Abstract
The California State Railroad Museum Foundation (CSRMF) emerged out of a vast network of docents, fundraisers, state workers and interested citizens involved in the 1976 opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California. The California State Railroad Museum Foundation Oral History Project interviewed nine influential founders of the CSRMF, gathering their historical recollections for use by the foundation as an archival oral history collection. Diverse sources were used in conducting these interviews and compiling the history of both the Museum and Foundation, including published and unpublished secondary and primary source materials located at the CSRMF library, the Sacramento State Library, and from the interviewees themselves. The interviews and transcripts will be used by the CSRMF to better understand the museum and the foundation’s creation, and will serve as the basis for oral histories conducted on behalf of the foundation in the future.