Page 1 - ra_annualreport2016
P. 1

RANCHO CAMULOS MUSEUM



                 NATIONAL  HISTORIC  LANDMARK






         .,,









                         HISTORY MATTERS AT RANCHO CAMULOS
            REFLECTING ON 2016 AND LOOKING FORWARD TO 2017!


  New Carriage House Completed                                 New Research Library to Open in Early 2017

                                            Earlier this Fall, a   Many RCM visitors are unaware that the Museum has a
                                            dedicated team     substantial collection of historical documents-letters,
                                            of volunteers      financial ledgers, land deeds, photographs, guest books-
                                            completed a        spanning from the rancho period in the early 1800s to the
                                            beautiful new      August and Mary Rubel ownership of the ranch through the
                                            carriage shed      1940s. These materials are valuable to researchers interested
                                            to display the     in early rancho history, agricultural history, and the del Valle
                                            Museum's           and Rubel ownership of Rancho Camulos. Currently, the
                                            restored 19th-     collection remains in storage because no suitable space is
                                            century carriage,   available to share the materials with visitors. In addition
  The  Museum's new carriage shed was completed this   originally used   to historical archives, a donor recently gave the Museum a
  fall and now houses the fine  19th-century carriage   by the del Valle   collection of books on Southern California history, including
  used by Senora de! Valle.                 family in the      some rare editions.
                                            1800s. Visitors
  of all ages can  now peek through the building's large picture               What to do with this significant collection
  windows and see the stately Rockaway carriage built in                       of historical materials? Thanks to several
  the early 1850s. Most likely, Ysabel del Valle traveled in the               generous benefactors and the assistance
  carriage when her family moved from downtown Los Angeles                     of museum volunteers Dianne Gay Cox and
  to Camulos in the late 1850s. The carriage also transported                  Marie Wren, RCM  will be opening its new
  Senora del Valle on her errands of mercy as a local midwife.                 research library during the first quarter of
  Until recently, the carriage was stored and only available for               2017. Dianne and Marie have been busy
  viewing on special occasions. The carriage house is dedicated                fundraising, overseeing repairs to the
  to the memory of Ralph Rees who restored the carriage and                        room, purchasing bookcases and other
  designed the carriage shed.                                  The Museum owns     items needed to create a comfortable
                                                               numerous early
                                                               editions of Ramona,  the   and functional space for reading and
                                                               bestselling novel written   research. The library will be housed
                                                               by Helen  HuntJackson.   in the recently restored 1920s small
                                                               Copies of Ramona and   adobe. Special thanks to Chevron for
                                                               other books about early  recently awarding RCM  a community
                                                               Southern Ca/1fornia   grant to assist with the purchase of a
                                                               history will be part of the  computer workstation, which will feature
                                                               library collection.  a database of the museum's historical
                                                               archive collection for visitor use. Look for your invitation to
                                                               celebrate the opening of the RCM  Library early next year.



                                                                                             Volunteer Dianne Gay Cox with the
                                                                                             Museum's noteworthy collection of
                                                                                             19th and early 20th century archives.
                                                                                             The new library will make Camulos'
  Museum volunteers Gary Giesseman, John Zermeno,  Bob                                       historic collection more accessible to
  Cox and Tom  Reigner (not pictured) were named Museum                                      scholars and visitors interested in the
  Volunteers of the Year for the many hours of work they spent                               rancho's history.
  building the carriage shed.
   1   2   3