The museum at the San Jose Mission is one of the best. It uses eight rooms to great advantage to feature everything from Indian culture up to the 1985 reconstruction of the Mission Church. The selection of pictures and comments on this and the second museum page depicts but a small part of the whole collection.
Indian Exhibits
While it’s not the first thing you see, we’ll start with an overview. Below you see a diorama and map. The diorama depicts how an Indian village of the time looked and the map shows the area generally controlled by the Ohlone Indians at the time the missionaries entered the area.
A nice selection of ceremonial items and tools make up two large displays…
A display of grinding gear, baskets, and a picture showing the proper way to use a mortar and pestle make up the end of this discussion of the pre-mission-era Indians as seen in the Mission Museum.
![]() Picture taken 10:16am 22 Feb 2012 ![]() Picture taken 10:19am 22 Feb 2012 |
![]() Picture taken 10:16am 22 Feb 2012 |
Spanish Era
The Spanish Era displays are much like those you see at all the missions. Again, we’ll show a selection of items; some of them are unique to the San Jose Mission. We’ll start with how the Mission might have looked circa 1797 in a drawing by Al Greger with research from Jim Martin and hanging on the wall in the Museum.
Picture taken 10:19am 22 Feb 2012
The Mission exhibits include a built-in cupboard and an example of a typical Padre’s room. The cupboards were built into the dining room areas so that particular room in the Museum would have likely been the dining room during the mission period. While there is an example Padre’s room in most mission museums, this one has some interesting art in it that most do not.
![]() Picture taken 10:18am 22 Feb 2012 |
![]() Picture taken 10:21am 22 Feb 2012 |
![]() Picture taken 10:21am 22 Feb 2012 |
![]() Picture taken 10:21am 22 Feb 2012 |
Other items include…
Father Durán and Music
Padre Narciso Durán became one of the Mission padres in June of 1806. While he became famous for his work at the missions and even became head of the missions for a time, he is also quite famous for his use of music in his ministry. The Choir Book and Prologo he created in 1813 have been called “the musical charter of Indian California.”
Picture taken 10:27am 22 Feb 2012
![]() Picture taken 10:27am 22 Feb 2012 |
While at the Mission, Father Durán created a notation system for music to help train the Indians and to pass on the various music that he wrote. Four-part music was, for example, written with white and solid notes, outlined in red and black.Most of the music was plainchant and hymns. The example to the left is from a Mass composed for two voices. The page in the frame is a duplicate taken from the Choir Book he wrote. |
Some of the types of musical instruments and devices used during the Mass are shown in a display case. Below you see a violin from the mission era. Note that the design of a violin has not changed much in the past hundreds of years it has been around. To the right below are Matracas. These are wooden clappers used during the final three days of Holy Week before Easter. They replaced the Sanctus bells (see Church) to announce different parts of the Mass during this period. | |
![]() Picture taken 10:29am 22 Feb 2012 |
![]() Picture taken 10:29am 22 Feb 2012 |
During his tenure at the Mission Father Durán requested but never got an organ. Portions of a letter he wrote to Father Juan Cortes is posted in the Museum…
“I make known to Your Reverence my desire that you send us an organ for this church … the said instrument must be of a size commensurate with a Church which is 60 yards long and 11 wide … its treble must be quite intense and (must be) proportioned in accordance (to) the said dimensions.
There are at present two (persons) who will in two months be able to play … all the music that is necessary at the moment. Also, it will not be long before there will be in California enough … musicians for the next century ….”
The organ presently found in the reconstructed Church is the fulfillment of Father’s Durán’s dream.