Give State Treasures a Home

Stuffed away in West Sacramento warehouses are all the makings of a California state museum except the museum itself. The state is just one of four without an official museum, says Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro). She hopes to correct that through a bill that would lead to a permanent display site for state historical treasures.

Corbett’s measure, which would establish a state museum commission and develop a plan for public display of the 2 million artifacts in the state’s possession, deserves strong support and prompt passage.

California does have a museum of sorts, the Archives and Golden State Museum, established near the Capitol in 1998 by the Archives and Museum Division of the secretary of state’s office. The archives museum is strongly oriented to political and governmental history since California became a state in 1850. Corbett says the new museum would have a much broader focus. She envisions a sort of Smithsonian of the West Coast that includes paleontology, archeology, natural history and the heritage of the state’s ethnic and cultural groups.

The West Sacramento warehouses contain “a wonderful abundance” of artifacts, Corbett told the Sacramento Bee. They include 7,000 American Indian baskets, paintings, a carriage that belonged to railroad baron and 1860s governor Leland Stanford, a stagecoach and a collection of Native American watercraft. Formal establishment of a museum would not only be an educational boon, it would encourage Californians to donate even more items of value.