Museum Exhibitions
The Museum’s mission is to create meaningful connections to Santa Barbara history. The signature installation, The Story of Santa Barbara traces our community’s story from the Chumash to the mid-20th century.
Accessible and diverse programming along with rotating exhibitions feature dynamic local traditions and historical events. Visitors also experience the Edward Borein Gallery, the Gledhill Research Library, and two historic adobes.
Ludmilla
Ludmilla Pilat Welch: Serene Santa Barbara
Plein air painter Ludmilla Pilat Welch moved to Santa Barbara in 1905 and became fascinated with the area’s remaining adobes. Her renderings are an important historic record as many of these remnants of Santa Barbara’s past slowly disappeared from the landscape…
Open through March 22, 2026
Project Fiesta!
Santa Barbara News-Press Edition
Our annual “Project Fiesta” exhibition celebrates the preservation of the Santa Barbara News-Press archive by the Museum. This archive includes thousands of images captured by photojournalists who’ve documented the beloved pageantry of Old Spanish Days Fiesta for generations.
Our 2025 exhibition is dedicated in memory of our friend Erin Graffy de Garcia. Erin was a tireless advocate for illuminating and preserving Santa Barbara’s incredible Fiesta history.
Open through September 21, 2025
The Story of Santa Barbara
The Museum’s mission is to create meaningful connections to Santa Barbara history. The signature installation traces our community’s story from the Chumash to the mid-20th century. The exhibition features highlights of our extensive collection including clothing, furniture, fine art, photographs, decorative arts, and more.
An audio guide is available to accompany your self-guided visit.
Permanent Installation
Edward Borein Gallery
Western artist Edward Borein (1872-1945) roamed the western states and territories and much of Mexico, working as a cowboy and using his artistic talent to record these experiences.
In his early thirties Borein decided to pursue a career as a professional artist and moved to New York City, where his studio soon became a favorite haunt for important figures such as Will Rogers, Charles M. Russell, Carl Oscar Borg and Buffalo Bill Cody. In the early 1920s he returned to his native California and set up a permanent studio in Santa Barbara. His etchings, watercolors, and drawings quickly earned him a reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of the American West.
The Museum holds the largest and most significant collections of his work, thanks to the dedication and research of curator Marlene Miller.
Permanent Installation
Partner Exhibition at the Museum of Natural History
Fashion Fatale: The Human Obsession with Feathers explores humanity's fascination with feathers as symbols of beauty, power, and status. Created by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and showcasing several pieces from the Historical Museum, this exhibition invites visitors to view how feathers have graced fashion—from ceremonial adornments to mass-market trends—and to consider the impacts of these choices on bird populations.
On view now at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Ludmilla Pilat Welch: Serene Santa Barbara
Coming Soon
Plein air painter Ludmilla Pilat Welch moved to Santa Barbara with her artist husband in 1905 and she soon became fascinated with the area's remaining historic adobes. She proceeded to render many of them in oil using as canvases whatever was at hand including old cigar box tops. Beyond the artistic merits of these pieces, her body of work stands as an important historic record as many of these remnants of Santa Barbara's past slowly disappeared from the landscape.
Opening September 4, 2025