Sonoma County Museum

Sonoma County Museum

The museum’s collection features over 22,000 artworks and artifacts documenting the history and culture of California’s North Coast region.

Tom Golden Collection

In 2001, Tom Golden of Freestone in Sonoma County donated his collection of works by renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to the Sonoma County Museum. Golden’s personal and professional relationship with the artists began when he met them during the 1974 public hearings for the approval of their momentous project Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin counties, California, 1972-1976. Tom Golden’s collection reflects his friendship with and admiration of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Approximately 125 original drawings, sculptures, collages and photographs trace their impressive careers.

Carroll Barnes Collection

A collection of sculpture, drawings and illustrations by Sonoma County artist Carroll Barnes.

Ivan B. and Elvira Hart Collection

This collection features works by early California landscape artists such as Thomas Hill, Frederick Farina Schafer, Frederick Butman, and Alice Gray Coutts, and bronze artists Karl Kauba and Rusty Phelps.

Jeanne Thurlow Miller Collection

This collection features watercolors, oils, and photographs representing turn-of-the-century Sonoma County lifestyles and landscapes by artists such as Lorenzo Palmer Latimer, S. Tilden Daken, and P. F. Rosa.

Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel Collection

A large collection of black and white photographs by photojournalists Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel. During the Depression, they traveled throughout the country as transient farm-workers, recording the daily struggles of itinerant laborers and their families. Hansel eventually worked for Life Magazine while Otto freelanced for Life, Time, and others.

Harry and Florence Dixon Collection

Master craftsman Harry St. John Dixon worked primarily in copper, brass, silver and iron. This collection is comprised of Dixon’s metalwork, along with works by Maynard Dixon, Dirk van Erp, and Dorothea Lange. The collection also includes metal sculpture by his wife, Florence Dixon.

Marguerite Wildenhain Pottery

Marguerite Wildenhain was one of the founding members of Pond Farm, an art school and community established in the woods above Guerneville in 1939. Many of its members were political refugees from Nazi Germany who had emerged from the great Bauhaus movement of the early 1900s.

Song Wong Bourbeau Collection

Song Wong Bourbeau (1909-1996), a third-generation Santa Rosan, was known throughout Santa Rosa not only as an astute businesswoman, but for her tireless dedication as a community activist and philanthropist. Over two hundred photographs and artifacts make up this extensive collection, representing the rich and significant history and culture of Santa Rosa’s Chinatown and Chinese community.

Elwin Millerick Collection

A native of Sonoma County, Elwin Millerick was a self-taught artist, carving figures and scenes depicting his personal memories as well as historic events and people. Composed of exquisite woodcarvings made with painstaking accuracy and superb craftsmanship, Elwin Millerick’s collection of wood carvings document and preserve the history of everyday life and times in Sonoma County.

Fountaingrove

Fountaingrove was the utopian community and winery established at the northern edge of Santa Rosa in 1875. The collection includes over five-hundred photographs, many of them documenting the lives of Thomas Lake Harris and Kanaye Nagasawa, the two primary figures in the history of Fountaingrove.

Historic Photograph Collection

Numbering about 4,000, the Museum’s collection of historic photographs form a visual record of Sonoma County dating back to the earliest days of photography. The collection includes images of important figures, agricultural activity, landscapes, celebrations, unusual events, businesses, homes and many other subjects.