Our History
The Cupertino Historical Museum is owned and operated by the Cupertino Historical Society, a private, nonprofit educational
organization, established in 1966. Like most of the nation’s older historical societies, we have always been a private
organization and derive virtually all our support from membership, donations, grants, and our endowment.
The Cupertino Historical Society and Museum (CHSM) is the city’s cultural organization whose purpose is to preserve
and present Cupertino’s unique history. We have been bringing stories of our past to the community, our schools, and other
organizations for over half a century.
Our hope is to share the richness of our diverse cultures while serving as the city’s repository of culture and history.
We will continue our mission by collecting, preserving, and presenting the artifacts, ephemera, and oral histories that
represent the past and present of Cupertino. Our collection spans over 100 years of Cupertino’s history and contains
more than 5,000 items including manuscripts, graphics, photographs, books, artifacts, and other historically relevant
objects accessible at our museum or on loan at other organizations. History in Cupertino is being made every day and
our goal is to keep recording it for future generations.
The Historical Museum was opened in 1990, as an integral feature of the then just opened Quinlan Community Center.
While our primary exhibits are at the museum we also have off-site exhibits at several locations.
