Many Voices, One Nation
National Museum of American History, Behring Center
A center case in the museum’s “Many Voices, One Nation” exhibition contains images and artifacts connected to the history of the Del Valle family and their home, Rancho Camulos. Photo courtesy of Margie Brown-Coronel
Many Voices, One Nation at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History presents a chronological and thematic journey of the stories that make our nation one. The exhibit opened in June 2017, and is ongoing.
Rancho Camulos loaned several pieces to the Smithsonian to be featured in a vignette exploring the Spanish Mexican Del Valle family. The artifacts include the late 18th-century red sacred heart from the 1860s Camulos chapel; the original wooden cross from the Del Valle family's chapel garden at Camulos; and a mortar and pestle attributed to the Tataviam people who lived in the Piru area and maintained a village on the (later) Rancho Camulos property until 1803 when they were removed to the San Fernando Mission.
Sacred Heart, glass and metal, circa late 19th century
J. Y. Del Valle overlooking Rancho Camulos, late 1880s–early 1900s
Courtesy of Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
Map of Rancho Camulos, part of the larger Rancho San Francisco, around 1843
Courtesy of Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History