SBTHP | Gift Shop

The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation's is pleased to offer a diverse selection of books and scholarly publications available for sale below.

Stop by in person to purchase more unique gifts inspired by Early California history—including handmade artisan pieces, toys for children, note cards, posters and apparel. All proceeds from your purchases directly support SBTHP. We thank you!

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El Presidio de Santa Bárbara SHP
123 East Canon Perdido Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Open Daily, 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM

Mission Mills Olive Oil

This olive oil comes from trees planted at the Santa Inés Mission Mills State Property. It is locally cold-pressed from a blend of Manzanillo, Mission, Arbequina, Lucca, and Grappolo varieties of olives. The Santa Inés Mission Mills complex includes water-powered fulling and grist mills, exceptional examples of Spanish efforts to industrialize the mission agriculture and economy. Part of the Mission Santa Inés National Historic Landmark District that includes the Santa Inés Mission and 95 acres of surrounding land, the mills complex is under the stewardship of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation. SBTHP works in partnership with California State Parks, Santa Inés Mission, and the City of Solvang to ensure that the natural and cultural resources that make this a special place are protected and preserved for future generations.

Building and Builders in Hispanic California 1769-1850

Mardith Schuetz-Miller's groundbreaking study of the artisans and craftsmen who contributed to the built environment of early California, 1995.

California's Mission La Purísima Concepción

A reprint of Mission La Purisima Concepcion: An Archaeological and Restoration Study of Mission La Purisima Concepcion. Reports written for the National Park Service by Fred C. Hageman and Russell C. Ewing; Prepared and Edited for publication by Richard S. Whitehead. Number Five in the Santa Barbara Bicentennial Historical Series, 1980. With a new introduction by Richard E. Oglesby, 1991.

The California Recollections of Angustias de la Guerra Ord (Occurrences in Hispanic California) as dictated by Angustias de la Guerra Ord to Thomas Savage in 1878
Bilingual Edition. Giorgio Perissinotto, Editor. Washington, 2004: Academy of American Franciscan History in collaboration with the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation

Angustias de la Guerra's Occurrences is one of the more valuable and interesting eye-witness accounts of pre-Gold Rush California. Dr. Perissinotto's approach of setting the original Spanish side-by-side with the English translation of an earlier edition allows the reader to make up his or her mind as to the accuracy of the rendering in English of the original Spanish text. Occurrences vividly brings to life the early history of Santa Barbara and California.

The Chumash and the Presidio of Santa Barbara:
Evolution of a Relationship, 1782-1823
by Marie Christine Duggan, Ph.D. Santa Barbara California, 2004:
Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation

In this essay about the relationships between Native peoples and the Presidio soldiers in Alta California, Dr. Duggan explains that Chumash Indians and soldiers in Santa Barbara turned out to be closely intertwined on a day-to-day basis in everything from outright military conflict to political negotiation, ongoing labor ties, and a shared passion for gambling.

Documenting Everyday Life in Early Spanish California:
The Santa Barbara Presidio Memorias y Facturas, 1779-1810
edited by Giorgio Perissinotto, 1998

Plaza De la Guerra Reconsidered: Exhibition and Symposium Catalogue

A result of an extraordinary collaboration between the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the City of Santa Barbara's Historic Landmarks Commission.

The Señoras Gobernadoras of Spanish Alta California: A Comparative Study

This exploration of the wives of Alta California's governors during Spain's 52-year rule of the province brings to light fascinating details about the integral role women played in Early California.

A Yankee Smuggler on the Spanish California Coast:
George Washington Earys and the Ship Mercury
by Robert Ryan Miller, 2001

This book traces the adventures of a Boston seafarer named George Washington Earys who, for a decade beginning in 1803, participated in trading voyages between Alaska, California, and China.

