The gleaming white walls of the Palace of Education glow in late afternoon light and mirror themselves perfectly in the still waters of the Fine Arts Lagoon — a vision of Beaux-Arts splendor that drew millions of visitors to San Francisco in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal and the city's own phoenix-like rebirth after the catastrophic 1906 earthquake. Designed by architect W. B. Faville in a composite Byzantine and Spanish Renaissance style at a cost of $304,263, the palace is shown here from its western facade, its green-domed rotunda framing a monumental oval portal, with willow fronds draping gracefully at left. Published by the Souvenir Guide Publishers out of the Hobart Building, San Francisco — one of the official PPIE souvenir houses — this hand-tinted card captures the fairgrounds at the height of their brief, glittering existence; the exposition ran only ten months before the temporary buildings were demolished. A penciled price mark of "3-" appears in the stamp box corner, likely a dealer's notation.