Dear Visitor,
Santa Clara is a place of crossroads, contested and changing.
Throughout its past, there have been moments and shifts that deeply affected the people and the land of Santa Clara Valley. We hope to show through this exhibit that there are many different kinds of these ruptures, and there exist periods of time and moments of change where events in the greater world are acted out on our small stage.
Santa Clara football game in the 1920s. Courtesy of SCU Archives and Special Collections
We have chosen this small selection of people, places, and objects as representative of the ruptures that have occurred in Santa Clara’s past. Our collection does not encompass every major change in campus cultural landscape, but it identifies the forces and the crises behind what we see and don’t see on campus today.
Our collection is unorthodox, ranging from the lost Mission pear orchards to burials of Native Americans on the campus. Disease, war, and social upheavals are connected to our campus in profound and unusual ways, and the Jesuit university that you see today is not the whole story. Our cultural landscape at Santa Clara is full of people and events that you won’t find in a campus brochure.
We invite you to explore our seen and unseen histories on this historical landscape, and look through a small window into our past.
Sincerely,
The Virtual Santa Clara Seminar Class, 2011