The following is from the California Secretary of State’s website:
June 28, 2016: Today Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced a new partnership between the California State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State’s office, and the Google Cultural Institute.
This partnership will make State Archives exhibits available to a global audience online. The first three exhibits highlight the history of California state parks, the California Secretary of State’s office, and showcases campaign materials created by the nation’s first political consulting firm, Campaigns Inc.
“The historical treasures of the State Archives belong to the people of California, and they should be easily viewable,” Secretary of State Padilla said. “Our partnership with the Google Cultural Institute will allow us to use materials from the State Archives to share stories about the rich history of California. These stories deserve to be shared with the world.”
“Preserving history, art, and culture is crucial to remembering where we’ve come from and who we are as people. Google is thrilled to partner with Secretary Padilla and the State Archives to bring archive collections onto the Google Arts & Culture platform and make them accessible the world over,” said Mufaddal Ezzy, Google’s California State Manager for Government Relations.
“State Archives staff has worked diligently to compile and digitize rare photographs, personal correspondence, videos, and other original documents to showcase and share via the Google Cultural Institute. These exhibits allow us to view the colorful history of the Secretary of State’s office, the creation of our state parks, and the campaign work of the nation’s first political consulting firm,” Padilla added.
As part of this partnership, the State Archives will continue to digitize exhibits for inclusion on the Google Cultural Institute. “This is only the beginning of our partnership with Google. We look forward to sharing more digital exhibits in the months and years to come,” Padilla added.
About the California State Archives:
California’s first legislature, meeting in 1849–50, charged the Secretary of State to receive “…all public records, registered maps, books, papers, rolls, documents and other writings . . . which appertain to or are in any way connected with the political history and past administration of the government of California.” The California State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State’s office, continues to serve in the spirit of those early instructions, providing a repository for the state’s permanent governmental records as well as other materials documenting California history.About the Google Cultural Institute:
Since its launch in 2011, the Google Cultural Institute has worked closely with museums, foundations, archives, and others—from Carnegie Hall to the Musee D’Orsay in Paris to the British Museum in London. The Google Cultural Institute now has more than 1,000 partners from over 70 countries making a total of 6 million artworks, photos, videos, manuscripts and other documents of art, culture and history accessible to all online and by doing so, preserving it for future generations.
