GPS City GuideSanta BarbaraSanta Barbara Mission-Archive Library

Stop 22 of 24 · Santa Barbara audio walking tour

Santa Barbara Mission-Archive Library

Mission District · 1967 · Independent mission archive founded

What you'll hear here: about a minute on Santa Barbara Mission-Archive Library — the story behind what you're looking at, playing hands-free as you arrive.

Here is the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library, founded in 1967. Founded in 1967 as an independent, non-profit educational and research institution, this secular archive preserves mission documents left in situ from the founding of the mission system. Inside you'll find named sections such as the Junipero Serra Collection (1713-1947), the California Mission Documents (1640-1853), and the Apostolic College collection (1853-1885).

The holdings also include a large collection of early California writings, maps, and images, plus materials for the Tohono O'odham Indians of Arizona. The institution cares for several thousand photo images of various types, with examples dating back to the late nineteenth century, and nineteenth-century oil paintings of the California missions by Edwin Deakin. It is also the archival repository for registers in which the sacraments of baptism, marriage, and burial were recorded at the California missions.

Though associated with, it is not part of, the Franciscan Mission Santa Barbara; the archive remains a secular institution with a friar currently serving as its Executive Director. Picture the papers, photographs, and paintings this doorway protects, papers that hold these stories safe.

Where it is

Coordinates
34.43857, -119.71359
Area
Mission District
Era
1967 · Independent mission archive founded
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.