Through exhibits, programs and lectures we endeavor to showcase, preserve and share Lindsay’s unique history.
In the museum’s brief, three year existence we have created exhibits that provide visitors with a glimpse into not only local history, but how it intersects with our state and national history.
Some highlights of our permanent collection:
An early 20th century medical collection, including items from a 1906 apothecary, and Lindsay’s first physician, Dr. Annie Bond. Dr. Bond was a pioneering figure for women in medicine and for the introduction and early use of vaccines. Both collections provide a fascinating look at the world of healthcare during a time, not too long ago, before germ theory and science were applied, and folklore and superstition reigned.
Lindsay’s early agriculture industries and the innovations and culture that emerged to support it. Lindsay served as the heart of central California’s citrus boom, thanks to its immigrant founder and his wife, for whom the town is named. Lindsay inspired innovations in irrigation and inventions like the first steam powered harvester, olive pitting machine, and wind machines as well as the long running Orange Blossom Festival. The festival, which originated in 1932 to promote the local citrus industry, once attracted up to 40,000 attendees, and is a tradition that continues to this day.
Go For Broke! Pre-WWII, a significant portion of Lindsay’s population was of Japanese ancestry and even featured a Japantown to serve the community, made up of restaurants, shops, hotels and even a school – that was until Lindsay citizens were forcibly removed and placed in concentration camps following the issue of Executive Order 9066. Our collection features a collection of WWII war trophies, tools, photographs, and various items bought back by veterans of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up exclusively of persons of Japanese ancestry. To this day they remain the most decorated regiment in United States military history.
We are busy expanding and elaborating on our current collections to include the following exhibits:
Si, Se Puede! United Farmworker’s Union and the movement lead by civil rights heroes Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta that affected many local families.
Women at War
Exploring the expanding roles women played both on the homefront and in military service, focusing on the stories of Lindsay residents.
The Hammond Collection exhibit will debut in March of 2018.
We have hosted a variety of historical illustrated lectures, created free, educational programming for local schools, serving approximately 400 students each school year, created a small research library, provided lectures and presentations to community service organizations, and have sponsored the creation of the very first book honoring Lindsay’s fascinating early history, Lindsay: Images of America authored by our curator.
The museum is host to hundreds of local schoolchildren each year. We have created programming to serve them and supporting teachers, focusing on the California and Lindsay pioneering experience with an emphasis on what it was like to be a child during this time.
Historical lectures and presentations that have been part of our programming are:
Westword Ho!: How California History Shaped Our Language
Heroines and Heroin: The Extraordinary World of Early Lindsay Medicine
Lindsay Images of America: The Making of the First Book On Lindsay history
From Tuesday to Tea Time: A History of Lindsay’s Early Social Organizations
Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era and In Early Lindsay
PRESS
Making History Better for All, The Foothills Sun-Gazette
Author Documents Lindsay History With New Book, NPR
What Will Be Your History? The Foothills Sun-Gazette
Lindsay History is Going in the Books, Porterville Recorder
Lindsay Book Tells of Town’s Past While Benefitting its Future, The Foothills Sun-Gazette
Lindsay’s Dead Breathe Life into Museum, The Foothills Sun-Gazette
Lindsay Captures the Past, The Foothills Sun-Gazette
Last Chance to Catch Lindsay Museum & Gallery's Exhibit on Photographer Eschol M. Hammond, The Foothills Sun-Gazette