The 1983 23rd Summer Olympics were largely held in Los Angeles. However, several events took place in Ventura County. Lake Casitas hosted canoeing and rowing events, which created many job and volunteer opportunities for Ventura County residents. This collection consists...

Christina Murphy Allison and David N. Allison lived in Santa Barbara after marrying in 1980. She was an accomplished soprano who traveled widely for her performances. He was a well-known tractor collector and scholar. He also authored several articles on...

Merrill Carr Allyn, born in 1904, moved to Upper Ojai with his family when he was four years old. After graduating from Ventura High School in 1922, he developed a lifelong interest in boating and sea life. He started working...

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) records contain the minutes, financial records, publications, news clippings and other ephemera from the Ventura County branches of the AAUW between 1916 and 1991. The Ventura County chapter, first formed in 1916, was...

Andy Anderson is senior vice-president of operations at energy company Aera. Headquartered in Bakersfield, Aera is a major oil and gas producer. Anderson has worked in the energy sector for over 35 years. He has a chemical engineering degree from...

Andy Anderson is senior vice-president of operations at energy company Aera. Headquartered in Bakersfield, Aera is a major oil and gas producer. Anderson has worked in the energy sector for over 35 years. He has a chemical engineering degree from...

The Arnaz, Wagner, Levy, Waterman, Barnes, Denton, Walker papers contain information about Jose de Arnaz, John B. Wagner, Joseph Levy, Anna A. Levy, William M. Waterman, William Henry Barnes, Joseph S. Denton and Lena Cannon Walker; all noteworthy individuals in...

This collection was donated to the Museum of Ventura County by the County of Ventura, represented by Robert L. Hamm, county clerk and recorder. This collection contains the articles of incorporation for various businesses, clubs and associations in Ventura County...

Lila Atkisson, born in Long Beach, California, was director of public health administration and education for the Ventura County Public Health Services until retiring in 1983. As director, Atkisson oversaw the county's immunization programs, family planning and prenatal care, WIC...

The Bertha Ayers papers contains memorabilia belonging to Bertha Ayers Linder, the wife of Mayor Fred Linder. The collection includes letters, documents, newspapers, and other ephemera from Ayers' life, as well as eight school notebooks belonging to Winnie Smith, circa...

Cephas Little Bard, born April 7, 1843 in Pennsylvania, was a well-known physician and prominent citizen of Ventura County in the late 19th century. Bard co-founded Ventura's first hospital and was also a prominent medical researcher. His collection of curios...

The Bard family is one of the most influential families in Ventura County history. The family moved to the area from Pennsylvania by Thomas R. Bard in the 1860s. He was soon followed by his brother, Cephas "Little" Bard, who...

Albert Depue Barnes was Ventura County district attorney from 1934 to 1937. Born in 1906 in California, he began practicing law in 1928. He married Annette Pearle Vehlow in 1933 in Santa Barbara, and they both lived in Ventura County...

The Blanchard family of Santa Paula dates back to when Nathan Weston Blanchard, Sr., arrived in Ventura County in 1872. The Blanchards purchased part of the Saticoy y Santa Paula land grant from E.B. Higgins where they would eventually establish...

The Nathan W. Blanchard collection consists of photographs, illustrations, papers, diaries, letters and other ephemera regarding the Blanchard family from the 1860s to the 1970s. Nathan W. Blanchard (1831-1917), who would later be a co-founder the Limoneira Company and oversee...

Donated by community member and long-time resident of Ojai William (Bill) Bowie, this collection of printed material contains information on the history of Ojai and its first families, initial maps, and establishment of businesses. The collection also includes records and...

The Camarillo family of Ventura County traces its heritage back to Juan Camarillo, Sr. Born on May 27, 1812 in Mexico City to Luis and Maria Camarillo, Juan came to California with the Hijar-Padres Expedition in 1834. He married Martina...

The collection contains the records for Villa Caliente Enterprises of La Jolla, California. The Business was started in 1968 to celebrate San Diego's 200th anniversary and the California Bicentennial. The business was the proprietorship of Virginia "Chris" Borgen, who handled...

This collection contains photographs, newspaper clippings and historical highlights of Boy Scout activities, ceremonies and events throughout Ventura County. This collection was donated to the museum by Thomas R. Carr, a lifelong Eagle Scout in Ventura County who served under...

Joseph "Dick" Chaiclin was born in Connecticut in 1934, but moved to Ventura in the 1960s. He worked for the county until retiring in 2000. His father Abraham Chaiclin was an electrical and telephone engineer for Western Electric and Bell...

Children's Home Society of California has been providing adoption services and child welfare programs since 1891. Beginning as a Los Angeles based foundation, CHS has expanded its services throughout the state of California, including Ventura County. This collection contains one...

Community member Malinda Pennoyer Chouinard conducted an historic resources inventory from 1975 to 1976 in the interest of designating buildings and areas within Ventura and Oxnard as historical sites, landmarks, districts and zones of limited development. This collection includes documents...

