Collections & Archives

first Pasadena school

The Founding of Pasadena’s Schools

By Michelle Turner | August 9, 2017

  Pasadena Unified School District Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) had its humble beginnings in September 1874 in the parlor of William Clapp’s small house on South Orange Grove Avenue.…

Green palace car in front of factory

All Aboard!: Riding the Rails with Colonel G.G. Green

By Michelle Turner | August 2, 2017

Imagine traveling cross country in your own private palace car. That is how early Pasadena promoter and patent medicine manufacturer Col. George G. Green crossed America in the late 1800s. When…

Scrapbook from the collections

Summer 2017 Edition of the Collections Quarterly

By Michelle Turner | July 19, 2017

Archives Feature – Going Places with Frank Purcell In 1949, as California was celebrating its centennial, Pasadena’s Indiana Colony was turning 75. That year, The Independent featured a series, “The…

vintage recipes

Cooking with Eva: Vintage Recipes from the Archives

By Michelle Turner | July 12, 2017

Amongst the cookbooks in the Fenyes Mansion are handwritten vintage recipes from a century ago. Some of Eva Scott Fenyes’ recipes include almond puffs, brandied peaches, Indian griddle cakes, oatmeal…

Port Said by Eva Scott Fenyes

Reading with Eva Fenyes

By Michelle Turner | July 6, 2017

Looking for something a little different to read this summer? Well, Lizzie Steidel, Pasadena Museum of History’s Collections Intern, is sorting and cataloging hundreds of artifacts stored in the Fenyes…

onion fire article

A Stink in West Pasadena

By Michelle Turner | June 28, 2017

For many in West Pasadena, a reason to celebrate arrived a few days before the Fourth of July in 1899. Shortly after 9 p.m. on June 30, “residents of the west…

Beach sketch by Eva Scott Fenyes

Beaches: Watercolors and Sketches by Eva Fenyes

By Michelle Turner | June 21, 2017

Several years ago, Collections staff posted a progressive exhibit of beach art using watercolors and sketches by Eva Scott Fenyes (1849-1930) on the Museum’s Facebook page.  The images were also…

cycleway curve

The Pasadena Cycleway

By Michelle Turner | May 31, 2017

Pasadena historian Henry Markham Page wrote that “ … there was nothing like it in the United States – or probably anywhere else for that matter.” It was a bold…

Middle Hall of the Algerian Court, circa 1897

Eva Fenyes’ Algerian Court

By Michelle Turner | May 17, 2017

On the northwest corner of Orange Grove Avenue and Ellis Street in Pasadena, California, there once stood a mansion, exotic in style and unique to the neighborhood. This was the…

Porttrait of G.G. Green

Colonel Green in the Archives

By Michelle Turner | May 10, 2017

  Not Colonel Mustard in the Library with a Candlestick Colonel Green is just one of the many people I’ve “met” at Pasadena Museum of History.  Last year, I met…

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