 The founding of CSE is intimately connected with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), a world's fair held in 1915 in San Francisco to showcase the city's recovery from the 1906 earthquake.It was Joseph Pennell, scheduled to be a juror for this event, who inspired a handful of local printmakers to launch the California Society of Etchers in preparation for that great event.Pennell, perhaps the best known American etcher, local to New York City and London, had traveled to Panama to sketch the construction of the Canal, then traveled to San Francisco where he produced a series of etchings of San Francisco, exhibiting them in 1912 in San Francisco.