Artifacts
The collection of the Sutter County Museum contains over 20,000 artifacts and over 8,000 photographs, all of which help us tell the story of the Yuba-Sutter community. Artifacts range from Native American material to clothing and household goods, from County records to agricultural equipment, from gold mining tools to postcards and souvenirs.
Research
We request a $10 donation per research request to cover administrative costs. Your donation helps cover photocopies and basic printing costs. For printing of photos on photo paper, a charge will apply.
If you have a research request, please complete the Research Request Form below and give us as much detail as possible regarding your request. The more information you provide, the more options we have to search our collection, records, and library resources to assist you. We will do our best to reply within 10 business days. As our research requests are handled by volunteers, it can sometimes take longer.
If you would like to come to the Museum to do research, please contact us at least 2 weeks in advance. We may not be able to accommodate requests made less than 2 weeks in advance. Once we receive your query, we will review our collection and will let you know if we have anything applicable to your research. The more information you can give us on what you are looking for, the more accurate our response can be.
If you need assistance with birth, death, or marriage records; old deeds; or court records, please contact the Clerk Recorder of Sutter County. Many local newspapers can be found through the Yuba County Library. The Sutter County Library in Yuba City offers resources on local history and free computers to conduct your own online research.
Donate an Artifact
Thank you for thinking of the Sutter County Museum for your donation offer. At this moment, the Museum is not considering artifact donations to the collection while we update our collections software system. The Museum will resume donation considerations again in February 2024. Thank you for your understanding.
After February 2024, if you are interested in donating an artifact or photograph to the Museum, here are a few things to consider:
- Is it related to the history of Sutter County? (A caveat to this is that we can't tell the story of Sutter County without including information on Yuba County, so we consider those items as well.)
- What condition is the item in? Please do not paint or restore items before offering them to the Museum. Items in original condition are preferable. On the other hand, if the item is badly damaged, so rusted that you can't tell what it is, or would pose a safety hazard to staff or visitors, we will probably decline.
- How large is the item? Unfortunately we do not have the storage capacity for many large items.
If you are unsure, please contact us! Including photographs of the item(s) and dimensions will help us determine if we can properly care for historic objects and records.
Please note: the Museum does not purchase items for our collection, and we cannot accept drop-off donations or materials in the mail without prior approval from Museum staff. Also, we cannot help you to determine the monetary value of your items.