This exhibit  illuminates the hardships, joys, and life of pioneer women in California. These women will tell in their own words the story of traveling by land and sea to settle in California prior to statehood.

In 1900, The Association of Pioneer Women of California formed and collected the reminiscences of women who arrived in California before 1854 in a single ledger. This incredible document, filled with over 800 handwritten stories of California pioneer women and in the collection of The Society of California Pioneers, is the basis for this exhibition. Together, the ledger and exhibition create a more complete and balanced understanding of our shared history, by highlighting the voices of women who traveled to California.

The ledger, however, does not represent all women. As such, an important section of the exhibition is comprised of diverse portraits of unidentified women. These women represent the thousands of pioneers whose stories were never recorded; each one had a story to tell which is lost to time.