Arbuckle Gallery at the Pacific Hotel (2020-2021)

Illuminating the hardships, joys, and lives of female pioneers in California, Her Side of the Story: Tales of California Pioneer Women features 30 first-person accounts collected from women who traveled by land or sea to settle throughout California prior to January 1, 1854.

As preparations were being made for the commemoration of California’s Golden Jubilee in 1900, a letter printed in a San Francisco newspaper asked why “no provisions had been made for the pioneer mothers.” In turn, The Association of Pioneer Women of California was formed. The group collected and preserved the reminiscences of women who arrived in California before 1854 in a single ledger. This incredible document, filled with over 800 handwritten stories of California pioneer women, is the basis for the exhibition at History San Jose. The ledger and exhibition create a more complete and balanced understanding of our shared history by highlighting women’s voices and experiences as they traveled to California.

The ledger, however, does not represent all voices. As such, an important aspect of the exhibition is the inclusion of forty diverse portraits of unidentified women. These women represent the thousands of pioneers whose stories were never recorded; each one had a story to tell which is lost to time.

Image credits Daniel Charm, History San Jose.

  • Patchwork quilt, c. 1860. This quilt in a “Cactus Rose” pattern is reported to have been carried to California in 1860 by covered wagon. 
  • Patchwork quilt, c. 1860. Mrs. Annie Sael’s mother made this quilt in a “Rose of Sharon” pattern as she traveled in a covered wagon from Ohio to California.
  • Trunk lock detail
    Trunk detail
  • Wedding gown, 1849. Plaid taffeta gown worn by Ann Elizabeth Smith, who traveled from the Mississippi Valley to California via wagon train. Miss Smith married Robert Francis Peckham on January 14, 1849, in San Francisco.
  • Portrait of Ann Elizabeth Peckham, c. 1880
  • Horse blanket detail
  • Gold and pearl brooch, c. 1851. The brooch was owned by Ellen Van Valkenburgh, pictured wearing the brooch in the framed photograph, who traveled from New York to California by ship, steamboat, mule, and on foot via the Nicaragua route. Courtesy of Linda Ulleseit
  • China doll, c. 1860
  • Belgian double barrel percussion pistol, c. 1865; and Derringer pocket pistol, c. 1860. The Derringer was owned by George Coley Jenkins who traveled the Isthmus and landed in San Francisco in 1853, subsequently moving to Santa Clara, joining his wife Emmarilla T. Jenkins who had arrived in California in 1849.
  • Colt American eagle emblem powder flask, 1849
  • Western-style spurs, c. 1875
  • Cross-stitch sampler, c. 1870
  • Settimio Soprani & Figli accordion. The accordion is believed to have belonged to the Cribari family, 1872-1905

Exhibit Partners

We would like to thank our exhibit partners and sponsors: Exhibit Envoy, Society of California Pioneers, and Robert Bettencourt.