Arizona Historical Society

Unmasking the Past

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 […]

Arizona Historical Society Awards $35,434 in Grants to 29 Arizona Organizations

Certified Historical Institutions Awarded Grants to Support Local History Projects The Arizona Historical Society (AHS) awarded $35,434.69 in grants to 28 Arizona museums and organizations. This annual grant program supports preserving, interpreting, and promoting Arizona history with Certified Historical Institutions across the state. This year’s grant awards include scanning equipment and software to digitize photographs […]

Memorials and Monuments at the Arizona Historical Society

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, History and Celebrations

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 […]

The Future of Three Local Museums

October 23, 2020

At the direction of the Arizona Historical Society’s State Board of Directors, operational responsibility of three properties which are currently managed but not owned by AHS will be returned to their owners. The decision to transfer the care and preservation of these museums was made at the October 23 meeting of the board in light […]

Share Your Arizona Pandemic Story

People often think of archives and museums as places where you go to learn about important historical figures. But who decides what makes a person “important” enough to belong in a museum? Throughout much of modern history, decisions about what museums collect have been made exclusively by archivists and curators.  Yet over the past few […]

Ready to Welcome You Back on October 13

The Arizona Historical Society is excited to welcome you back into our museums. For more than 150 years, we have been connecting people to the power of Arizona’s history through our exhibits, programs, library and archives, publications, and museums across the state. After a careful planning process, we will be thoughtfully reopening two of our […]

Taking Steps to Protect Arizona History: Frequently Asked Questions

September 29, 2020

2020 has been a difficult year for all of us and the Arizona Historical Society, like thousands of arts and cultural organizations across the country, has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.   Because many of you have asked questions regarding the future of the contract management agreements between the Arizona Historical Society and […]

Hispanic Heritage Month in Arizona

Did you know that Hispanic Heritage Month is more than fifty years old? It was signed into law as a national week of observance by President Johnson in 1968 and expanded to a full month by President Reagan in 1988. It runs from September 15 to October 15. Hispanic Heritage Month does two important things: […]

Labor Day’s Legacy: Working for Change

Americans celebrate the last three-day weekend of the summer with barbecues, pool parties, and shopping. Labor Day is an American tradition, but where did Labor Day come from?  A Short History of Labor Day Who were the essential workers of the past? In the late 1880s, essential workers (factory, mining, railroads, meat packing industries) faced […]

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