Museums, Parks & Tours

Cities, Counties, Historical Societies and National Park Service Resources:

• Cupertino Historical Society and Museum

• Los Altos History Museum

• History San José Park has links to images and history of their exhibit buildings, to ethnic clubs housed at the park, and to other regional history resources.

• Mountain View Historical Association & Museum

• National Park Service: Virtual Tour of Silicon Valley 

• National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County

• Native American Museums and Historic Groups

• Excellent Wikipedia list of historic sites in Santa Clara County (more complete than the NPS link above.)

• Palo Alto History Museum

• Saratoga Historical Society Museum

• Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum

General Museums and Parks (not listed in above lists):

• Cantor Center for Visual Arts , Stanford University

• Emma Prusch Park and Farm, San Jose

• Museum of American Heritage, Palo Alto

• Moffett Field Historical Society & Museum, Mountain View

• Remembering Frontier Village, a sweet, nostalgic site by 'pardners' remembering this local park which closed in 1980.

Guided Historic Walks:

• San Jose' Walks and Talks - Downtown San Jose' walking tours led by high school students who have researched San Jose's fascinating lore and legends, with high school instructor, Greg Adler. The students hope to gain job skills by introducing others to San Jose's unique characters, history and architecture. Private and corporate tours, plus specifically tailored tours for your organization or group, are available.

Pioneer Families:

• California Pioneers on Santa Clara Valley History 

• SCC Pioneers Film Archive

Santa Clara County Exhibits and Articles:

• The National Park Service on the early history of Santa Clara Valley

• Online Archive of California - Santa Clara Mission historical documents

• The Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History at San Jose State University has a large collection of photographs and historical ephemera on the history of Santa Clara County, as well as a staff of trained historians to assist visitors.

(Please see my Archives & Libraries page for more historical museums and resources.)

---Catherine Alexander Bright, SiliconValleyLibrarian.org