Prosperous Pasadena:Business in the Crown City and Beyond draws upon public and private archival and object collections to explore the relationship between Pasadena’s businesses and the development, growth, and evolution of Pasadena and surrounding communities. The exhibition addresses the different needs and experiences of area employers, employees, and customers, and explores how the businesses of Pasadena helped shape local history, as well as how local and national events shaped local business. Businesses provided income, created new opportunity, shaped commercial districts, and provided goods and services for both local and national use.

Accompanying the exhibit is the just-released illustrated history of local business, Pasadena - A Business History (Arcadia: 2007), which is available at the Museum as well as in local stores.

Prosperous Pasadena will invite viewers to reflect on the diverse and fascinating history of local business. An extensive range of local businesses, from large resort hotels to small chicken farmers, attorneys to drycleaners, restaurants to science labs, local industries to national powerhouses, will be featured, and visitors will have the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which business has both changed and stayed the same over the decades.

Prosperous Pasadena showcases the dedication, hard work, and innovation that have made the western San Gabriel Valley what it is today. The exhibition provides an opportunity to reflect on the past, present, and future of area business, and how the economic life of our community impacts the way we all live our own lives.

Items on display include rare early-twentieth century Pasadena business artifacts; seldom-seen photographs from the interiors and exteriors of area stores, factories, and offices; photographs, postcards, guest books, and furnishings from the once-vital resort business; and a broad array of objects and images from prominent Pasadena businesses from years past.