The secret messages of San Francisco's Summer of Love

Fifty years after the iconic counterculture awakening, the city's de Young museum pays homage with an immersive exhibition of mind-bending visuals

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"Incredible Poetry Reading,' Ferlinghetti, Wieners, Meltzer, Whalen, Welch, McClure, Ginsberg, June 8, Norse Auditorium," 1968
(Image credit: Victor Moscoso | Image Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)
(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)While many other cities around the country were dealing with serious racial upheaval, San Francisco was incubating a new social paradigm of)

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)"It seems surprising, but I don't think the posters in the aggregate have ever really been considered as a visual expression of the San Fra)

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)At the Summer of Love's height, more than one million posters were reportedly being printed and snatched up by Bay Area locals and farther-)

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco))

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)San Francisco's artists developed their poster designs within brain-trust collectives like the Family Dog — a commune and promotions compan)

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco))

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)While the seasons changed on the Summer of Love, its impact on the zeitgeist was indisputable."When the music ended and the lights came on,)

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco))

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco))

(Image credit: (Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)**The Summer of Love Experience is on exhibit at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's de Young, through Aug. 20.**)

Sarah Eberspacher
Sarah Eberspacher

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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