Research at the Archive
Many thanks to the Wood Claeyssens Foundation, Hutton Parker Foundation, Outhwaite Foundation, California Mission Foundation, and the Academy of American Franciscan History for their generous support of SBMAL's collections and programs.
Take a look at our photocopying procedures and distribution policies before you visit.
The Archive-Library has copies of the sacramental registers of the California Missions, recording baptisms, marriages, and burials, for use in genealogical research.
Browse our main book catalog for reference materials not found in other libraries.
Browse the catalogs of the Archive's collection, including the Junípero Serra Collection, 1713 to 1947; the California Mission Documents, 1640-1853; and the Apostolic College (Our Lady of Sorrows) Collection, 1853-1885.
Documents in the De la Guerra Collection cover the social, political, military, and economic pursuits of one of California's founding families.
The Serra Cause was the lengthy campaign to have Junípero Serra canonized as a saint. The documents in this collection describe that campaign, which resulted in Serra's canonization in 2015.
The Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library holds several thousand photo-images of various types, covering a broad range of subjects and dating back to the late 19th century.
Edith Buckland Webb Collection
Edith Webb, artist and historian of the California Missions, compiled a collection of research materials that includes photographs, correspondence, and scrapbooks.
Documents in this collection pertain to the friars' work with the Tohono O'odham in Arizona during the 20th century. Thank you to the Academy of American Franciscan History for supporting work on this collection.
UCSB Professor of Art and Art History Kurt Baer was appointed the official art historian of Franciscan missions in California. The Kurt Baer Papers represent Dr. Baer's research materials compiled while writing his three books on the missions and their art and architecture.
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library staff also care for the Archives of the Province of St. Barbara. The Province oversees ministries of the Franciscan Friars (OFM) in the western United States.
Norman Neuerburg Collection
Norman Neuerburg was famous for his work on the Getty Villa and for restoration work on several early California buildings. The Norman Neuerburg collection at SBMAL contains Neuerburg's photographs, slides, correspondence, and notes. This collection is currently being processed with the help of a grant from the Academy of American Franciscan History. The finding aid is being actively developed. Please contact research@sbmal.org to learn more.
Dr. Sylvia Broadbent was a Professor of Anthropology at UC Riverside from 1966-1992. Before coming to UC, Dr. Broadbent also taught Chibcha culture and history at Universidad de Los Andes. Her papers include photographs, notes, letters, and articles from a career researching linguistics, language and culture, archaeology, prehistory and symbolism of communities in North and South America.
Architectural historian Dr. Dora P. Crouch studied architecture, archaeology, engineering, and geology. This collection contains her research materials on a wide variety of subjects, including colonialism in the Americas, North American archaeology, and Native American art.
Fine Art Inventory
Browse the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library's working inventory of collected fine art. Please note that this inventory may be updated as artworks are added to our collections.
Explore SBMAL's videos and project materials for use in the classroom.