There are more than two million objects in OMCA’s collection. The Art collection features over 90,000 works of art by artists from California or who were strongly influenced by time spent in the state. The History collection consists of nearly two million items that represent and document California’s peoples and their histories from the original Indigenous inhabitants to the multicultural population of the 21st century. The Natural Sciences collection comprises more than 100,000 specimens, artifacts, sounds, and photographs focused on the native species, ecosystems, and geology of California.

The collection is owned and held in public trust by the City of Oakland, which also owns the buildings in which the collection is housed. OMCA has been empowered and required by the City of Oakland to oversee the day-to-day care, management, and preservation of the collection.

The Museum seeks works of art and historical objects that reflect the diversity of identities in California; that speak to the experience of historically marginalized people such as women, persons of color, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ communities, among others; and that ensure the ability of these groups of people to tell their own stories. Desired natural sciences specimens are examples unique to California and that enable conversations about diverse ecosystems and human relationships with them.

Thank you for considering donating to the collection! Please do not bring or send objects to the Museum. They will not be accepted. Unsolicited donation items left at the Museum will be disposed of.

You must submit a proposal form in order for our curatorial and collections teams to consider your donation, whether it’s of one artwork, artifact, or specimen, or a variety of items. 

If you are unable or choose not to use this form, you may submit a written proposal that includes the following information:

1. Is your item being offered as a donation or for purchase? If the item is offered as a purchase, please provide the price and any conditions or terms.
2. Describe the object’s connection to California. Objects without a connection to California will not be considered for the collection.
3. Provide supporting information about the object, such as a general description; the name of the maker (if known or applicable); dimensions; date made; history of how it was made, used, and/or acquired; assessment of the object’s condition; and any other details you can provide.
4. High-quality photographs of the object(s). 

Mail written proposals to:
Oakland Museum of California
Attention: Acquisitions Committee
1000 Oak Street
Oakland, CA 94607

Once we receive your completed proposal, OMCA staff will carefully consider your offer. Those considerations include the object(s) relevance to OMCA’s mission; how well it fits within the collections plan; its condition; and whether we can adequately care for it in the future. Please note that not all donation or sale offers can be accepted. If the object is accepted, you may be asked for formal documentation of ownership.

We respond to all proposals, however depending on the unique considerations of each proposal, it can take anywhere from one to six months for us to respond.

The Oakland Museum of California is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and donations are tax deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.

No. We are unable to provide object valuations. General information about appraisals and appraisers can be found on these websites, which are listed in no particular order:

The Appraisers Association of America
The American Society of Appraisers

Please send an email to [email protected] regarding your area of research and a staff member will respond within 10 business days.

As with most museums, the majority of objects in our collection are not on view due to the space constraints of our galleries. Additionally, certain types of objects, such as textiles and photographs, may fade or deteriorate if exposed to light for too long, so their display time is limited. And sometimes our objects are on loan to other museums for exhibition, receiving treatment in our conservation lab, or are being studied in storage by our curators. We regularly rotate objects on view in our core galleries of California Art, History, and Natural Sciences and encourage you to visit these galleries often.

More than 300,000 objects from our collection are available to view online. If an object is currently on view in the museum, the location information will be displayed in its online record. You may also use filtering tools when searching the collection to find only objects on display or to narrow larger results to just those on display.

Not yet, but more than 300,000 objects are available to view online and additional records are added every week. We invite you to view the collection online.

We aim to use the best images that we have available, however many of the images are simple documentation photographs. The process of taking studio photographs with proper lighting, a neutral background, and some color correcting requires significant time and staffing resources. In order to present as much of our collection as possible, we have decided to share some less-than-perfect photographs in the belief that a mediocre image is better than none at all. The website will be updated as studio photographs are taken.

Permission is required for reproduction, public display, or distribution in any format. For more information and to place a request, please read our Rights & Reproductions information below.

OMCA’s collection objects are cataloged by staff across curatorial and collections departments. When objects are received into the collection, their condition is documented, they are photographed, and relevant information such as artist information, title, related dates, medium, and description are captured in our database. OMCA strives to write collection information, especially descriptions, in standardized, objective, and inclusive language. 

Our collection records may not always reflect our current standards, however. OMCA’s founding institutions, the Oakland Public Museum, the Oakland Art Gallery, and the Snow Museum of Natural History, all opened their doors more than one hundred years ago. Some of the terminology used in describing objects from these legacy collections is outdated at best, or racist at worst. While staff work on an ongoing basis to review and update older records to ensure the use of inclusive and anti-racist vocabulary, we know that our records are not perfect. We invite you to alert us to problematic cataloging by sending an email to [email protected]. Please include the object’s accession number and a link to its URL in your email. Additionally, at the bottom of every object record in our online collection, clicking on the words “Please send us a note” provides you with the opportunity to share feedback of any kind; feel free to point out typos, mistakes, or tell us about your personal connection to the object.