Exhibitions – Haggin Museum

Thomas D. Mangelsen: A Life in the Wild

A Life in the Wild is an exhibition containing 40 of Mangelsen’s most resonant images—images that take viewers on a journey into the haunts of iconic species whose struggles for survival are metaphorical fulcrums for reflection in the 21st century.

Every single image in Mangelsen’s portfolio has been taken in the wild under natural conditions; the result of him waiting for the “picture perfect moment” across decades and often in hostile conditions. Such a body of work can only be achieved by having a heightened sense of animal behavior, an uncanny feel for being able to read changing atmospherics in the environment, and patience.

At a time when digital technology is, notoriously, reprogramming its users to have shorter attention spans, A Life in the Wild stands as a testament to the rewards that can come to people who slow down their lives and wait for nature’s revelations to happen.

This exhibition stands as a testament to the rewards that can come to people who slow down their lives and wait for nature’s revelations to happen. It showcases Mangelsen’s signature, award-winning photographs of landscape and wildlife in all seven continents. Polar Dance, for example, is a whimsical portrait of polar bears appearing to prance in the Arctic that National Geographic called one of the most important of our time for getting viewers to ponder the consequences of climate change.

The collection of photos includes Mangelsen’s Catch of the Day, one of the most widely circulated wildlife photographs in history, showing the exact moment that a spawning salmon, trying to leap over a small waterfall along Alaska’s Brooks River, soars right into the awaiting jaws of a massive brown bear. Catch of the Day was not only a monumental achievement in photography because it occurred before the advent of digital cameras and involves no digital manipulation, but also because thousands of photographers have attempted to emulate it. Like all of the photographs in the exhibition, it sparks conversation.

Thomas D. Mangelsen – A Life in the Wild, Produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C., David J. Wagner, Ph.D., Curator/Tour Director

Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected 1899 – 1935

A selection of images curated from the photography archive of Wyoming homesteader and photographer Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962). Chronicle the domestic, social, and economic aspects of the sparsely populated frontier of south-central Wyoming. Also included is a collection of images from her time in Stockton, CA.

Caterpillar: Celebrating 100 Years

Coinciding with Caterpillar Inc. celebrating its centennial, this exhibition will give viewers insight into the extraordinary contributions of Stockton’s own Benjamin Holt and the Holt Manufacturing Company.

E.O. Hoppé: Women | Portraits of Achievement in Art, Science, Literature, and Politics

This powerful exhibition explores Emil Otto Hoppé’s contribution to the recognition of accomplished women of the early twentieth century, and cements his status as a leading portrait photographer of the age. At a time of women’s suffrage and sweeping change in the roles and social expectations of women, Hoppe’s approach to photographing women was revolutionary. He was a key ally in the celebration of women of achievement, photographing many pioneering figures in art, literature, science, sport, screen and stage.

Bold in their approach, Hoppé’s portraits of women reveal an inherent understanding of his sitter’s personalities and energy. Rather than merely flatter his subjects, he aimed to be true to their character. His portraits feature figures recognized for their pathfinding and frequently difficult work, including Sylvia Pankhurst, Vita Sackville-West, Ellen Terry, Margot Fonteyn and many others. His photographs commemorate these women’s achievements and their active participation in, and contribution to, modern society.

E.O. Hoppé: Women | Portraits ofAchievement in Art, Science, Literature, and Politics was
organized in collaboration with the E.O. Hoppe Estate Collection and is toured by Curatorial
Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.

Enigma: Bronze Sculptures by Oceana Rain Stuart

Enigma: Bronze Sculptures by Oceana Rain Stuart features a collection of bronze sculptures from several of the artist’s series: Beautiful Aspects of Darkness, Fragments, and Eternity, as well as the original works from the lunar and deep-space missions.

Her work reflects on the qualities that shape humanity and the resilience of the human spirit while exploring the interplay between the conscious and subconscious. Stuart employs unique molding techniques and surface treatments that subtly blend realism with surrealism. Renowned for her emotionally charged, symbolic sculptures, she has become one of today’s leading realistic figurative sculpture artists.

Stuart is a figurative bronze sculptor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has exhibited in numerous accredited museums and galleries, including the National Sculpture Society, Leonardo da Vinci Society, Natural History Museum, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Sicily, and the Louvre; and featured in several prominent publications, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona: Escultura, and Leonardo: A Book of International Art Masters.

