Story of Santa Barbara – Santa Barbara Historical Museum

Ongoing

The Story of Santa Barbara

The Museum’s galleries showcase our extensive collection of paintings, furniture, saddles, decorative arts, and costumes that represent over 500 years of Chumash, Mexican, Spanish and American history.

VIEW our permanent exhibition themes to explore the story of Santa Barbara.

SBHM Jose De la Guerra

Santa Barbara Mission

A 1483 story tells of a beautiful woman named Barbara who was born in Asia Minor in 218 AD. Her father, Dioscorus of Nicomedia, regarded his daughter a gift from a goddess. To protect her from the glances of men, he began construction of a tower with a bathhouse, courtyard and gardens. While he was away with the Roman army, Barbara instructed the builders to add a third window to her tower. Questioned by her father, Barbara confessed her conversion to Christianity, stating three windows represented the Trinity. He then demanded she worship his gods or be put to death. She chose the latter, and was taken to a mountain where her father beheaded her with his sword. For this deed, he was instantly struck dead by lightning.

Saint Barbara, French, c. 16th century
Artist unknown
Oil on board
47 x 21 inches
Gift of Paul McCoole
12.67.194.1

Santa Barbara artist, Elizabeth Mason, taught Works Projects Administration art and crafts classes during the Great Depression. A noted historian, she was known for her detailed scale models and dioramas of Indian culture. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and Chicago's Field Museum are a few of the institutions who exhibit her commissioned works.

Figure of Father Junípero Serra, c. 1935
Elizabeth Mason (American, 1880-1953)
Patinated molded plaster of Paris
Gift of Virginia S. Holbrook
xx.4.56.27

mexican rule

Carlos Antonio de Jesus Carrillo (1783-1852) was born into one of Santa Barbara's most distinguished families. At age fourteen, he was a soldier stationed at Monterey. Upon his return to Santa Barbara, Carrillo was in charge of a platoon that took captives from privateer Hipólito Bouchard's raiding party at Refugio Bay in 1818. Later, he involved himself in Mexico's plan to sell mission lands, and was elected to the California Mexican Congress. In 1837, Carrillo was involved in an armed dispute over the California governorship, a claim he eventually surrendered.

Carlos Antonio de Jesus Carrillo, 1852
Leonardo Barbieri (Italian, 1810 - c.1872)
Oil on canvas
34 x 25 inches
Gift of Antoinette Carrillo Delpy
x.2.78.50