Bowers Legacy: The Making of a Museum

Edward W. Cochems (American, 1874–1949), Bowers Museum Bell Tower,1932–1936. Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Weston and Adeline Walker, 34597.1. © Bowers Museum.

Created to commemorate Bowers Museum’s 90th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence, Bowers Legacy: The Making of a Museum opens on November 21, 2026. This new show traces the early development of the museum from concept to realization. Through archival photographs, architectural drawings, historic objects, and early exhibition documentation, the show explores how a bequest led to the creation of the Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum. The exhibition highlights the vision of the Bowers family, the design and construction of the original 1932 building during the Great Depression, the foundational contributions of the museum’s first curator, Bessie Beth Coulter, and the leadership of its earliest board members. In this post we summarize the story of the museum’s founding by looking at a selection of images and documents from the exhibition.

Charles Wesley and Ada Elvira Bowers, early 20th century. Bowers Museum Collection, 32154A. © Bowers Museum.

Bowers Museum owes its name to Charles Wesley and Ada Elvira Abbott Bowers. Born in Ohio in 1842, Charles grew up farming with his family in the Midwest before moving to Santa Ana in the late nineteenth century. He continued that agricultural work in California as a citrus grower and land developer, working with property across the city. Ada Elvira Abbott was born in Perry, Illinois in 1846. She first traveled to Orange County in 1890. Returning several times thereafter, she ultimately met Charles Bowers and married him in 1908. The couple lived quietly without children. When Ada died in February of 1931, a little more than a year after Charles’ death, a provision that they had worked into their will in 1924 triggered, offering Santa Ana an opportunity to receive $100,000 and their property for the construction of a museum. If Santa Ana did not accept, the opportunity was to be given to the City of Orange instead or, failing that, the county. Santa Ana accepted and the creation of the Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum commenced.

Home of Charles and Ada Bowers, c. 1920. Gift of Judith M. Castagno, 2007.7.8. © Bowers Museum.

While Bowers Museum’s historic building, now formally the Mary Muth Historic Wing, is widely recognized for its Spanish Mission Revival architecture, this same plot of land was formerly the site of Charles and Ada Bowers’ Victorian home. Several members of the Bowers’ family, including Charles and Ada, can be seen standing outside the home in this photograph. One of the stipulations of the Bowers’ trust was that construction on the museum had to begin less than a year after the passing of the last living between Charles and Ada, so beginning around fall 1931 the home was razed by local firefighters who volunteered their time.

W. Horace Austin and Frank Lansdown (Architects), Original Bowers Museum Floor Plan, c. 1932. Gift of Mrs. Frank Lansdown, 36760.10. © Bowers Museum.

Santa Ana’s city council and the Bowers Memorial Committee, an advisory committee of five individuals included in the Bowers’ trust as a requirement of the city receiving the funds, worked together to select an architect and a contractor to design and build the new museum. With this taking place at the height of the Great Depression, architects Frank Lansdown and W. Horace Austin’s winning bid—shown above in a much-simplified floor plan from the complex blueprints that the duo submitted—was for a resilient building created with economic constraints in mind. Contractor William Rohrbacher committed to employing local workers during the seven months of construction. Less than a year after Ada’s passing, construction began on the building with the core work completed in late 1932.

Bessie Beth Coulter, 1927. Bowers Museum Collection, 32505.20. © Bowers Museum.

In spite of construction being finished pretty much on time, the museum itself did not open for three and a half years. There were two primary reasons for the delay. The first of these was that much of the electrical work, fixtures, casework, and similar items still needed to be completed or sourced. The other was that Bowers Museum didn’t have any objects to populate its halls. Moreover, it needed a curator. In 1935 Bessie Beth Coulter, shown in the photograph above, was officially appointed to this post. She played a critical role in preparing the museum for its opening, furnishing galleries and acquiring the museum's first collections.

Bowers Home in Santa Ana, early 20th century. Photographic print Bowers Family Collection, 88A. © Bowers Museum.

It has been 90 years since the opening of Bowers Museum, the house that stood in this photograph is gone, but what Charles and Ada set in motion lives on. The family home now anchors a campus that includes expanded featured exhibition galleries and a growing number of permanent collection shows drawn from cultures across the world. Bowers Museum has become a central institution within Orange County for public education and the arts. For more of the stories surrounding the founding of Bowers Museum, visit Bowers Legacy: The Making of a Museum when it opens!

Guest written by Clara Choi. Text and images may be under copyright. Please contact Collection Department for permission to use. References are available on request. Information subject to change upon further research.