Images of America Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Since 1952, Bill Carr and Arthur Pack, the founders of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, have inspired visitors to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert.  When the museum opened it had only four employees.  Today it has more than 100 paid employees, nearly 200 docents, and 300 volunteers.  About 85 percent of the museum is outside, where visitors can enjoy native and the endangered animals exhibited in award-winning naturalistic habitat enclosures, an innovation in exhibitory developed by the museum.

William Ascarza is the author of the Arcadia publication Tucson Mountains and is also the author of Zenith on the Horizon:  An Encyclopedic Look at the Tucson Mountains from A to Z.  Peggy Larson is the archivist for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and author of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum:  A Scrapbook, Deserts of America, and coauthor with Lane Larson of Deserts of the Southwest.

The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country.  Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today.