ART

In San Francisco, The Airport is a Museum

Fine Art! Pop Culture! Aviation! Victorian Silver Plate!

Museum Exhibit at SFO. Photo by author

If you love museums and your travel plans include flying through the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) you’re in luck.

Thanks to the SFO museum, there are a number of concise, beautifully-curated exhibits scattered throughout the airport’s four terminals on topics ranging from from motorcycles to hair styles. Want to know more about Victorian Silver Plate? The history of overnight flight? The role commercial airlines played during the Vietnam war?

If you get to the airport early or have some time to kill between flights, you can enjoy learning a little more about all of these things.

The History of Hair Styles

After a recent visit to the Bay Area, I arrived at SFO early to catch a flight back to Philadelphia. Wandering through Terminal One in search of distraction, I came upon a terrific exhibit about — hairstyles! A series of large glass display cases were packed with fun information about the way American women’s hair styles have changed over the past century, with lots of photos, and examples of the many gadgets women (and their stylists) have used to achieve those styles, from early curling irons and hair dryers to afro picks and…