The Anza Trail and the Settling of California
by Vladimir Guerrero

In 1774, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico sent Juan Bautista de Anza, captain of the Presidio at Tubac (in what is now Arizona), to lead two expeditions: the first to find a safe overland route to Monterey, and the second to return Anza to California with 240 men, women, and children to establish a settlement in San Francisco. The Anza Trail and the Settling of California synthesizes firsthand documents and diaries from the Anza expeditions to retell the story of the exploration of the Southwest and the settlement of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Changes in Landscape: The Beginnings of Horticulture in the California Missions
by Michael Hardwick

From the food that is placed on each table in California today, to the 200 year old trees that grace the historic Missions, the beginnings of horticulture in Early California affect us all. The second edition of this book excels in presenting the legacy of Mission culture that touches us all: our food, our decorative plants, and our trees.

The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy
in Mexican California
by Louise Pubols

A rich and nuanced study of a key family in California's past: the de la Guerras of Santa Barbara. Amid sweeping economic and political changes, including the U.S.Mexican War, the de la Guerra family continually adapted and reinvented themselves. By tracing a web of business and family relationships, Pubols shows in practical terms how patriarchy functioned from generation to generation in Spanish and Mexican California. Copublished by the Huntington Library and University of California Press.

From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions
by Craig Russell

This book explores the exquisite sacred music that flourished on the West Coast of America when it was under Spanish and Mexican rule; it delves into the historical, cultural, biographical, and stylistic aspects of California mission music during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book explores how mellifluous plainchant, reverent hymns, spunky folkloric ditties, "classical" music in the style of Haydn, and even Native American drumming were interwoven into a tapestry of resonant beauty. Aspects of music terminology, performance practice, notation, theory, sacred song, hymns, the sequence, the mass, and pageantry are addressed. Russell draws upon hundreds of primary documents in California, Mexico, Madrid, Barcelona, London, and Mallorca, and it is through the melding together of this information from geographically separated places that he brings the mystery of California's mission music into sharper focus. In addition to extensive musical analysis, the book also examines such things as cultural context, style, scribal attribution, instructions to musicians, government questionnaires, invoices, the liturgy, architectural space where performances took place, spectacle, musical instruments, instrument construction, shipping records, travelers' accounts, letters, diaries, passenger lists, baptismal and burial records, and other primary source material.

Land of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846
edited by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz

Spanish and Mexican California is generally depicted through the journals of sea captains and other visitors. This groundbreaking collection offers another perspective: early California seen through the eyes of those who explored it, colonized it, and settled it in the age before the gold rush. Over sixty selections from letters, journals, official reports and proclamations, interrogations, and interviews--many newly translated and some presented in English for the first time--lay before us a surprisingly varied and dynamic portrait of an era generally dismissed as static, pastoral, or backward. The first-person accounts are tied together with extensive introductions and commentaries by two well-known scholars. Together the selections and commentaries give us an intimate portrait as well as a broad context, placing the exploration and settlement of Alta California within the history of Baja California and the conquest of the New World.

Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California
by Edward W. Vernon

Las Misiones Antiguas is a photographic journey and written record of every peninsular mission and several visitas of Baja California. Each site was photographed and its position recorded using a G. P. S. instrument. The description of each mission includes oral history from area residents. Sketches record the configuration of sites not previously mapped, and in the case of the largest Baja California mission, Comondú, the foundation was traced and old photographs were utilized to generate a computer model. This information was combined with historic photographs of many of the sites. More than 300 graphic images and a description of the history and major events at the sites make this book the most comprehensive source of information on these fascinating and rapidly deteriorating architectural treasures.

A Maritime History of Baja California
by Edward W. Vernon

Discover the most important harbors and anchorages of the Baja California peninsula through charts, maps, satellite imagery and photos. The history of each of those places is developed by recording, in chronological order, the most important ships to have touched that anchorage.

Pío Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California
by Carlos Manuel Salomon

Two-time governor of Alta, California and prominent businessman after the U.S. annexation, Pío de Jesus Pico was a politically savvy Californio who thrived in both the Mexican and the American periods. This is the first biography of Pico, whose life vibrantly illustrates the opportunities and risks faced by Mexican Americans in those transitional years. Carlos Manuel Salomon breathes life into the story of Pico, who-despite his mestizo-black heritage-became one of the wealthiest men in California thanks to real estate holdings and who was the last major Californio political figure with economic clout. Salomon traces Pico's complicated political rise during the Mexican era, leading a revolt against the governor in 1831 that swept him into that office. During his second governorship in 1845 Pico fought in vain to save California from the invading forces of the United States. Pico faced complex legal and financial problems under the American regime. Salomon argues that it was Pico's legal struggles with political rivals and land-hungry swindlers that ultimately resulted in the loss of Pico's entire fortune. Yet as the most litigious Californio of his time, he consistently demonstrated his refusal to become a victim. Pico is an important transitional figure whose name still resonates in many Southern California locales. His story offers a new view of California history that anticipates a new perspective on the multicultural fabric of the state.

