In-person tours are back! If you are a new, long-time, or prospective member the Tour of the Institute will orient you to our building, include an overview of our history and mission, and outline our current services and the benefits of membership.
The Writers Lunch is a casual chat with our writers community on the 3rd Friday of each month. This month we discuss the Joy of Travel and Adventure Writing. Join us, share, and learn!
Join the Mechanics' Institute and the Institute for Historical Study for this exciting talk about writing with historian Megan Kate Nelson.
Discuss Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote with fellow members.
Learn settings and features to extend your battery life and protect your privacy.
Richly illustrated by the author, My Little Plague Journal is a quirky window into the mind of “a veteran flâneur" and a chronicle of our time.
Beginner or intermediate player, join us for an 8-week course and learn the fundamentals of the Royal Game with MI Chess Room Coordinator, FIDE Master Paul Whitehead.
This presentation about three men and their families, all Chinese immigrants, offers a historical landscape of Chinatowns in San Francisco and other western cities, from immigrant labor to entrepreneurship.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in Partnership with Arts Midwest.
Take a tour of what’s available on MI’s robust streaming service: Great Courses, cinema, documentaries, and more!
Sublimely entertaining, and featuring some of the best musical and comedy talent of the day.
Discuss selections from The Nose and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol translated by Susanne Fusso with fellow members.
William Powell is a down-and-outer plucked from an ash heap and hired as butler to an eccentric wealthy family.
This new biography—featuring over 150 archival images and full-color photographs printed throughout—introduces Julia Morgan as both a pioneering architect and a captivating individual. Learn more about her life and work in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
During this walk, we’ll explore the legendary Barbary Coast.
Comedy and drama are woven throughout this riff on Lysistrata, appearing just eleven years after passage of the 19th Amendment.
Join two storytelling professionals IN-PERSON to learn about how to be better at storytelling — AND to use our stories about people we love as a gift.
Discuss Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor with fellow members.
This compelling period piece is listed in the National Film Registry and on Time's 2007 list of "The 25 Most Important Films on Race."
