Before Stanford: Founding Communities, Present Pasts

This is an Archive of a Past Event

As Stanford celebrates its 125th year, students use campus archaeology to ask, “where did Stanford come from?” Rather than taking 1891 as our university’s beginning, students reveal a complex origin in communities that have occupied these lands long before—and since—the Stanford family's arrival. These stories are highlighted in the new year-long exhibit, Before Stanford: Founding Communities, Present Pasts. Multiple narratives and deep connections between present and past persist through archaeologies of these founding communities, including: Ohlone tribal people, Mexican and Spanish colonists, and generations of laborers. Our major new exhibit is curated by the class Museum Cultures: Material Representation in the Past and Present.