The Spell of California's Spanish Colonial Missions
by Donald Francis Toomey

The ultimate historical guidebook for the Spanish Colonial Mission churches, Presidio chapels and asistencias from San Diego to Sonoma, California. As Thomas J. Steele, S.J. said, "Donald Toomey has done a major favor to each visitor to any one of the missions of California". These missions -- all of them without exception -- are historic, venerable, and handsome, but they are also profoundly instructive. Donald Toomey has assembled all the basic historical facts of each mission, tracing each site from its late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth-century origin through its various disasters (fires and earthquakes predominate) and its various renovations up to the end of the twentieth century. He outlines each mission's success at achieving its purpose, and he expertly conveys to his reader his own deep appreciation of Provincial Baroque architecture, art, and church life.

Spirit of Chiapas: The Expressive Art of the Roof Cross Tradition Featuring the Frans Blom Collection at Na Bolom
by Virginia Ann Guest

With elements of catalogue, guidebook, and historical summary, this richly illustrated book offers a comprehensive source of information for art historians, folk art enthusiasts, museum curators, and the casual traveller to Chiapas. The Mexican state of Chiapas and its historical connections to Guatemala during the colonial period, offers travellers an experience different from most states in Mexico. Here they see Indians and Ladinos living side by side following centuries-old traditions, each with their own interpretation of Catholicism, and a symbolic language that distinguishes their culture and customs. This book documents a fast-disappearing tradition of iron crosses as house blessings as collected by the late Frans Blom, now located at Na Bolom, the Museum and Cultural Centre established in 1960 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. By extending her purview from this collection to the more than two hundred extant crosses of iron, wood, and cement that are still visible on roofs of San Cristóbal, Guess presents a wealth of information that traces the tradition from its origins, identifies stylistic variations that occur among these roof crosses, and provides interpretations of the symbols that adorn them. In a series of walking tours the author guides readers through the streets of the old barrios where the crosses still can be viewed. Interviews with homeowners and ironworkers provide explanations as to the importance of these talismans to those who make them and those who use them to bless their homes.

Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848
Translated with introduction and commentary by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz

When in the early 1870s historian Hubert Howe Bancroft sent interviewers out to gather oral histories from the pre-statehood gentry of California, he didn't count on one thing: the women. When the men weren't available, the interviewers collected the stories of the women of the household—almost as an afterthought. These were eventually archived at the University of California, although many were all but forgotten. From the editors of the highly influential Lands of Promise and Despair, here are thirteen women's firsthand accounts from the time California was part of Spain and Mexico.

West of Babylon
by Eduardo Garrigues, Translated by Nasario Garcia

First published in Spain in 1999, this adventure set in 19th Century New Mexico uses elements of the ancient Near Eastern myth of Gilgamesh to tell a violent tale of war and revenge, treasure hunting and witchcraft. Gil Gómez, the cacique of the Spanish village of Cabezón, is a genízaro, a Navajo raised by Spanish people. Narrated by an American soldier with a taste for adventure, the story of Gil Gómez takes us to forts and villages, to Santa Fe, Bernalillo, and Albuquerque, to Inscription Rock and the Navajo lands in the west, and down the Jornada del Muerto to the Sierra Blanca in the South, where Apache magic defends a sacred forest against the greed of generations of treasure hunters. As in Gilgamesh, the hero joins forces with a supernatural companion, Decoy, or Cimarrón, as the Spanish villagers call him. Garrigues, well known in Spain for earlier novels that blend exotic settings with ancient mythology, has given us a world in which the twin warriors of the ancient epic combine south-western and supernatural elements, while they also embody the twin warriors of Navajo legend. Readers familiar with New Mexico's varied cultures and those versed in the story of Gilgamesh will recognise ghosts and echoes from sources in myth and history. Everyone is sure to enjoy this exciting journey across the dramatic landscape of New Mexico.

