Carpinteria Valley Museum of History

While browsing the Internet I found that Carpinteria had a history museum. We had been to Carpinteria countless times in the past, and had lived there about 10 years ago or so, but never realized that this museum existed. It was only a block away from the Foster’s Freeze we usually stop at when we're in Carpinteria.

We arrived in Carpinteria around 11:30. The museum opened at 1:00, so we stopped at the above mentioned Foster’s Freeze and had some hamburgers and fries. After lunch we walked over to the museum. It was closed, but had a courtyard in the back that had some antique farm equipment and such. After that we went to the new library bookstore that was in the same block as the museum and Deane bought a couple craft books.

We then decided to move the car, as we didn’t want to leave it in the Foster’s lot for hours. We parked in the parking lot next to Senor Frog’s on Linden Street and checked out some of the shops – Deane bought an old foldout postcard thing for a couple dollars and an “antique” shop, but that was it. We strolled around until about 1:00 and then walked over to the museum.

We were the first people at the museum. It was well constructed and used a number of parts of old Carpinteria houses that had been demolished in the past. A docent took us on a short tour of the museum and told us details about the exhibits. It was very well done for a local museum, and the exhibits ranged from the early Chumash period (about 10,000 years ago to the time when Spain / Mexico colonized the area) to the early part of the 20th century. There were displays on Chumash culture, early aircraft (Carpinteria had an airfield in the past) and dolls. The displays were a bit random, but all had to do with Carpinteria history and were quite interesting. There were also a number of dioramas, some on the Spanish period, but most were centered around 1850-1950, the period when the town developed into what it is today.

The museum is located at 956 Maple Avenue in Carpinteria, and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated – we thought the trip was well worth it, so we donated!

ZAP! POW! BAM!

We went to the Skirball Museum (or Skirball Cultural Center to be exact) today to see the ZAP! POW! BAM! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938-1950 exhibit. It featured many of the early artists and writers from the 1930s and 1940s such as Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, C.C. Beck (creator of the original Captain Marvel), and many more – most of the big names. They had the original comics on exhibit, as well as original scripts and art. It wasn’t a huge exhibit, but was well done.

They also had some amusing superhero related displays – an old coin operated Batmobile, Kryptonite, etc. You couldn’t take photos of the original art, but could take them of the displays, so I got a few of those. It was also a free admission day, and was fairly crowded – had to take some of the pictures fast to get them without a crowd in front of them.

There was also a companion exhibit, Lights, Camera, Action: Comic Book Heroes of Film and Television. This was a smaller exhibit of various comic book associated media and was centered on the 1950’s – 1970’s. It had games, toys and original comic books – Amazing Fantasy #15, Daredevil #1, etc. from the early Marvel era. They had the original Batcycle from the 1966 television show, but they unfortunately didn’t allow photos at all in the exhibit.

Deane and the Batmobile