The 2023 Arizona Historical Society Wrapped is out now!🎉 Take a look at some AHS highlights throughout this year. Thank YOU for all of your support through the years. We can’t wait to see what 2024 holds for us. 

Established in 1973, MetroCenter, a regional shopping district located in northwest Phoenix, was designed by the architectural firm Flatow, Moore, Bryan and Fairburn. Its impressive two-story, enclosed shopping mall was accessible through a massive 7,000-space parking lot and by prominent tenant signage. Boasting its status as one of the largest shopping malls in the United […]

José María Redondo is one of Arizona’s most famous and accomplished citizens. Born 1830 in Sonora, Mexico, Redondo left an upper-class lifestyle at the age of 19 to mine for gold in modern Southern Arizona and California. He was a natural entrepreneur and businessman and after a decade of overseeing successful mining operations, Redondo took […]

Very early in the morning on September 16, 1810, the bells of the church in Dolores (now Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato) rang, gathering the congregation from their beds into the plaza. Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave an impassioned speech, urging people to take up arms against the corrupt and morally reprehensible Spanish Crown. This is […]

As summer temperatures heat up, Arizonans begin to anticipate our annual monsoon season. The summer monsoon season starts when the winds shift and produce a radical change in the state’s moisture starting around June 15. From afternoon Flagstaff showers to billowing dust storms near Casa Grande, every Arizonan has a monsoon story. Although this weather […]

As early as 1905, Japanese immigrants moved to Arizona with the intent to farm the land. They first planned to establish a sugar beet farm; but this crop would fail to thrive in the heat, and many Japanese farmers left the state by 1915. Despite the difficulty, new farmers continued to arrive, including Kajuro Kishiyama […]

It was an exciting evening at the Pioneer Hotel on December 20, 1970. Hughes Aircraft, now Raytheon, held their annual Holiday Party in what was one of Arizona’s premier hotels–hundreds of people were in attendance. Winter visitors from all over the US and Sonora were either snuggled up in bed or enjoying the holiday festivities. […]

It started suddenly. Few people, if any, saw it coming. Even the ones who knew it was coming, some doctors perhaps, couldn’t predict the ferocity of the virus that was spreading across the globe. One day, everything was normal. The next day, suddenly, there were 24 cases of the virus in Tucson. The numbers soon […]

Starting A ConversationSometime between closing on November 4th and opening on November 5th, the two statues―honoring John Greenway and Padre Eusebio Kino―in front of the Arizona History Museum in Tucson were painted with red spray paint. As a history institution, we paused to reflect on what this means.  First, we have to ask questions about […]

Día de los Muertos, celebrated across the Catholic feast days of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, is a holiday popular in Mexico, Latin America, and the United States. Like the European traditions Samhain, All Hallows Eve and Halloween, Día de los Muertos is a night where the veil between worlds is lifted.  Unlike […]