The Museum exhibits American Indian cultural materials, primarily focused on cultures of the Southwestern, Great Basin and Californian culture regions, which were connected by a major trade route from circa 4,000 BP. One of the largest collections is from the California coast and Channel Islands. Seven thousand artifacts are represented, ranging in age from 8-9,000 BP to ethnographic/historic…

The institution has Special Collections including: 1) Local history; 2) American religious history; and 3) history of the American west. Under Local History, the Azusa-Foothill Citrus Collection consists of manuscripts, legal and business papers, financial journals and ledgers, photographs and maps dating back to 1844. The Sayre MacNeil Collection contains family papers and correspondences, and…

Collections include pamphlets and ephemera documenting the growth, industries, transportation, and social organizations of Los Angeles and greater southern California; photograph collections; thousands of books related to southern California; and numerous archival collections related to indiviuals, the citrus industry, and businesses in the Inland Empire.