Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

[4] In 1931, the two museums were informally united for the first time when Lloyd LaPage Rollins took over the directorship of the Legion of Honor and was simultaneously appointed the first director of the de Young.

Thirty years later, it was renamed in honor of newspaper publisher Michael Henry de Young, a longtime champion of the museum.

The Legion of Honor was inspired by the French pavilion, a replica of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur in Paris, at San Francisco's Panama–Pacific International Exposition of 1915.

[8] In June 2020, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) took a public stance in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, and in November 2020, the institution revised its strategic plan to focus and center DEIA initiatives.

To overcome this barrier to diversity and equity, the Museums created four two-year fellowship positions and eight full-time paid summer internships.