Church of the Foothills was the first Protestant church in Ventura County. Throughout its first hundred years, Church of the Foothills consisted of two churches: The First Congregational Church of San Buenaventura and the Saticoy Community Church. Church of the...

Ventura County has been home to numerous clubs and organizations throughout its history. This collection consists of archival materials from 1881 to 1998. Assembled by the repository, this collection contains important papers, including minutes and reports; membership directories and yearbooks;...

This collection consists of glass plate negatives donated by Bert Seymour and photographer David W. Hill. Both donations include images captured by local photographers John C. Brewster and Waldo Henry Dingman, Sr. The collection is composed entirely of glass plate...

This artificial collection was created by library staff and the history of each item may differ. The maps are mostly of Ventura County, but there are several other locations represented, including California, Oregon, and Arizona. The maps include aerial photographs,...

The Colonia Oil Company was an Oxnard-based business incorporated in 1909 that held oil interests and land in the Oxnard area and around Piru. While there is sparse information regarding the company's earliest activities, it may have been active and...

Erastus Wright Daily moved to Ventura County with his brothers, Charles J., and Wendell P., in the 1880s. He started out as an employee on Patterson Ranch and eventually owned his own successful farm in Camarillo, cultivating sugar beets, lima...

The Dingman collection consists of photographs, negatives, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera from professional photographer Waldo Henry Dingman, Sr. (1872-1955) and World War I veteran Waldo Henry Dingman, Jr. (1898-1986). Dingman Sr.'s images represent life and culture in Ventura County...

Charles John Feraud was the son of Julius Feraud, who immigrated from France and operated the Feraud General Merchandise Store and Feraud Bakery in what is now known as the 1903 Building. The family operated their store out of this...

This is an artificial, rapid response collection put together by staff while researching firefighting within the county following the Thomas Fire in 2017. Items include reports, plans, and other publications from the Ventura County Fire Department and other fire departments...

This collection was compiled by students in Charles Seeman's anthropology and music classes at Moorpark College. His students collected items and wrote reports on local folklore. Materials include reports and presentations, a cassette tape, donation forms, and a notebook.

The Forum of the Arts was founded in 1961. The purpose of the Forum was to advance the interest, influcence and usefulness of the arts in the community by providing a creative outlet. The papers consist of undated reports, financial...

William "Bill" Friend was a former resident of Ojai and later Ventura. Friend was also a local historian. He passed away on April 14, 2011. This collection contains photographs, notes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, newsletters, reports, maps, periodicals, and research compiled...

The Gould family first moved to Ventura in 1887, when Thomas Gould (1851-1934) and Ella Elizabeth Crane Gould (1852-1945) moved their family, Ella's family, and Thomas's brother and his wife to the town. The families moved from Caldwell, New Jersey,...

T. William "Bill" Hale was a local architect and civil engineer. In 1967 he was Thousand Oaks' first director of public works. He owned the Ventura engineering and surveying firm, Robert Martin and Associates, which was sold to Ed Campbell...

David W. Hill, born in 1923 in Blanchard, North Dakota, moved to Ventura in 1932 with him family as a child. After graduating from high school, he joined the Army during World War II. He graduated from Northridge College, and...

These papers were created by one branch of the Hobson family, early settlers in what is now known as Ventura County. Abram Lincoln Hobson (1861 – 1929) owned land throughout southern California and was an owner of Hobson Brothers Packing...

A number of documents in the collection refer to H. A. Flint or Flint family members. Henry Flint was an early Ventura County pioneer farmer/rancher in Santa Paula and Saticoy. Upon his death, Flint's property was sold to the Leavens...

The ledgers in this collection were donated to the museum over several years. Many belong to either the Superior Court of Ventura County or various offices and departments within the county's administration, as well as several private businesses or clubs....

The collection pertains to Achille Levy's personal and business life. Levy was a businessman, banker, and community leader in Ventura County. Born in 1853 in Mommenheim, France, he was 18 years old when he immigrated to California. After a two-year...

This collection represents 89 years of the Robert Martin and Associates civil engineering firm, and later U.S.A. Architects, in Ventura County. It includes the work of six civil engineers and their staff, with the bulk of the collection created by...

The McGuire family lived in the Upper Ojai Valley for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nancy Darrah and William McGuire were married in 1875 in Ohio. William entered the milling business with Thomas Clark and bought...

Madeline Miedema was an Oxnard historian and educator. Born in 1909 in Michigan, her family moved to Oxnard when she was 9 years old. She attended school in Oxnard and received post-secondary education at University of California Berkeley and the...

John Nichols of Santa Paula, California is a local historian, photographer, and writer. Much of his work has focused on the St. Francis Dam disaster and his research on the 1928 dam break led to the 2002 work for Arcadia...

John C. Orr, born in Ventura County, is a fourth-generation lawyer and farmer. His great-grandfather, Orestes Orlando Orr, opened his law practice in downtown Ventura in 1882. In 1910 Orestes' son Harold Frank Orr joined his father's firm. In 1915...

