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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

During Worl War II, the first Navajo Code Talkers created a unique code that would prove vital to America’s victory in the Pacific. The Navajo were not the first tribe to use their language to transmit messages for the United States during a war. During World War I, Cherokee soldiers became the first known code […]

A Storm Has Arrived! Share your love of Arizona history and outfit your vehicle with the Arizona Historical Society’s new specialty license plate, which features an image of a stunning Arizona monsoon storm. “In the same way that monsoons have a powerful impact on the landscape, history has a profound and powerful impact on our […]

July 28, 2020 recognizes the 154th anniversary of the passage of the Army Reorganization Act. This act, which reorganized the US military following the Civil War, created both the Buffalo Soldiers and Indian Scouts. Both Black and Indigenous people served in the US Armed Forces before 1866, but this act was the first time they […]

On July 15th, 1948, Native American suffrage was finally passed with the Arizona Supreme Court overturning the case of Porter v. Hall, a case where Arizona Native Americans unsuccessfully sued for the right to vote. This gave the Indigenous population of Arizona the right to vote. This historic day came into fruition after decades of […]