The Yakima Valley Museum is a facility offers historical exhibits on the Yakima Valley—its natural history, American Indian culture, pioneer life, early city life, and the roots and development of the Valley's fruit industry.

Exhibits

The museum has a superb collection of

horse-drawn vehicle A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by auto ...

s, from

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

to hearse. An historical exhibit and reconstruction of the Washington D.C. office of former Yakima resident and environmentalist, Supreme Court Justice

William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertari ...

, an exhibit of

petrified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

trees, a ''Neon Garden'' exhibit of vintage neon lights, and a changing schedule of special exhibitions. The museum collections are always available for research and study by appointment. Within the museum is the Children's Underground, a interactive learning center offering museum-related educational activities and programs for children ages 5–15. The museum has a functioning replica of a late 1930s

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

soda fountain A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated soft drinks, called fountain drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores. The machine combines flavored syrup or syrup concentrat ...

, called Museum Soda Fountain, that is furnished with salvaged and restored parts of authentic Yakima soda fountains. The museum's great hall, a grand performance space beneath the Neon Garden, offers programs and concerts throughout the year. The museum also operates the nearby, H. M. Gilbert Homeplace (2109 W. Yakima Ave); built in 1898, this late Victorian farmhouse is now filled with period furnishings.

Yakima memory

In July 2001, the

Yakima Valley Library The Yakima Valley Libraries (YVL) is a public, 17-branch public library, library system located in the Yakima River, Yakima Valley region of Washington (state), Washington, United States. The library system's collection includes public access ...

and Yakima Valley Museum began a project titled Yakima Memory to digitize approximately 9,000 photographs in two collections, and provide access to the new digitized collections via the internet.

References

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External links

KCTS9
Showcase Yakima/Inside the Yakima Valley Museum (film) Museums in Yakima County, Washington Buildings and structures in Yakima, Washington History museums in Washington (state) Historic house museums in Washington (state)