California State Archives

The California State Archives is closed today in observance of Veterans Day. Thank you to all of the brave men and women who have served in our armed services. In honor of #VeteransDay, we would like to share this poster dated December 10, 1988 from the opening of California's Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol in Sacramento (R367.04). Approximately 350,000 Californians served in Vietnam, and the memorial is engraved with the names of over 5,800 Californians who died in the war or are still missing. To learn more about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission records kept at the California State Archives, please check out this finding aid: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4t1nd2bn/

Minerva and Athena are back online. If you have any questions or for assistance with your research, please contact [email protected].

Minerva and Athena are currently down, but our team is working to restore services as quickly as possible. If you have any questions or for assistance with your research, please contact [email protected].

Happy #ElectionDay, California! If you haven’t already, make sure you VOTE today before polls close at 8PM! You can find your polling place here: https://FindMyPollingPlace.sos.ca.gov and if you have voting questions, you can call the California Secretary of State’s nonpartisan Voter Hotline at (800) 345-8683 until 8PM this evening. Featured below is a photograph of the The California K-30 Automatic Voting Machine made in 1962, a reminder of how far today’s voting technology has advanced. Happy Voting! #VoteSafeCA #VoteCalifornia

The virtual Sacramento Archives Crawl starts today. Be sure to check out the Sacramento Archives Crawl page for more videos!

One hundred and thirty years ago, Yosemite National Park was established on October 1st, 1890. First inhabited by ancestors of the Southern and Central Miwok tribes, Yosemite attracted large numbers of miners, settlers, and tourists following the start of the Gold Rush in 1849, resulting in damage to its ecosystem. At the urging of environmentalists and concerned citizens, President Lincoln proclaimed Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias a public trust of ...California in 1864, a landmark act that conserved land for the public for the first time in U.S. history and would be the predecessor to the state and national parks system. On October 1, 1890, the area surrounding Yosemite Valley was set aside as Yosemite National Park, and in 1906, the Yosemite and Mariposa Grove areas managed by California would become part of it as well. To learn more about the Yosemite National Park, explore our exhibit: Yosemite: California's First State Park. https://artsandculture.google.com//yosemite/TQLyBkDz4JgbLg

On this day in 1962, the National Farm Workers Association was founded by labor leaders and activists Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. They witnessed and understood the plight of the farm workers in California. They worked to negotiate labor contracts and better working conditions for farm laborers. Their hard work paved the way for legislative action and the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which permitted farm workers to collectively bargain.

We are overwhelmed by the fantastic submissions we are receiving from you! There is still time to submit your personal COVID 19 experience to be captured in our State's history.

Building on Governor Culbert Olson’s 1939 declaration of October first as Indian Day, in 1968 the fourth Friday of September was designated as Native American Day and became an official state holiday in 1998. Featured are recent governmental documents regarding Native American Day a Governor’s Proclamation by Governor Edmund Brown, Jr., as well as House Resolution 95 by Assemblymember James Ramos, the first California Indian elected to the CA State Assembly. Introduced ...in May of this year, HR-95 expresses the significance of Native American Day, states the importance of the accurate teaching of California Indian History, and announces today’s California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference dedicated to the enhancement of awareness of California Indian culture; (HR 95, Ramos). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/fa/billTextClient.xhtml (HR-95, Ramos, NA Day 2020) [Source: https://indiancountrytoday.com//52nd-annual-california-nat] See more

Our online exhibit, Spanning the Bay, to explore the history and construction of one of Northern California’s most recognizable pieces of infrastructure - the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Drawing from an incredible collection of photographs from the Department of Public Works, the exhibit depicts the Bay bridge at each stage of construction and highlights the workers who built it.

We can’t wait! See you in October!

#OnThisDay in 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed. Today we would like to share California’s first Constitution, which was approved in 1849 and was published in both English and Spanish. Be sure to check out the full text and images of these historic documents on our website: http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/constitutions/. #California #CaliforniaHistory #CAArchives #ConstitutionDay

We are less than a month away from this years virtual Archives Crawl! We hope you can join!

On Admission Day, we’d also like to share California’s first constitution, which was approved in 1849 and was published in both English and Spanish. Be sure to check out the full text and images of these historic documents on our website: http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/constitutions/. #California #CaliforniaHistory #HappyBirthday #CAArchives

California is 170 today! On this day in 1850, California was officially admitted to the Union, becoming the 31st state in the nation. Pictured here are blueprints are from the 1948-1950 California Centennial Commission, which lay out a design for a celebratory California birthday cake and an image of a centennial parade.

It’s that time again! Here we have another Mystery Image from our William M. McCarthy Collection. This 1935 photograph features an unidentified hotel in Yosemite National Park. Do you know anything about this structure? If so, let us know in the comments! [McCarthy Album 10, Photograph 297, California State Archives Exhibits, http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/items/show/10020]

The California State Archives would like to wish you a safe and happy Labor Day!

On this day in history in 1878, Clara Foltz became the first woman admitted to the bar exam in California. Foltz went on to become the first woman lawyer on the West Coast, following in the footsteps of Arabella Mansfield, who in 1869 became the first female lawyer in the United States. Foltz not only became the first female lawyer in California, but she also wrote Senate Bill 66, also known as the Woman Lawyer’s Bill, which amended Code of Civil Procedure 275 to enable women to practice law in the state of California. The bill, held among our governmental records at the State Archives, was passed in the 1877-1878 session of the CA State legislature. Featured here is the Bill’s title page.