Ventura County historian Charles F. Outland was born in Santa Paula on August 30, 1910. Due to his keen interest in local history, Outland began collecting books and historical materials and later became actively involved in the Ventura County Historical...

The was a newspaper located in Oxnard, California from roughly 1899-1994. The paper ceased publication in June 1994 due to stiff competition from the . This collection consists of the paper's morgue and negatives. A newspaper morgue is a reference...

The Patterson Ranch Company was a livestock, dairy, and agricultural farm originally located on the Oxnard plains. The ranch was owned by New York farmer John D. Patterson, who hired managers to run the farm for him. Peter Hartveld, a...

The People v. Elizabeth Duncan trial was heard at the Superior Court of California in Ventura County regarding the murder of Olga Duncan by Augustine Baldonado and Luis Estrada Moya at the behest of Olga Duncan's mother-in-law, Elizabeth Ann Duncan....

The People's Lumber Company was a lumber and construction supply company established in Ventura in 1890. The company was the main supplier of lumber and construction supplies until it reoriented its business to focus on real estate investments in the...

The Saticoy Poinsettia Club was incorporated in 1899 and was originally named the Saticoy Literary and Social Club until 1902. It was formed for the purpose of promoting sociality among its members and for the betterment of their recently established...

This collection pertains to Ventura Counsel No. 99 of the Sociedade Portuguesa Rainha Santa Isabel (S.P.R.S.I.). The society was a non-profit charitable and social sorority whose members are of Portuguese lineage and was active in Ventura County. The collection consists...

The Bard family played an important part in the development of Ventura County, particularly Port Hueneme. The family also established Quimichis Colony in Mexico, which involved acquiring 75,000 acres of land in western Mexico between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The...

Los Rancheros Visitadores, or the Visiting Ranchers, is a Santa Barbara-based social club; however, many of its members are also from Ventura County. The club is most known for its annual 60-mile trek through the Santa Ynez Valley. James Albert...

Rancho Las Posas and Rancho Simi were both Mexican land grants that were owned by the de la Guerra y Noriega family of Santa Barbara. They cover large portions of present-day Camarillo, Moorpark, Simi Valley, the Oxnard Plains, and western...

The Reardon family moved from the Midwest around the turn of the century and is well known for establishing a mortuary in Ventura, as well as others in Oxnard and Simi Valley. Oliver Louis Reardon and Mary Agnes O'Leary Reardon...

Herbert F. Ricard was a local historian and writer. He authored MVC quarterly Volume 17, Issue 2 "Place Names of Ventura County" (1972-73). This collection contains Ricard's research and notes, including his notes on place names within the county that...

This collection was donated by the Saticoy Historical Society, which was active between 1991 and 2014. The society collected items, histories, and artefacts related to the history of Saticoy. It includes both their administrative files and the items they collected...

Saticoy Lionettes was a women's auxiliary group of the Saticoy Lions Club, whose purpose was to promote sociability among its members as well as promote civic welfare. Saticoy Lionettes formed in 1964 and the collection includes the club's organizational records...

The Southern Pacific Milling Company (SP Milling) was primarily a milling and quarrying company that had operations in several locations throughout California's central coast, with major operations in El Rio and in Ventura. The company was active from around 1886...

The Saint Francis Dam disaster took place in the late night and early morning hours of March 12-13, 1928. The concrete gravity dam collapsed and sent a tide of water through the Santa Clara River Valley and out to the...

Most of the material pertains to the following four individuals: However, Ventura County history is also recorded herein, as it touched and affected these individuals. A catalog of the collection follows this introduction....

The eight large scrapbooks in the collection were given to Mr. Thomas R. Carr several years prior to 1994 when they were found in a warehouse that was being cleaned out by the organization. To these scrapbooks Mr. Carr added...

This collection contains the records of the Ventura County Historical Records Commission. They were generated during the compilation of records later published as a retention manual for Ventura County government agencies.

The Ventura County Public Health Department records primarily document the establishment of and meetings held by the Ventura County Community Council Health Division from 1955-1961, planning for some of the Health Division's annual health education workshops during the 1950s and...

The Ventura County Star was founded in 1925 by the John P. Scripps Newspaper Group. In approximately 1936, the Star acquired the Ventura Free Press, which was founded in 1875, and began publishing as the Ventura County Star-Free Press in...

Ventura High School is a public secondary school that was established in 1889. It is the oldest high school in Ventura. The school was originally established as a grammar school for Grades 1-8 and was located across from Park Plaza...

The Ventura Post Office collection is a set of materials that document the history of the Ventura Post Office building on Santa Clara Street since 1936. The current building was constructed in 1936 and expanded in 1966. Materials in this...

This collection contains the records of Vetco Offshore Industries, formerly known as the Ventura Tool Company, founded in Ventura County in 1930 by Fritz Huntsinger Sr.

The collection consists of four boxes of historical materials covering events in Ventura County, gathered by Mr. James F. Welch during his research from 1973 to 1979....