Illuminating the hardships, joys, and lives of female pioneers in California, the exhibit “Her Side of the Story: Tales of California Pioneer Women” will appear at Los Altos History Museum from June 15 to July 23. The traveling exhibit features 30 first-person accounts collected from women who journeyed by land or sea to settle throughout California prior to January 1, 1854. 

As preparations were being made for the commemoration of California’s Golden Jubilee in 1900, a letter printed in a San Francisco newspaper asked why “no provisions had been made for the pioneer mothers.” This spurred the Association of Pioneer Women of California to form. In a single ledger, the group collected and preserved the reminiscences of women who arrived in California before 1854. This incredible document, filled with over 800 handwritten stories of California pioneer women, is the basis for the exhibition, creating a more complete and balanced understanding of our shared history by highlighting women’s voices and experiences as they traveled to the golden state.

“Her Side of the Story: Tales of California Pioneer Women” was developed by the Society of California Pioneers and travels through Exhibit Envoy. The Museum is open Thurs-Sun, noon - 4 pm, admission free.