Current and Upcoming Events - Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum

Speaker Night: A Pictorial History of Palo Alto with Steve Staiger

Annual Membership Meeting and Speaker Night:

June 2, 2025, 7 pm at the museum

Get ready for a trip down “Memory Lane” with a unique and fun approach by Steve Staiger from the Palo Alto Historical Association. Using a carousel of eighty slides that he has collected over the last forty years, Steve will share the early history of Palo Alto, Mayfield, Stanford University, and other points of interest. He will also discuss some of the notable people who played a significant role in the development of Palo Alto and the surrounding area, including Sarah (Montgomery) Wallis, who was a member of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party of 1844/45.

Steve Staiger has been an Historian with the Palo Alto Historical Association since 1984. He grew up in Marin County and developed his interest in local history at Tamalpais High School, where he took a class in Marin County history and researched and wrote the first maritime history of Marin (circa 1967). Steve attended UC Davis, graduating with a degree in history, and then received an MLS from the Library School at UC Berkeley. Having worked for Bechtel in San Francisco for several years, he became a Reference Librarian for the City of Palo Alto in 1977, retiring about twenty years ago. For the last forty+ years, Steve has assisted people in their research of their families’ histories, homes, and other aspects of local history. For the last twenty-five years, he has been a part of the effort to establish a local history museum in Palo Alto which should finally open its doors later this year.

Time Travelers' Book club

Join us for the next Time Travelers' Book club:
Sunday May 4, 2025, 2 - 4 pm, at the museum

The time period is WWII - 1939 - 1945. Bring a book that was written during that time, or takes place in it, fiction or non-fiction.

Home Entertainment of the Past Century: 1860s - 1960s

In this day and age of electronics providing entertainment for us, one might wonder how people amused themselves before such devices were commonly available. The way people entertained themselves was certainly dependent on their economic means and social standing. While wealthy families could afford books to read and elaborate games to play, ordinary folks would make do with what they had at hand: fashion dolls from corn husks and fabric scraps, make toy animals from old socks, or use a milk bottle and clothes pegs for a concentration skill game.

This Spring Exhibit displays many artifacts from bygone days, some of which might surprise you and some are still being played today. You will find musical instruments, cameras, games, early radios and television sets, scrapbooks, and toys galore, among many other items.

Setting up the rotating exhibits is a labor of love, appreciation of historical artifacts and dedication to research. Exhibit lead Laura Babcock praises the support she receives from archivists Sandra Lohman and Monte Stamper whose expertise and hands-on help are invaluable for the set-up of such displays. Laura says, “It always takes several pairs of eyes to view each segment of an exhibit to get the right balance to tell the story, and our archive team is the best. Besides – they know what is in each box in our multilayered storage annex.”

The exhibit will be open until late May.

New Kitchen Item: Dough Box

Visitors will find a new item in the kitchen display at the museum: a "dough box" from the early 1800s. These were used in big households to prepare the dough for bread and other baked goods. All the ingredients were mixed and kneaded in the trough, then the lid was shut for the dough to proof. Once the dough had risen, the baker could form loaves and transfer them to the oven to bake.

We are grateful for the donation of this tool from Mary Chapman, a Sunnyvale resident whose family had kept it for several generations.