Museum of Riverside

Welcome to the "Reading the Walls" Online Exhibit

Riverside’s National Historic Landmark Harada House is the most significant and powerful civil rights landmark in California. This site embodies issues of civil and individual rights, democracy, immigration, assimilation, and patriotism. The Harada House site and contents provide a continuum of this family’s life from the turn of the century until the family's donation to the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, City of Riverside in 2005. In Reading the Walls: The Struggles of the Haradas a Japanese American Family exhibit the Harada family collections share a remarkable story of an ordinary family who lived extraordinary lives.

The Harada House is the story of California and its people -- immigrants and their descendants-- who overcame economic impediments and racial prejudices, lost civil rights and liberties to realize the American Dream. Originally on display at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum from January 29, 2009 to January 3, 2011, we invite you to enjoy and explore the Harada family’s history through this online version of the exhibition, "Reading the Walls: The Struggles of the Haradas, a Japanese American Family".

Enter the online exhibit by visiting a room below: