The Santa Clarita Valley History in Pictures collection, housed in Newhall, maintains one of the best photographic archives of the valley's history, documenting everything from the early rancho period through the oil boom, the railroad era, and the birth of the film industry. The archive includes thousands of photographs, maps, documents, and artefacts related to the Newhall, Saugus, and Castaic communities.
The museum runs regular exhibitions drawn from the collection and offers research services for those tracing local history. It's a specialist attraction, most rewarding for visitors with a specific interest in the region's past, but the photographic holdings reveal a valley that looked remarkably different only a century ago: open range, dirt roads, oil derricks, and the occasional film crew camped in the hills.