Donate via Flipcause one time or monthly
or become a
Patreon patron

Help:Contents

We hope you'll join in recounting San Francisco history by contributing your unique stories to San Francisco Memory: A Living Archive of the City. We invite you to create your own account and begin adding new writings, diaries from your grandparents, old family photos, historic images of the city, video clips of historic events you attended, scans of tickets, programs, etc. We also welcome comments on existing content, and repairs to errors where we might have made mistakes (one thing about doing a sprawling history project: there are always mistakes!).

The wiki format of the archive makes it easy to edit, add to, or create pages. Here's how:

To begin you'll need to Create an account, find this choice on the right sidebar. The Sandbox is a helpful place to experiment with editing if this is new to you.

Then:

  • Find the page you are interested in editing.
  • If the page is editable, you will see Edit on the right sidebar.
  • Click "Edit" to make changes to the text of the chosen page.
  • Use the Mediawiki toolbar above the text for easy wiki formatting.
  • Include a short note about your edits in the Summary field.
  • Click Save Page.
  • You can review your entry or edits by clicking Show Preview before you save your changes. (This is helpful to see how everything looks before you save...)

Help us fill in the blanks by contributing your words, stories, and memories to our pages denoted by Unfinished History .

You can also Create a New Page by entering your suggested Title in the Search field using the simplest title possible.
The Search Results page will come up with related or similar pages. Please scan this list to make sure a similar page does not exist. (If one does, and it can be edited or added to, try this option first!) We are looking for multiple perspectives on events, times, and locations, so feel free to create a new page.

If you would like to do this,

  • Click on Create this page at the top of the Search Results page to begin.
  • For general page formatting guidelines, see our Style Sheet

Please always aim to improve the overall contents of the wiki with your edits.

If you are having trouble with San Francisco Memory: A Living Archive of the City, or have any questions or feedback about the project, please get in contact with us and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

The administrators of San Francisco Memory reserve the right to remove unsuitable content at any time.