Haggin Museum facts for kids

The Haggin Museum is a cool place in Stockton, California. It's both an art museum and a history museum. You can find it in Victory Park. The museum first opened its doors in 1931.

Its amazing art collection includes paintings by famous European artists like Jean Béraud, Rosa Bonheur, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. You'll also see beautiful landscapes by French artists from the Barbizon school. Plus, there are sculptures by René de Saint-Marceaux, Alfred Barye, and Auguste Rodin.

The museum also has many works by American landscape painters, including the largest collection of Albert Bierstadt's art in the area. In 2017, a special gallery was opened to show off its collection of original artworks by J. C. Leyendecker. This is the biggest public collection of his work in the United States. Much of it was given to the museum by Leyendecker's sister.

Museum's Story: How it Began

In 1928, a group called the San Joaquin Pioneer and Historical Society had big plans. They wanted to create a place to learn about history, collect old items, and build a museum to keep and show these treasures.

A local person from Stockton, Robert McKee, and his wife, Eila Haggin McKee, offered the group $30,000. They had two main requests. First, the museum had to be named after Eila's father, Louis Terah Haggin. Second, it needed special rooms to display her parents' art collection.

So, on June 14, 1931, which is Flag Day, the museum officially opened. It was called the Louis Terah Haggin Memorial Galleries and San Joaquin Pioneer Historical Museum.

Growing the Museum's Space

James Ben Ali Haggin, a rich businessman from the Gold Rush, who started the art collection.

Simplified family tree of the people who created and owned the Haggin art collection.

When Eila Haggin McKee passed away in 1936, she left the museum $500,000, even though she had never visited it in person. To honor her, Robert McKee gave money for the museum's first expansion. This new part, which opened in December 1939, added storage downstairs and a large gallery upstairs. This gallery, now called the McKee Gallery, held paintings and furniture from the couple's home in New York.

In 1948, an architect named Howard G. Bissel designed an even bigger addition. Most of the money for this came from the families of Robert McKee and Jennie Hunter, a rancher. A big gift also came from Irving Martin Sr., who owned the Stockton Record newspaper. New exhibit areas, like the California Room and the Vehicle Gallery, opened in 1949.

In 1976, William Knox Holt made a large donation. This helped build a new section named after his father, the Benjamin Holt Wing. This wing shows off Holt's inventions that helped farming, including a restored Holt 75 Caterpillar tractor. The gift also paid for special storage rooms, offices, and the museum's library.

Redwoods (1873-1881) by Julian Rix.

In 2017, the museum finished a big $2.5 million upgrade to its galleries. This included a permanent space to show a large part of the museum's huge collection of J. C. Leyendecker's art. Today, the museum's three-story building has over 34,000 square feet of space for exhibits.

History Exhibits: A Look into the Past

The Pioneer Room was one of the first history galleries. It showed items and old documents collected since 1868 by the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers.

The Jennie Hunter Rooms show what life was like in the Central Valley during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The items in these rooms were given to the museum by Miss Jennie Hunter, a local rancher. She asked that they be displayed exactly as they were in her own home. It's like stepping back in time!

Other exhibits teach about Native Americans, the Gold Rush, and farming in the San Joaquin Valley. You can also see old firefighting equipment and a recreated local flour mill. There are displays about shipbuilding and other industries from Stockton. The "Storefronts" are like stepping into old shops and rooms from San Joaquin County between 1890 and 1915. This includes a one-room schoolhouse and a Chinese herb shop.

Among the thousands of historical items on display, you can see a World War II jeep.

Art Galleries and Collections

The Athlete (c. 1901–1904) by Auguste Rodin.

Eila Haggin McKee's grandfather, James Ben Ali Haggin, was a very rich man from the Gold Rush. He collected art to decorate his large mansion in San Francisco. But it was Eila's father, Louis Terah Haggin, and her mother, Blanche Butterworth Haggin, who collected most of the art you see today. Louis and Blanche spoke French and had a home in Paris. There, they hosted artists, writers, and European royalty. Their art collection grew and filled their homes in San Francisco, Paris, and New York City.

The Haggin Collection shows the kind of art wealthy Americans collected after the Civil War. It mostly features landscapes, everyday scenes, and animal paintings. They usually avoided religious or historical paintings. The collection is very diverse, with one or two works from many different artists. However, they collected more pieces by certain artists, like Jean Béraud, Albert Bierstadt, Rosa Bonheur, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Edward Lamson Henry, Barend Cornelis Koekkoek, Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven, and Jehan Georges Vibert. About one-third of the collection is by American artists, and two-thirds are by European painters, mostly French.

