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We are striving to provide increased online content to our community. This blog features articles related to the Museum's vast collections and changing exhibitions.

NOW ON VIEW: Community Stitches: Quilt Designs & Stories
HOURS: Exhibition Galleries & Museum Store Wed-Sun 12-5 | Research Library Fri-Sun 1-4

Family of Dan Woods, uncle of Benjamin McAdoo (BH-L-24-9)

Community Histories: The Black History Collection

February 10, 2021

Pasadena Museum of History’s Black History Collection is comprised of photographs, letters, family records, property deeds, and other materials revealing the history of the African Read More »

The small white sign in the center of this painting reads San Gabriel Hotel. Eva Scott Fenyes (1849-1930). Old house (Grape Vine), San Gabriel, California, 10 May 1904. Watercolor on paper, 7 x 10 in. (Fenyes Collection, ESF.008.2136)

Painting California: “…a very valuable thing…”

January 26, 2021

“It seems to me it would be a very valuable thing if you could carry out your plan to make accurate water-color studies of the Read More »

Pasadena City Hall in the snow, 1949. photo by William Hart (Main Photo Collection, C14-B9)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

January 14, 2021

SUB-FREEZING WEATHER COMES IN WITH SNOW screamed the headline in the Pasadena Star News on January 11, 1949. Traffic snarled, kids whooped for joy, and Read More »

Advertisement in the Pasadena Daily News, Tournament of Roses Edition, 1913. One might imagine Pasadena’s society ladies costumed as saleswomen and conducting The Christmas Shop in these rooms at Boadway Bros. (Tournament of Roses Collection)

Eva Fenyes and Boadway Brothers Department Store

December 17, 2020

It was an enormous pit, a huge gaping excavation that threatened to undermine Cabrillo Place. The bungalows and shops teetered on the edge of a Read More »

Christmas Tree Lane at night(Postcard Collection)

Christmas Tree Lane: Celebrating a Century of Holiday Brilliance

December 9, 2020

One hundred years ago this month, the magnificent Deodar trees on Altadena’s Santa Rosa Avenue were first entwined with multi-colored lights and lit on December Read More »

Pasadena Star News_25 November 1936_p1

Mrs. Fenyes and the Movies (Part 4 of 4): The Egyptian becomes the Uptown Theater

November 23, 2020

When Warner’s Egyptian Theater closed its doors in 1935, Henry Warner, one time owner and then manager of the theater, was out of a job. Read More »

Letterhead, 9 May 1936. (Fenyes Collection, FCP.162.4)

Mrs. Fenyes and the Movies (Part 3 of 4): Warner’s Egyptian Theater

November 17, 2020

Warner’s Egyptian Theater opened in Pasadena, California on May 6, 1925 as a combination vaudeville, legitimate theater, and movie house. It offered the latest feature Read More »

what the Mission Theater marquee might have looked like

Mrs. Fenyes and the Movies (Part 2 of 4): The Mission Theater

November 11, 2020

Clune’s Broadway Theater, built by William (Billy) Clune on Eva Fenyes’ property at 528 South Broadway in Los Angeles, opened in October 1910. Just months Read More »

The American proposes (Pasadena, California) [actors: Carol Dempster & Richard Barthelmess], November 1918. Colored pencil on paper, 6.5 x 5 in. (Fenyes Collection, ESF.012.3122)

Mrs. Fenyes and the Movies (Part 1 of 4): Los Angeles

November 5, 2020

Eva Fenyes came to Pasadena in 1896, attracted by the temperate climate, the beautiful landscape, and the quality of light which is so unique to Read More »

Grace Madden Votes article (Scrapbook 112, p 60)

First Ballot Cast: Grace G. Madden Votes

October 27, 2020

While we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, it is worth noting that many women had won the right to Read More »