Between 1955 and his death in 1965, Ernest V. Daubenberger, also known as E.V. D'Berger, donated more than 100 works of art, furniture, and decorative objects to the de Saisset Museum. D'Berger was born in 1878 in Iowa and later moved to Southern California. He was a pharmacist with large land and dairy holdings in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.
D'Berger was also an avid collector of art and artifacts, especially religious objects. When the de Saisset Museum opened in 1955, museum director Joseph Pociask, S.J., began borrowing works from D'Berger's large and eclectic collection. Mostly decorative arts such as furniture, porcelain vessels, and ivory sculpture were borrowed, exhibited, and eventually became gifts to the permanent collection.
An unusual collection D'Berger donated to the de Saisset Museum is a group of 50 German, Austrian, and Belgian beer steins in materials such as ivory, pewter, brass, glass, stoneware, porcelain, and wood. He also gave the Museum a large collection of porcelain plates decorated with portraits and allegorical scenes from manufacturers such as Meissen and Sèvres.