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Tulare County Museum reports restoration projects, rising school visits
Summary
Museum curator Amy King presented the 2024 annual report and 2025 plans, detailing restoration work, new exhibits, increased school tours and steps to digitize the collection.
Amy King, curator of the Tulare County Museum, presented the museum’s 2024 annual report and plans for 2025 to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors.
King said the museum staff consists of two full-time and two part-time employees plus volunteers and that recent restoration projects — a clock tower ($19,000), a caboose restoration (about $42,000) and Masonic doors ($17,000) — have relied on both county resources and fundraising through the Tulare County Historical Society. King said work has begun on replacing roofs for two historic houses and that a larger restoration of the museum’s blacksmith shop donated by the Witt family of Ducor is starting this year.
The museum reported nearly 14,000 visitors in 2024 with 57 schools bringing about 3,000 students. King said that as of the day before the meeting the museum had 9,255 visitors in 2025 and had hosted 34 schools bringing roughly 2,000 students. King said about 30% of 2025 visitors were new to the museum. The museum uses the CatalogIt system and has photographed and uploaded its photo collection and framed art to enable remote access and research.
King outlined community events including the annual Jamboree (about 500 attendees this year), a veterans day program that features student performances, an October 12 fundraiser in collaboration with the Tulare County Historical Society, and the second annual holiday event. She also described plans for “cultural vignettes” upstairs to preserve previous rotating exhibits in smaller displays and mentioned recent workshops in collections care, grant writing and wet salvage training hosted in partnership with the Museum Alliance of Tulare and Kings County.
Supervisors praised the museum’s outreach and partnerships. The board asked that the museum coordinate with the Visalia Heritage Project and consider county-wide field-trip “passport” ideas for the county’s 250th anniversary. King said the museum is exploring a research space in partnership with the county library’s Annie Mitchell History Room.