Lunar Legacy

On February 22, 2024, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lunar lander, Odysseus, successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole—the first U.S. lunar landing since 1972.

Among the 12 payloads was the Codex Nova collection, featuring artworks from the Lunar Codex Museum of Art, including Stuart’s bronze sculpture Reminiscence. Stuart is one of the pioneering female artists to have artwork on the Moon. This mission, now recognized as a de facto Artemis Accords Heritage Site, preserves the IM-1 Lunar lander and its contents as part of humanity’s cultural legacy.

In total, 22 of Stuart’s bronze sculptures are part of the Lunar Codex Museum, with future missions planned for the Moon, deep space, and Mars. The next mission, destined for the Lunar surface – carrying 22 of her works, is scheduled for January 2025.

Textures of Remembrance: Vietnamese Artists and Writers Reflect on the Vietnamese Diaspora

Through contemporary art and writings, Textures of Remembrance: Vietnamese Artists and Writers Reflect on the Vietnamese Diaspora explores a date that impacts many Vietnamese Americans: April 30, 1975, the official end of the war in Vietnam.

April 30 is a date often remembered poignantly, especially by those of South Vietnamese descent; as well, it is a date that denotes new beginnings. On this date in 1975, North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War. Reflecting on this day from past to present through written words, visual creations, and audiovisual components, this interdisciplinary exhibit reveals an intimate perspective of the diasporic experience that has been gathered, created, collected and re-collected, and imagined and re-imagined since 1975.

These stories of personal struggles and memories demonstrate the effects of the Vietnam war on identity, sense of family and community, and representation. Importantly, this exhibition shares works made within and for the Vietnamese diasporic community, and by emerging writers and artists, to humanize the Vietnamese diasporic/refugee experience from the inside-out.

The project aims to present a humanities-driven exploration of the impact of the Vietnam War, collect and share stories in the diasporic Vietnamese community to foster healing and connection, build intergenerational and cross-cultural understanding, and counter stereotypes of and racism towards Vietnamese Americans and refugees.

Textures of Remembrance is a traveling exhibit created in partnership by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, Exhibit Envoy, and Oakland Asian Cultural Center. This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and California Arts Council, a state agency with a mission to strengthen arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. Visit calhum.org and arts.ca.gov.

Jerome Biederman Automobile Illustrations

Transportation was his passion.

Born in 1913, Jerome Biederman was a nationally recognized illustrator of transportation. Whether his subject was an automobile, aircraft, or locomotive, his renderings were technically accurate and highly detailed. His medium of choice was tempera paint on illustration board.

After graduating from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, he entered the advertising world where he did almost everything except illustration. By 1940, he chose to leave the corporate advertising world and return to the creative atmosphere of a studio.

For many years, Biederman’s steadiest assignments and commissions came from calendar companies. His work appeared regularly in Automobile Quarterly, Horseless Carriage Gazette and other magazines. Before Biederman passed away in 1996, he donated many of his illustrations to the Detroit Historical Society’s collection.

This traveling exhibition, on loan from the Detroit Historical Society, features 28 colorful and painterly framed renderings of automobiles spanning the years 1903 through 1955. These include many manufacturers that no longer exist, such as Lozier, Paige, Brush, and Scripps-Booth.

94th Annual Robert T. McKee Student Art Exhibition

Celebrate the arts in education during the 94th Annual Robert T. McKee Student Art Exhibition, the country’s longest-running museum-sponsored student art exhibit! This event features the work of student artists from kindergarten through grade 12. The show was first envisioned by founding patron Robert T. McKee, who aimed to encourage students by providing a public venue for their artwork. All schools in San Joaquin County—public, private, charter, parochial, and home schools—receive invitations to submit their work.

On average, Haggin receives 1,000 pieces of art chosen by the teachers as the best in their class. The Museum’s temporary galleries will be filled with two- and three-dimensional artworks created in crayon, colored pencil, pastel, watercolor, oil and acrylic paint, photography, and other mediums.

All San Joaquin County K-12 teachers are invited to drop off student artwork on January 30 & 31 between 2:30 – 5:30 pm and February 1 between 1:30 – 4:30 pm. Click the link to learn more and download the 2025 McKee Student Art guidelines.