The California Channel Islands
by Marla Daily

Every day, thousands of Southern California residents see the California Channel Islands on the horizon, yet few can name all eight. Santa Catalina Island, third largest, is by far the best known. It is the only island with a city, Avalon, where dozens of hotels, shops, and restaurants await visitors year-round. Three of the islands are owned by the US Navy: San Clemente, San Nicolas, and San Miguel. San Clemente and San Nicolas Islands are used for military training, naval weapons development, and missile testing; thus access is restricted. Five islands fall within the boundaries of Channel Islands National Park: San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara Islands. Close to the mainland and yet worlds apart, scenic day trips and primitive camping opportunities are available on all five park islands. With neither stores nor modern conveniences, a trip to Channel Islands National Park is a step back in time.

California's Knight on a Golden Horse:
Dwight Murphy, Santa Barbara's Renaissance Man
by Edward A. Hartfeld

Featuring historic photos and illustrations, this is a must have book for lovers of Santa Barbara history. Disover the story of civic leader Dwight Murphy, who fought to save the natural beauty of Santa Barbara during the early 20th century and promote the power of history and culture as a stimulant to politics, planning, and public life.

Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People of Southern California
by Jan Timbrook

An account of a Native American peoples dynamic relationship with the natural world The Chumash people have lived in coastal California from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara for thousands of years. Their homeland is an area of uncommon biological richness and diversity, featuring over 1,500 species of plants. Their traditional foods, medicine, raw materials for making clothing, all kinds of tools and utensils, religious paraphernalia, and other items essential to existence were derived from the natural world; in one way or another, everything the Chumash people made involved plants. This painstakingly researched and scrupulously documented book, intended for the layperson interested in gaining a deeper understanding of a significant California Indian culture, reveals a landscape seen daily by thousands of people but understood by very few.

Diary of a Sea Captain's Wife, Tales of Santa Cruz Island
by Margaret Holden Eaton

In the early part of the 20th century the author and her husband operated the Pelican Bay Camp on Santa Cruz Island. Beginning with small-scale commercial fishing, seal hunting, and passenger charters, the Eatons gradually developed a unique resort. Working from her diary and memories Mrs. Eaton wrote this account of her life over many years.

I Remember
by Harold Keeney Doulton

Over 500 pages and 284 photographs of presidents, artists, buccaneers, maestros, millionaires, dishwashers, cowboys, movie stars, playboys, handymen, and seaman.

The Legacy of Pearl Chase
by Marco Farley

On the 100^th anniversary of Pearl Chase’s birth, author Marco Farley takes an affectionate look back at the life, philosophy and achievements of Santa Barbara’s First Lady and one of the most important women in 20^th century California history.

Farley chronicles the contributions that brought this remarkable woman local and national fame and that made her a legend in her own lifetime and tells us, through Pearl’s advice to her legions of aides, why and how she was able to achieve so much.

Santa Barbara: All about the Red-Tile City
by Mary Zeldis with photos by Bill Zeldis

A local writer's loving introduction to the vibrant and historic community of Santa Barbara, California. Chapters on history, architecture and art, gardens, beaches and more will help visitors explore the style and substance of this unique city. An inclusive calendar of events, and insider's Best Places section, and over 30 full-page color photos make this book an indispensible guide and a beautiful keepsake.

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse
by Patricia Gebhard and Kathryn Masson, photographs by James Chen

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is a widely recognized icon of the city called the “California Riviera,” and just as widely known as a historic architectural achievement. Thousands, if not millions, visit it each year—jurists and tourists alike—but although everyone appreciates its beauty, few really know how it came to be. Surprisingly, in the three-quarters of a century that the building has graced its grounds, no one has undertaken to document this architectural masterpiece. Authors Patricia Gebhard and Kathryn Masson have changed that once and for all with their book, The Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Together with photographer James Chen and book designer Eric Larson, they have created a work that is not only historically important, but nearly as beautiful as the courthouse itself.