Mrs. McKee first gave the museum 180 paintings. Most of these were part of the large estate she inherited after her father passed away in 1929. Both Eila and her husband Robert arranged for more paintings to be given to the museum after they died. Today, the Haggin Collection has almost 240 artworks. About 75 of these are on display in the museum's art galleries at any time.

A hallway between the two European art galleries displays items from the Haggin and McKee families. This includes portraits, photos, and personal items like one of Eila's evening gowns and her World War I American Red Cross uniform from France.

While the main art collection came from the Haggin and McKee families, it has grown a lot through other gifts and purchases. These new works by American and European artists from the late 1800s and early 1900s fit well with the original collection. A famous piece is Rodin's The Athlete (around 1901–1904). The museum also has collections of Japanese woodblock prints, illuminated manuscripts (beautiful handwritten books), and paintings by American illustrators like J. C. Leyendecker and Maxfield Parrish. There are also many Western and Asian decorative arts items.

Library and Archives

Old Betsy, a steam-powered fire engine from 1862, is displayed with other antique firefighting equipment in the Vehicle Gallery.

The Haggin Museum's Library and Archives started in 1931 with items given by the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers. This collection included historical objects, photos, old ledgers, journals, letters, and other paper items. Today, the library has about 10,000 books. About two-thirds are about history, and one-third are about art. The art books are part of the Earl Rowland Art Library, named after the museum's director who worked there the longest.

Most of the history books are in the Almeda Mae Petzinger Library. This is named after a kind person who gave money to help keep the library going forever. There are over 600 boxes and 100 flat files filled with photos, maps, business records, greeting cards, and old advertisements. A separate building, the Betty H. Schroebel Stockton Historic Center, holds materials specifically about Stockton's past.

Looking up the Yosemite Valley (1865-1867) by Albert Bierstadt was borrowed by President Ronald Reagan to decorate the White House press room.

The Agricultural & Industrial Archives started in 1984. They have records and photos of the Holt Manufacturing Company. This local company created the Caterpillar track-type tractor. The Archives also include records from Stephens Bros. Boat Builders, who designed boats. There's also material from the Stockton Iron Works, which built machines for the San Joaquin River Delta levees. You can also find items from the Tillie Lewis collection, which tells the story of Stockton's famous "Tomato Queen" businesswoman, and from Sperry Flour Company.

The Haggin's library also has a large collection of work by Ralph O. Yardley. He was a cartoonist for the Stockton Record newspaper from 1922 to 1952. He drew over 1400 cartoons called "Do You Remember?" These cartoons showed local homes, businesses, events, and daily life in Stockton. The museum has over 1100 of these drawings that give a peek into the city's past.

Images for kids

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  Doge of Venice by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, c. 1889, with detail showing the female figure modeled on the painting's original owner, Blanche Butterworth Haggin.

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  Les Halles (1879) by Jean Béraud

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  Sunset in the Yosemite Valley (c. 1868) by Albert Bierstadt

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  Canadian Rockies (c. 1889) by Albert Bierstadt

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  Evening (between 1880 and 1890) by Ralph Blakelock

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  The Canoe (between 1880 and 1890) by Ralph Blakelock

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  Afterglow (1870-1875) by William Bradford

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  Gathering for the Hunt (1856) by Rosa Bonheur

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  The Horse Market (1867) by Jean-Léon Gérôme

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  The Standing Bearer, Unfolding the Holy Flag (1876) by Jean-Léon Gérôme

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  The Saddle Bazaar, Cairo (1883) by Jean-Léon Gérôme

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  Hoop Dancer (before 1895) by Jean-Léon Gérôme; seen in his painting The Artist and His Model

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  The Mill Stream (1870-1900) by Henri-Joseph Harpignies

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  Untitled (1877) by Thomas Hill

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  Old Homestead (1877) by George Inness

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  Mount Tamalpais (1879) by William Keith

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  The Moated Wall (1893) by Léon Augustin Lhermitte

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  Woodland Temple (1867) by Thomas Moran

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  La Toilette (1889) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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  A Last Summer Day, Normandy (1840-1855) by Constant Troyon

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  Check (undated) by Jehan Georges Vibert

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  Sophistication (1908) by Harry Watrous

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  The Furtive Message (after 1877) by Jules Worms

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  The Red Shawl (undated) by Jules Worms