Online Exhibits

  • Cannery Life: For over 100 years, the Del Monte Corporation and its ancestors — the California Packing Corporation, the California Fruit Canners Association and the San José Fruit Packing Company — processed high quality fruits and vegetables in San José, California. The center of Del Monte’s production was Plant Number 3, a sprawling complex on an irregular triangular site between San Carlos Street, Auzerais Avenue and Los Gatos Creek. Discover the history of Del Monte’s Plant Number 3 through its years of service from 1893 to 1999. Learn firsthand about cannery life from several Plant #3 employees through their video oral histories.
  • Dairy Hill: Dairy Hill is in a small group of hills which stand in the midst of the Santa Clara Valley, about four miles south of downtown San José. The home of birds, butterflies, people and cows, Dairy Hill in the year 2000 was one of the last undeveloped pieces of land in the Valley. Discover the history of Dairy Hill by exploring the place and its surroundings, meeting the people who lived and worked here, and seeing the things that make this hill unique.
  • Eastside Art & History: Originally launched in July 2014, Eastside Art & History walking tour uses six key public art sites in the current Mayfair and Arbuckle neighborhoods to provide an introduction to San Jose’s Eastside history, culture and its important legacy.
  • Good Old Sandlot Days: History San José has contributed historic photographs to this site dedicated to documenting California’s baseball teams going all the way back to pre-1900.
  • Google Cultural Institute: Launched in February 2014 in partnership with the Google Cultural Institute, exhibits such as Artist For Hire: Painting for the Santa Clara Valley and San José: City With a Past reveal the depth and variety of History San José’s collection.
  • Label Legacy: The Muirson Label Company operated in San José from 1916 until 1970 as the only label printing company in the Santa Clara Valley. The Muirson Company and its talented artists created some of the most striking labels for the products of the Valley of Heart’s Delight. Discover the history of the Muirson Label Company by exploring the place and its workings, meeting the people who founded and grew the company, and seeing the things that made Muirson a nationally recognized leader in the industry.
  • Lou’s Village: Learn how one family restaurant brought San José together for 60 years. When Lou’s Village opened in 1946, it offered a smorgasbord, barbecued dinner, and dancing in its 5,500 square foot building. For decades, Lou’s was known for offering live entertainment in addition to quality food. Over its long and colorful history, millions of guests enjoyed entertainment, parties and fine food at Lou’s Village.
  • Perham Collection of Early Electronics: The Perham Collection of Early Electronics is the legacy of radio pioneer Douglas McDonald Perham (1887-1967), an early wireless experimenter and radio broadcaster, and a life-long collector. The collection parallels Perham’s career and documents early electronics in the West, particularly the Santa Clara Valley, from the early 1900s to 1960. Formerly on display at the Foothill Electronics Museum at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, the Collection was transferred to History San José in 2003.
  • There Was a Chinatown Here: Objects and Stories from Downtown San José: Most people who come to downtown San José have no idea that there was a Chinatown here. In fact, in the 1880s, it was one of the largest Chinatowns in California with over 1,000 residents. The remains of the Market Street Chinatown lay buried under downtown San José for almost 100 years. During the construction of the Fairmont Hotel and the Silicon Valley Financial Center, archaeologists discovered buried trash pits left from the Chinatown. The artifacts that they found give important clues to what daily life was like there. This exhibit highlights five of those artifacts, currently on view at the Chinese American Historical Museum at History Park.
  • 750 Ridder Park Drive: Documenting the Former Headquarters of the Mercury News: The Mercury News is one of California’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper, as well as Santa Clara County’s oldest operating commercial business, beginning its life as the San Jose Weekly Visitor in 1851. After several locations in downtown San Jose, the paper moved in 1967 to 750 Ridder Park Drive, just off the Nimitz Freeway (I-880), where it remained until the paper’s owner sold the property to Super Micro Computer, Inc. This website documents the 312,000-square foot production facility at Ridder Park Drive, and the paper’s history, as well as those reporters and production workers who saw the paper transition from printing presses to digital content.