred Chang provided translation assistance. Colleagues at Carroll University, including Lilly Goren, Scott Hendrix, Jim Grimshaw, Lori Kelly, and Charlie Byler, have listened to me discuss this project ad infinitum and offered helpful feedback and friendship. At the University of Nebraska Press, Matthew Bokovoy has proved himself an extraordinary editor. His practical assistance and close editing eye have made this project an immensely better book. The staff at the press have been terrific help as well, and I thank them for their efforts during the publication process. Thanks also to Gray Brechin, Bob Rydell, and two anonymous readers for the University of Nebraska Press for providing insightful feedback on my earlier draft. Nonetheless, all errors remain my own.
Archivists around the Bay Area helped me locate sources for this project about the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), and to them I am extremely grateful. From the moment I began this research at the Bancroft Library David Kessler was friendly, helpful, and enthusiastic. The staff there was unfailingly helpful. I owe particular thanks to Susan Snyder for helping me locate and gain permissions for a number of the images in this book. The staff at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), the California Historical Society, the Mechanics Institute Library, and the California State Library provided assistance as well. Carrie Musick of the San Francisco Young Woman’s Christian Association allowed me to paw through musty boxes of files, as did the staff at the African American Museum and Library of Oakland. Christina Moretta and Susan Goldstein at SFPL helped me acquire images and permissions. Tammy Lau and Adam Wallace at the California State University–Fresno Library supplied a last-minute windfall of images for which I am very thankful. Nathan Kerr and Suzanne Fischer helped me locate ephemera and images from the Oakland Museum of California. At the Smithsonian Institution, Maria Eipert provided generous assistance in gaining access to previously unpublished color photographs of the fair. Chuck Petterson, collector of PPIE memorabilia, graciously allowed me the use of some of his images as well. The interlibrary loan staff at UW-Madison and Carroll University made this research possible.
Over the years I have had financial support from UW-Madison and Carroll University. The William Appleman Williams Dissertator Fellowship allowed me time to write, and travel funds enabled me to do the research. Numerous faculty development and travel grants from Carroll University supported later research trips and conference presentations. Thanks to Sue Lewis for financial assistance from Carroll’s Faculty Development Fund. Students Emily Claflin and Lucas Phelps assisted with the final manuscript’s preparation.
My scholarly and personal debts remain intertwined. Many fellow graduate students provided support, particularly in my early years. Megan Balzer, Thea Browder, Flannery Burke, Kendra Smith-Howard, Katie Benton-Cohen, Maggie Hogan, and Stacey Smith all helped me traverse the early hurdles of graduate school. I thank Molly Todd for many things, but helping to found a dissertator writing group is certainly one of them. Along with Michelle Morgan, Libbie Freed, and Gary Marquardt, she provided excellent feedback on some early drafts. Without Michelle’s friendship, support, and critical reading skills, this book would not be what it is today. I am grateful for having such a terrific fellow academic-parent-writer with whom to share this journey. Friends around the country offered me hospitality and company during research trips and conferences. Thanks to Michelle, Kira Blaisdell-Sloan, Stacey Pelika, Joanne Penko, Amanda Jamieson, Sharon and John Tapia, Tom Bernard, Molly Milano, and Cami Johnson for keeping me sane on those trips.
My final thanks go to my family. Without the examples of my historian parents, Daniel Markwyn and Jo Markwyn, I would never have set off on this path in the first place. And their support has never faltered. During this project they served as child care providers, long-distance research assistants, editors, and sources of financial and emotional support, and I thank them a thousand times over for all of it. Thanks go to Jon and Jody Kasparek and Margaret Hostetler for loving our children. Finally, I dedicate this book to my husband, Kevin Guilfoy, and our children: James, who arrived as I was beginning this research many years ago; William; Harry; and Molly, who joined us between submitting the manuscript and reviewing the copy edits. You remind me that although I love the past, the present matters more.
