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Yolo County Historical Collection

The Yolo County Historical Collection is comprised of 11,000 objects which date from the 1830s to the 1930s. The collection includes textiles, agricultural equipment, paintings, archival materials, ephemera, photographs, archaeological items, tools, ceramics, household items, furniture, and personal items. This collection illustrates what life was like for early Yolo County residents.

Yolo County Historical Collection
512 Gibson Rd
Woodland, CA 95695.
530-908-9421
sarah.bartlett@yolocounty.gov

The Museum is open:

Tuesdays & Thursdays: 12pm-4pm
Curator open hours one Saturday a month: 8am-4pm (6/28 | 7/19 | 8/16 | 9/27 | 10/18 | 11/15 | 12/20)
Open for docent led tours select Saturdays: 1pm & 2pm 
Admission is FREE

To schedule a research appointment with the Historical Collection email sarah.bartlett@yolocounty.gov.

Exhibitions

Click here for more information

Picturing Yolo County: Portraits and Painters in the Yolo County Historical Collection

March 6, 2025 – June 17,  2025

Opening Reception Thursday, March 6th, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm.

In 2023, the Yolo County Historical Collection sent fifteen frames and nine paintings to conservators to be restored. “Picturing Yolo County” features newly restored portraits made by and for Yolo County residents during the late 1800s. These portraits, while similar in style, exemplify the different ways that local artists chose to work within this art form. This exhibition examines Yolo County portraiture through the work of six 19th century local artists, Phoebe Olevia Hodgen, Calthea Campbell Vivian, Clara Brown, Louis Grund Joran, Carrie Blowers and Annie Blowers.

June 26th 2025 – May 16 2026

Opening Reception Thursday, June 26, 5:30pm – 7:00pm.

GIVE FACE 给面子 (Gěimiànzi) is an interdisciplinary exhibition unearthing and regrounding past, present, and future narratives of Chinese diaspora in the Sacramento Valley in the sweeping and ever-expanding story of what we currently call California. Archival objects trace the impact of Chinese Americans on Yolo County through the things they left behind, while contemporary artworks woven throughout the exhibit call our attention to their lived experiences, intimacies, and complexities. Using both documentation and speculation, artist Bz Zhang’s work creates dialog between Western ideas and a Chinese-diasporic cultural inheritance and offers ways to “give face” to (that is, to honor or show due respect for) Chinese ancestors in the US West. The stories of Chinese diaspora in Yolo County and the US West span oceans and continents, and their contributions transcend our infrastructures (from railways to agriculture) into the social and cultural fabric of our nation. Their stories are ours to carry into the shared futures we must build.

Picture Yourself in Yolo County Project

The Yolo County Historical Collection strives to create diverse exhibitions that show the history of all Yolo County residents. The goal of the Picture Yourself in Yolo County project is to work towards the telling of a more inclusive history through community collaboration. If you want to see yourself in the Gibson House, ask the Gibson House docent or your the Davis, West Sacramento, Clarksburg, and Yolo branches for the Picture Yourself in Yolo County activity.

Activity can be found here.

Learn More about the Yolo County Historical Collection

Subscribe to the monthly Historical Collection Newsletter here.

Interested in an Internship?

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