Santa Barbara Mission-Archive Library facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Santa Barbara Mission-Archive Library |
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| Old Mission Santa Barbara | |
| Type | Independent, non-profit educational and research institution of the California mission system |
| Established | 1967 |
| Location | Santa Barbara, California |
| Coordinates | 34°26′19″N 119°42′49″W / 34.4385674°N 119.7135889°W |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Historical documents, artifacts, photos, and books pertaining to the Franciscan Missions of California, Arizona; and much of the western United States. |
| Other information | |
| Director | Jack Clark Robinson, O.F.M., Ph.D |
| Staff | around 3 total (2016) |
The Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library is a special place that keeps important historical items. It started in 1967 as an independent, non-profit organization. This means it's not run by the government and its main goal is education and research.
The library holds many original documents from when the California mission system began. These collections include the Junipero Serra Collection, which covers years from 1713 to 1947. There's also the California Mission Documents collection, from 1640 to 1853. Another part is the Apostolic College collection, from 1853 to 1885.
You can also find old writings, maps, and pictures about early California here. The library has materials about the Tohono O'odham Native American people of Arizona. There are thousands of photos, some from the late 1800s. You can even see 19th-century oil paintings of the California missions by Edwin Deakin. The Archive-Library also stores records of important events like baptisms, marriages, and burials from the California missions.
Contents
The Archive-Library's Story
The Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library is connected to, but separate from, the Franciscan Mission Santa Barbara. It is a non-religious organization, though a Franciscan friar (a type of monk) is currently its Executive Director.
How the Collection Started
The first documents were gathered when the mission system began in Alta California (which is now California). The Franciscan Order, a group of Catholic friars, started these missions. Santa Barbara became the main center for the California mission system. Because of this, many documents from other California missions were brought and stored there.
The mission system began when the Spanish Empire claimed California. After Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821, the Franciscans still managed the missions. However, in the 1830s, the Mexican government changed the missions into regular churches. At that time, the Franciscans had about 3,000 documents and 1,000 books.
Saving Important History
A friar named Fr. Zephyrin Engelhardt added a lot to the collection. He studied the Franciscan missions in California and took many notes from an archive in San Francisco. These notes became very important because that archive was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. His work helped save a lot of history!
Over time, the old storage area for the collection became damp, and mold started to damage the documents. To protect these valuable items, people decided a new building was needed. In 1967, a non-profit group was created, separate from Mission Santa Barbara, to build this new facility.
Leaders and Preservation Efforts
Several Franciscans, like Geiger, Francis Guest, and Virgilio Biasiol, led the Archive-Library and worked to preserve the collection. After Biasiol passed away, the Archive-Library hired professional archivists, Lynn Bremer and later Dr. Mónica Orozco. An archivist is someone who organizes and preserves historical records.
Today, Fr. Jack Clark Robinson, O.F.M., is the director. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Archive-Library is mainly a place for researchers to study history. It also hosts talks by scholars (experts) who share their findings. Its collection is so important that it is listed in a guide at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The Archive-Library has even been featured on C-SPAN, a TV channel that covers government and public affairs.