Artists’ Reception: 94th Annual Robert T. McKee Student Art Exhibit

This year the museum will hold an artists’ reception for students, their families, and teachers on March 1. This event is FREE to everyone and sponsored by the Junior Women’s

National Geographic’s Pristine Seas: Bringing the Ocean Back

Pristine Seas: Bringing the Ocean Back, a photo exhibition curated by the National Geographic Society, will open at the Haggin Museum on November 7, 2024. The exhibition draws upon over a decade worth of global expeditions conducted by the National Geographic Pristine Seas project to document and protect the ocean so it can heal, rebound, and regenerate.

The exhibition highlights the importance of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a mechanism for protecting and restoring the world’s ocean. Through the exhibition’s narrative, photography, and film, visitors will learn how the Pristine Seas team supports Indigenous Peoples, local communities and governments in the creation of MPAs.

Visitors will explore the team’s expeditions ranging from the tropical coral reefs of the Southern Line Islands to the icebergs of the Antarctic Peninsula. Through stunning imagery and stories that highlight the scientific methods used on these expeditions, the exhibition will showcase Pristine Seas’ continued commitment to protecting ocean life.

Since 2008, the National Geographic Pristine Seas project has carried out 36 expeditions and helped establish 25 marine protected areas covering over 6.5 million square kilometers of ocean—an area more than twice the size of India.

“This exhibition is a testament to the Pristine Seas team’s unyielding commitment to safeguard the blue heart of our planet,” said Kathryn Keane, vice president of public programming and National Geographic Museum director. “The Pristine Seas team combines exploration and rigorous research with powerful storytelling. The goal of this exhibition is to immerse visitors in the beauty of the sea while reiterating why we must preserve it.”

Pristine Seas actively supports the global goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. Not only will this be beneficial for marine life, but also for communities through fisheries benefits, increased food security, and mitigation of climate change.

“To protect vital ocean places we need to combine research with compelling visuals, to inspire people through both minds and hearts. I am thrilled to bring over a decade of filming and science into the first National Geographic Pristine Seas exhibition,” said Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and Pristine Seas Executive Director.

Follow Enric Sala on Instagram and Twitter, and Pristine Seas on Instagram and Twitter to stay up-to-date on their efforts across the globe.

Image credits: Featured Image: Photograph by Enric Sala, National Geographic; Location: Juan Fernández Archipelago, Chile; Expedition Dates: March 2017; Protection Status: Protected, 2018; Overhunted for its fur, the Juan Fernández fur seal was assumed extinct until a small herd of 200 was found in the 1960s. Now legally protected, an estimated 84,000 exist today, making it one of the most successful recovery stories in the animal kingdo.; Right Image: Location: Galápagos Islands, Ecuador Expedition Dates: November to December 2015 Protection Status: Protected, 2016 A young Galápagos sea lion approaches the camera. A diver’s paradise, the islands harbor over 2,900 known species of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammals. Key organisms include endemic seabirds, the world’s only marine iguana, and the highest abundance of sharks on the planet.; Bottom Right: Photograph by Manu San Félix, National Geographic; Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and the founder of Pristine Seas, surveys the snowy landscape of Franz Josef Land, Russia, in 2013. A former university professor, Sala saw himself writing the obituary of the ocean and quit academia to become a full-time conservationist.

Yardley’s People, Places, & Things

For over 50 years Ralph O. Yardley (1878 – 1961) captured the mood of his times in his illustrations and cartoons. He worked for many newspapers and publications such as the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle, Honolulu’s Pacific Commercial Advertiser, the San Francisco Bulletin, the New York Globe, and the San Francisco Call. In 1922 he returned to Stockton and spent three decades at the Stockton Record as its resident artist.

Yardley’s daily editorial cartoons dealt with the topical issues of the day and his artwork decorated the paper’s many special features, advertising supplements and holiday issues. One of his most popular contributions to the Record was his “Do You Remember” series, which he initiated in November of 1924. Published every Monday, these pen and ink sketches—based upon old photographs and the artist’s own memories—recalled the people, places, and events of Stockton’s past.

Ralph Yardley’s People, Places & Things showcases illustrations from the Haggin Museum’s collection which includes over 1,100 original works donated by the Record in 1970. This collection of images gives viewers a highly detailed glimpse into Stockton’s bygone era—often with humorous touches so characteristic of the artist. They serve as a wonderful visual history of Stockton and reflect the love that Yardley had for his hometown.

Archives: Exhibitions