Stories, research, and reflections on Cupertino's history.
In 1776, many of the newly established California missions were in danger of collapsing due to food shortages and Indigenous resistance to missionization. The man chosen to lead settlers north was Lt. Col. Juan Bautista de Anza.
A brief history of the city of Cupertino, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of incorporation. On October 10, 2025, Cupertino celebrated its 70th year as the 13th incorporated city in Santa Clara county.
Cupertino Museum's permanent exhibit traces the natural history of the area and early Native American settlements, through the famous "Crossroads" and agricultural era, up to the Incorporation of the City in 1955.
Many stories have been told of the coming of honeybees to California. In 1925, Mrs. Fremont Older interviewed Mr. John Quincy Adams Ballou - then 99 years old - for his story on how honeybees came to our valley.
Everyday household and personal use items are a quick visual way to measure changes in society. Compare anything to its counterpart from 20, 50 or 100 or more years ago.
The Victorians were extremely sentimental and family oriented. Hair art and other "body" mementos like plaster casts of hands and death masks went well with the Victorian style of decorating.
The garments and accessories a woman in the late Victorian era would use to get ready for a social outing such as a cotillion dance or a theater performance.
Before Cupertino was really a town, immigrants from France, Germany, Italy, and even overland from east of the Rocky Mountains came to California to buy and settle and work the land. This is the story of the many wineries along Montebello Road.
The story of visionaries and entrepreneurs who, between 1975 and 1985, turned digital breakthroughs into a cultural revolution.
There are some interesting details about the Mirage sculpture on Apple 2 campus in Cupertino that may not be immediately apparent. It is made of silicon, the material for which "Silicon Valley" is named.
The vehicle is very rare. Fewer than 15 were ever made and there are only about a dozen Kelly trucks of any kind that exist assembled today. This truck is the 1912 5 ton K-50 model with 32.4 horsepower.
The CHSM collection has many product labels. Most we have found and imaged are labels for fruit cans, but many Cupertino industries have distinctive product labels.
San Francisco in 1914 watched with trepidation the darkening war clouds spreading over Europe, as it looked forward to holding a Fair in 1915 in honor of the opening of the Panama Canal.
The elder Mr. Nose left Fukuoka, Japan in 1907 and settled first on Oahu, Hawaii where he worked in a candy store, later coming to California to work in the pear orchards.
Mas Hirata's father, Sakuhei Hirata, came to the United States from Kumamoto, Japan with a group of single men around 1890.
Like many farm families who had not yet acquired their own land, Mr. Satake's family moved regularly to follow job opportunities, a common rural lifestyle amid legal discrimination against Japanese Americans.
Mr. John P. Bubb had seen the Santa Clara Valley develop and grow, and had a large share in making it the fertile valley that it is today.
Fremont and Cora Older were prominent California journalists and historians. You may be familiar with the Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, the site of their Woodhills home.
Born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1874, Edgar R. Parker went to dental school and his ensuing career is the stuff of Hollywood at its most fantastical.
Apple Computer was formed by friends Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who met in 1971 and later attended the Homebrew Computer Club in Menlo Park.
The Blue Pheasant is a restaurant/bar serving classic American cuisine since 1974 at 22100 Stevens Creek Blvd, one of the most popular destinations in Monta Vista.
A lending library in Cupertino started with donations of the book collections of Elizabeth Lowe Watson and Mary Tinkham Dixon.
At the end of 1944 Paul and Harry purchased the Monta Vista Inn from Chester Damico. It became known as Paul and Eddie's after the customers just kept calling it that.
In 1907, Rosario Cali came to California from Italy. He and his brother started the "R Cali and Bro" trucking company, which became Cupertino's first million dollar business.
Rancho Rinconada is a residential neighborhood in eastern Cupertino, originally built as low-cost, single-story "Ranch Houses" in the 1950s by Stern & Price.
Taro Yamagami started Yamagami's Nursery as a fruit stand in the midst of orchards in San Jose, California, a business now in its fourth generation of family ownership.