Santa Barbara Style
by Kathryn Masson and photographer James Chen

Santa Barbara. For centuries this temperate, inviting locale has glowed with subtle but unmistakable light-- a beacon of warmth beside the profound blue of the Pacific. From the Chumash, whose predecessors can be traced to 11,000 b.c.e., to the present-day resident, vacationer, and tourist, diverse and countless peoples have been enchanted and enraptured by Santa Barbara's spell. In Santa Barbara Style, author Kathryn Masson and photographer James Chen, invoke this magic and invite us to walk with them through winding and abundant gardens, onto the grounds of grand estates, and into the great houses of this region. Here we find the work of such architectural luminaries as Addison Mizner, Bertram Goodhue, and Reginald D. Johnson. We wander from the historic adobe mansion Casa de la Guerra-- built in the early-nineteenth century by town patriarch Jose de la Guerra-- to the spectacular, and aptly named, Villa Lucia (House of the Light)-- built in 1989. We are given an intimate look at George Washington Smith's Spanish Colonial Revival masterpiece, Casa del Herrero; and a broad view of Lotusland, the thirty-seven acre horticultural paradise. With each turn of the page, we see the beauty, grace, and style of Santa Barbara.

Stone Architecture in Santa Barbara
by Santa Barbara Conservancy

While documenting the miles of stone walls that line many of the streets of Santa Barbara, members of the Santa Barbara Conservancy realized the immense value to the region and the world of all of the area’s stonework. Through meticulous research, the conservancy produced this volume using photographs both historic and modern that evoke the timelessness and beauty of stone construction.

With Their Eyes Turned Skyward: Santa Barbara's Fallen Aviators of World War II
by Michel Nellis and Karen Ramsdell

This work chronicles the untold stories of forty-eight men and one woman who put their lives on hold for freedom and made the ultimate sacrifice. More than sixty-six years have passed since the close of World War II. Each day more and more veterans of this global conflict slip away and soon their stories will be forgotten. The authors of these biographies were determined not to allow the same fate for the forty-nine aviators honored on the Santa Barbara Airport Memorial. Each chapter not only profiles the life of each of these young fliers, but also offers glimpses of World War II history in the making. It took eighteen months to do the research, conduct numerous interviews, and write these stories. Aviation changed forever the way war is fought. It was the key in many of the World War II battles from the South Pacific to the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. All of these aviators had a stake in winning the war from on high and, like da Vinci, kept their eyes turned skyward. They never really returned to Earth. Those who have tasted flight will walk the Earth with their eyes turned skyward, for there they have been and there they long to return.

100 Years of Santa Barbara City Parks 1902-2002
Catalogue of the City Parks Centennial Exhibition Channing Peake Gallery

The Beginning of the Chumash: A Chumash Oral History
by Monique Sonoquie and Indigenous Youth Foundation

A Boy of Heart Mountain
by Shigeru Yabu and Willie Ito

At the onset of World War II, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in concentration camps. Inspired by Shigeru Yabu's youthful camp experiences, "A Boy of Heart Mountain" is a poignant coming-of-age story and a celebration of the human spirit under duress.

Hello Maggie
by Shigeru Yabu and Willie Ito

When over 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to ten different camps during World War II, what happened to people's pets? The majority of people had to give their animals away. There were very few pets in camp because no one knew how long they were to stay in camp. Hello Maggie! is a true story about a scavenger magpie bird and a boy who missed his pets.

Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O'Dell

The gripping story of young Karana, who survives by herself for eighteen years on a deserted island off the California coast. Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

Native Ways: California Indian Stories and Memories
by Malcolm Margolin and Yolanda Montijo

California Indians vividly describe various aspects of traditional and contemporary Indian life, in a clear, easy-to-read style. With eighty photographs, index, map of Native California, and listing of California Indian resources.

Ramona
by Helen Hunt Jackson

One of the greatest ethical novels of the nineteenth century, this is a tale of true love tested. Set in Old California, this powerful narrative richly depicts the life of the fading Spanish order, the oppression of tribal American communities and inevitably, the brutal intrusion of white settlers. Ramona, an illegitimate orphan, grows up as the ward of the overbearing Senora Moreno. But her desire for Alessandro, a Native American, makes her an outcast and fugitive.

