Yosemite Museum facts for kids
The Yosemite Museum is a special place located in Yosemite Valley within Yosemite National Park in California. It first opened in 1926. The museum teaches visitors about the history and culture of the Ahwahnechee people. These people lived in the valley for a very long time.
The museum also has an amazing collection of baskets. Some were used every day, and others were made to sell. These baskets date from around 1870 to today. It's one of the few collections that shows such a long history of baskets from any group in California.
Right next to the museum is the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. Here, you can learn about the park's amazing rocks and land (geology), its animals (wildlife), and the Native American people and other settlers who lived there. You can also discover more about John Muir and the park's overall history.
History of the Museum
The Yosemite Museum was one of the very first museums created by the National Park Service (NPS). It also has one of the biggest collections of items in the entire park system.
Before the NPS even existed, there was a small "museum" in Yosemite. In 1904, Major John Bigelow started a plant collection near the Wawona Hotel. Later, in 1915, a museum focusing on nature opened in the Park Headquarters. In 1922, it moved to a bigger space that used to be artist Chris Jorgensen's home. This new spot allowed the museum to show more items, including historical objects, cultural items, and geological finds. Visitors really loved it!
In the 1920s, people across the country thought it was a great idea to build museums in national parks to help people learn outdoors. The Yosemite Museum was chosen to be a model for these new museums. A group called the American Association of Museums helped raise money to build a new, modern museum in Yosemite.
The new building was finished in 1925 and opened to the public in 1926. It had two floors and showed exhibits on geology, nature, history, and different cultures. It also had a library for research, workrooms, and a meeting space.
After the new Valley Visitor Center opened in 1966, much of the Yosemite Museum building was used for offices. Most of the museum's collection is now kept safely in storage. However, some items are still shown in other places, like the Indian Cultural Exhibit (opened in 1976) and the Museum Gallery (opened in 1988). Objects are also often loaned to other museums for exhibits and research. Park staff and researchers use the museum's collection and its library to study the park's human and natural history.
What's in the Collections?
The Yosemite Museum has many interesting items. Here are some of the highlights:
- The very first drawings of Yosemite by Thomas A. Ayres.
- John Muir's personal tin cup.
- Beautiful landscape paintings by famous artists like Thomas Hill, Thomas Moran, William Keith, and Albert Bierstadt.
- About 100,000 old photographs of the park.
- Amazing baskets made by Lucy Telles and Maggie Howard.
- The Schwabacher Basket Collection, which includes baskets from the Mono Lake Paiute and Miwok people.
Building Style: Rustic Charm
The Yosemite Museum is a great example of the "National Park Service rustic style" of architecture. This style was important to the National Park Service because they believed buildings should look like they belong in nature. They wanted buildings to blend in with their surroundings.
To do this, builders used natural materials found nearby, like local rocks, logs, and wood shingles (called shakes). The idea was that the buildings should look like they were made by early pioneers using simple tools. This helped them fit in with the natural beauty and history of the park.
The architect for the Yosemite Museum was Herbert Maier. He designed the museum to be wide and flat, not tall. He said this was because he didn't want the building to try and compete with the huge cliffs around it.
Herbert Maier went on to design many other famous rustic-style buildings. In 1933, he helped create guidebooks for state park designers. These books taught them how to use rustic design ideas. They were shared widely and influenced how park buildings were designed all over the country.
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