Museum of Riverside

Archival Collection

The Museum of Riverside's archival collection richly reflects the history, growth, and development of Riverside and surrounding areas from before its founding to the present.  Resources include photographs, documents, manuscripts, and ephemera.

There are approximately 150 discrete collections of materials and thousands of items unassociated with collections. Among the outstanding collections are:

• "The Mission Inn/Frank Miller Hutchings Collection" (36 linear feet) documents the story of the Miller family and the Mission Inn hotel, a National Historic Landmark.
• "The Harada Family Archival Collection" (approximately 70 linear feet) tells the 100-year story of an immigrant Japanese family’s quest for civil rights in 20th-century America. The Haradas' home is one of two National Historic Landmarks in Riverside.
• The Museum's photograph collections are probably the most expansive visual record of the City and contain approximately 30,000 images chronicling the City’s history from the 1860s to the present.
• "The Rin Tin Tin/Lee Duncan Collection" documents one of early Hollywood’s iconic stars—Rin Tin Tin—and three generations of his descendants who followed in his pawprints through photographs, movie posters, documents, letters, and television scripts.
• "The S. W. Evans Archival Collection" is the single largest archival collection at approximately 100 linear feet. It chronicles the personal, business, and political activities of one of Riverside’s founding families from the 1870s through the 1950s.

Please send your inquiry to [email protected] and we will respond promptly.