History As Education – and Storytelling

California History Center

Focusing on California and regional studies, the California History Center and CHC Foundation present exhibits, offer classes with De Anza College, publish a periodical, and operate a library and archives. Special events, including lectures, panel discussions and workshops are also featured.  Student interns are currently helping to digitize and expand our collection of over 400 historic oral history recordings. 

All My Relations: Panel Presentation with Q&A

  • Thursday, Feb. 29: 1-2:30 p.m.
  • California History Center

All My Relations flyerHear from staff, volunteers and animal ambassadors from Northern California animal rehabilitation and rescue organizations as they provide testimony regarding the ethical questions and consequences raised by our current relationship with the other animals. Before and after the event, enjoy the “All My Relations” exhibit, with photographs and oral history excerpts. Free parking at Flint Center Garage. Contact clinchardlori@deanza.edu for special accommodations.

Read the Fall Magazine

cover image of colorfully dressed skeleton dolls

The fall issue of Californian, published quarterly by California History Center, is available on the center’s website at deanza.edu/califhistory. Articles include a look at the Mexican immigrant experience from 1900-1930, the center director’s report and more.

Read the newsletter

Donate – Become a Member!

Use our online form to donate and become a member of the California History Center and Foundation.

Join Now!

The California History Center and Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization (EIN 88-0108599).

Faculty Coordinator and Center Director:
Lori Clinchard

Lori ClinchardThe center is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

  • Lori Clinchard can be reached at clinchardlori@deanza.edu
  • To reach the Center, or librarian/archivist Lisa Christiansen, please call 408.864.8987.

About the California History Center

With its programs and resources, the California History Center  – which has received numerous awards and honors – is an active focal point for California history studies and has been recognized as an "outstanding educational facility" by the State of California.

Emphasizing living history, the center provides students with a unique opportunity to "encounter the historic site, document, or experienced individual, and personally interpret and recreate a period in history."

Housed in the reconstructed le Petit Trianon, a national registered landmark located on the De Anza campus, the center offers credit classes, changing exhibits and a video documentation program. The magazine Californian appears 3 times a year. Students can participate in all of these activities

Additionally, the center's Stocklmeir Library hosts a growing collection of materials on California history and on almost every aspect of Santa Clara Valley's development, including student research papers, books, journals, video and audio oral histories, photographs, manuscripts, newsletters, clippings and pamphlets.


Recent California History Center Events

The California History Center hosts and helps sponsor a variety of interesting events, workshops and panels each year. You can read about recent highlights on the History Center Highlights webpage.

See Highlights of Recent Events


Hidden Histories of Japantown

city view with fans and writing on skyThe California History Center is co-sponsor of an ambitious, augmented reality community art project in San José’s Japantown neighborhood.

The project combines technology, art, history and culture to share stories about the Chinese, Japanese and Filipino communities that helped shape this historic district. 

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