The Sugar Bear Story
by Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto and Mary Yee

This children's tale is based on a Chumash oral legend about how to be a good host. Brightly illustrated by the author, the book incorporates Chumash words and traditional designs, and includes a tribal linguistics map and Chumash glossary. The land occupied by the Chumash peoples stretches along the coast of southern to central California.

Adobe Details
by Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr

In their fourth book, authors/designers Karen Witynski and Joe Carr forage through the American Southwest and mountains of Mexico in search of the furnishings, accents and architectural elements that reveal its time-honored beauty and character. From rugged Arizona ranches and haciendas to contemporary Santa Fe homes, Adobe Details celebrates the natural materials--earth, wood and stone--that proudly bear evidence of the human hand. From adobe walls textured with agave fibers to hand-adzed vigas and gleaming Saltillo-tile floors, the adobe home is alive with rich surfaces that evoke a casual, timesless context. Adobe Details will show you how to achieve the look.

Casa Adobe
by Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr

In their third book, authors/designers Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr forage through the mountains of Mexico and the deserts of the American Southwest in celebration of the strength and wonder of adobe design style. From its humble beginnings to its present-day renaissance, Casa Adobe unearths the homes, haciendas, and holiday getaways that have blended handcrafted details, natural materials, and cross-cultural furnishings to express the elegant simplicity of adobe living.

George Washington Smith: Architect of the Spanish Colonial Revival
by Patricia Gebhard

George Washington Smith is a full-length monograph that surveys the work of the father of the Spanish-Colonial Revival style. Beginning with the building of his own house is Santa Barbara, Smith created his signature designs based on centuries-old Andalusian structures he saw in his travels through Europe. Enclosed courtyards, shady balconies, cool tiles, and bubbling fountains make up the Spanish-Colonial Revival style, and it was perfect for the warm Mediterranean-like Southern California climate.

Timeless Architecture: Home of Distinction by Harrison Design Associates
by Elizabeth Meredith Dowling

This book is an excellent 101 course in historic design for todays home, taught by a professor of architecture, illustrated with more than 400 color images. It answers the needs of patrons, professionals, and the merely inquisitive to reconsider the tenets of classical or traditional design that were universally followed for more than twenty-five centuries. Drawing from one of Americas leading design firms, it presents the traditional concepts that all fine buildings must satisfy being well-built, easy to use, and inspiringly beautiful.

My Friends Call Me Miss Chase: The Story of a Woman and a City

An early civic activist, Miss Pearl Chase (1888-1979) was a leader of Santa Barbara's social welfare, urban planning, city beautification, conservation and historic preservation efforts. Through her efforts the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation was established in 1963 to preserve and reconstruct El Presidio de Santa Barbara. Featuring interviews with individuals who knew and worked with her, we invite you to discover the "force of nature" that was Pearl Chase.

THE VAQUERO SERIES
Vaqueros, Cailfornios, Buckaroos, Paniolos, Cowboys and Punchers
by filmmakers Susan Jensen and Paul Singer

Enjoy these high-quality DVDs about the history of the vaquero and the people who live the life today. The Vaqueros came with the Conquistadors to the New World and created a new style of handling cattle on the open ranges of Mexico. Their influence grew - to California, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii, Montana , Wyoming - and other parts of the Western Hemisphere. In each area, a tradition developed to meet the unique demands of the environment and culture. Altogether, these films paint a comprehensive portrait of cowboy life from its Spanish roots to present day. They are a must-see for anyone who loves the West, horsemanship, and cowboys.

El Presidio de Santa Bárbara SHP & Casa de la Guerra
Visitors' Orientation Video

Now available on DVD—take home your very own copy of the Vistors' Video for
El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park and Casa de la Guerra.
This fascinating DVD traces the evolution of two of Santa Barbara's most significant historic sites and highlights their place in the City's history.

Inside the California Missions

The 21 Missions of California changed the face of this coastal state. This is the first video to capture the beauty, the history and the controversy surrounding what would become the foundation for California as we know it today.

North America's Mission Trail

Journey from the hills of central Mexico to the coasts of Florida and California, and through the southwest states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas while learning each regions rich and interesting history.