Museum of Riverside

Cultural Collection

The cultural collections at the Museum of Riverside provide a view into the diversity of our community and the cultural history of the region.

Indigenous Resources

As the founding collection at the Museum, the Indigenous resources provide insight into early collectors in Southern California and, in particular, local Indigenous culture in the Riverside region. The Museum began as the "Cornelius Earle Rumsey Indian Museum," and the collection gained prominence locally, attracting other collectors such as Harwood Hall, F.A. Little, Samuel Evans, and others. Through the generosity of the community of Riverside, the collection at the Museum holds one of the largest collections of Native American basketry in California. The collections are diverse and vast, spanning many periods of time and types of collections. The collection ranges from African Hausa hats to Northwest Coast totem poles, from local Indigenous basketry to Japanese textiles, from Arctic peoples' sculpture to Southwestern weavings.