Archives

THE STORIES OF VENICE, CA

VHM Stephen Pouliot Collection. © Venice Heritage Foundation

The Venice Heritage Museum Archives currently hold thousands of photographic images and over 1,500 items of ephemera, records on paper, and a growing collection of museum objects documenting the history of the Venice community from the turn of the twentieth century to present day.

Significant portions of the collection include photographs of various print processes, personal records, and a substantial collection of early-twentieth-century postcards. Highlights such as the Elayne Alexander Collection chronicle the founding of Venice and its first decades, and works by art and documentary photographers who have lived and worked in Venice represent a range of perspectives emphasizing the area’s distinctive qualities. Of equal historical value and crucial to the museum’s mission are its born-digital assets, notably the Oral History Project that has recorded sixty-five independently filmed interviews to date.

The archives are open to scholars and researchers to visit by appointment. Please write to [email protected] for an appointment.

VHM is actively collecting. Our Community Archives Initiative invites longtime locals to bring their personal photographs, documents, and stories to the museum to be considered for inclusion among VHM’s holdings.

Our current and future collecting prioritizes stories underrepresented in the existing scholarship and publications about Venice. From the experience of working-class communities of color in Venice to counterculture histories to Venice’s role in the rise of surf and skate culture, the museum’s archives intend to mirror the many overlaps and intersections in the histories that define Venice as a unique and diverse place.