California Historical Society, Historical museum in Yerba Buena District, San Francisco, US
The California Historical Society is a museum on Mission Street in San Francisco's Yerba Buena District. It displays exhibitions on California's past and holds large collections of documents, photographs, and objects from across different periods of the state's history.
The organization was founded in the 19th century as a scholarly society to record California's development through collections of documents and artifacts. Over time its holdings grew to cover the many phases and events that shaped the state.
The exhibitions here present stories of California's many different communities through objects, photographs, and written documents spanning different periods. You can see how diverse groups of people shaped the state over time.
A storefront display on Mission Street can be viewed at any time from outside. For those who want to go further, the museum also offers digital collections online that can be browsed from anywhere.
The collections include rare materials from the Gold Rush era, such as original maps and personal diaries from the mid-1800s. These objects shed light on the everyday lives of those who came to California seeking gold, from a firsthand perspective.
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