The Essentials
Who: Tours are geared to 4th grade school groups, however requests from other groups can be accommodated upon request and pending availability.
What: Tours cover aspects California history from pre-European contact to the 1850s, with a heavy emphasis on Native California and the Mission Period.
When: Tours take place from 10-11:30 a.m. most weekday mornings during the academic year. Tours are not offered during summer.
Where: The tour begins and ends at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University.
Cost: Our tours are offered free of charge, however a donation of $2 per person is encouraged.
The Details
California Stories Exhibition
The museum's California Stories from Thámien to Santa Clara exhibition features historical objects from Native California, Mission Santa Clara, local Ranchos, and the early days of Santa Clara College. Tour-goers learn about life in California through well-preserved objects including Native baskets and hunting implements; religious items and everyday objects from Mission Santa Clara; farm tools and portrait paintings from the California Ranchos; and scientific instruments and archival images from Santa Clara College.
Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Always a highlight of the tour, a visit to historic Mission Santa Clara is like stepping back in time. The sixth mission on the fifth site, the current structure harkens back to the 1825 mission. This section of the tour focuses on the architecture of the building and its importance within the California mission system. Tour groups are treated to a discussion of the Mission's history and an explanation of why Santa Clara was rebuilt six times since 1777.
Mission Gardens
Each of the California missions was established with a particular framework in mind—a church, a quadrangle, a source for water, and outlying buildings and farm lands. Mission Santa Clara was no different. A tour of the gardens allows participants to see and imagine the Mission as it would have been. Highlights of this section include touching the Adobe Wall and seeing the oldest building on campus, built in 1822.