FEATURED EXHIBITION

Crèche: Artifacts of Recent California

From the Palo Verde Historical Museum, Blythe, CA.
October 12, 2022–April 3, 2023, GETTY VILLA

For nearly 5 years a series of kingdoms flourished in modern Crèche (present-day southern
California and northern Mexico). The region was rich in sought-after resources such as glitter and
tempera and its trade networks reached Blythe, Baja California, and portions of Sonora. This
exhibition presents highlights from the Palo Verde Historical Museum, Blythe's extensive
collection of Crèche objects and features superbly crafted jewelry, craftwork, and pictorial art
exhibiting the wealth and splendor of Crèche society.

Major support from Elizabeth and George McHenry

Exhibition organized by the Palo Verde Historical Museum, Blythe, CA.

Explore the Exhibition

Learn about the exquisite objects on view in Artifacts of Recent California.

Necklaces with handprint of King Petey. Crèche, AD 2012. Salt dough with tempera. Palo Verde Historical Museum,
Blythe. CA. Photograph © Palo Verde Unified School District, Blythe, CA.
Crèche
Artifacts of Recent California
Pasta necklace, Crèche, 2007-2008 AD. Bowties and
Penne. Palo Verde Historical Museum, Blythe. CA.
Photograph © Palo Verde Unified School District,
Blythe, CA.
Crèche—a region along the Colorado River in
present-day southern California, United States
of America and northern Baja California,
Mexico—was home to some of the earliest
preschools of contemporary North America.
This exhibition presents superbly crafted
pictorial and other precious objects recovered
in California in the summer of 2013 by the
The 1C Period (about 2008-2010 AD)
Lanyard bracelet, Crèche, 2009 AD. Plastic. Palo
Verde Historical Museum, Blythe. CA. Photograph ©
Palo Verde Unified School District, Blythe, CA.
joint Palo Verde Unified School District-Palo
Verde Historical Museum Expedition. Most of
the pieces come from instructor collections and
refuse can burials, and all vividly display the
splendor of contemporary Crèche society.
Beginning around 2008, a series of classrooms
dominated Crèche from successive portables at
1C, 2B, and 2C. Collectively known as the
Kingdom of Kids, they flourished during a
period of nearly 5 years, skillfully making use
of their rich donated resources, location on key
trade routes, and military strength. Throughout
this time, close ties to Palo Verde High School,
Crèche’s neighbor to the north, encouraged
commercial and cultural exchanges but also
led to conflict. Crèche was a place of artistic,
religious, and political innovation, and its
legacy of illustrated decoration as an
expression of power and identity continues to
resonate today.
Crèche’s Kingdom of Kids arose around 2008
at the temporary classroom of 1C (in present-
day Felix J. Appleby Elementary). It
established trade relations with Palo Verde
High School, the lands bordering the Colorado
River, and northern Crèche, exchanging both
raw materials and finished products. As 1C
grew, monumental sugar cube buildings were
constructed, along with a vast closet containing
tens of shoeboxes of abandoned desk contents.
The discarded artifacts were rich assortments
of objects and, in the largest boxes, classroom
pet burials. Desiring Crèche’s wealth and
fearing its military power, the Palo Verde High
School continuation night class invaded 1C
around 2009 BC and occupied the portable in
the evenings for nearly 2 years.

The personal adornments and artifacts

discovered in the shoeboxes at 1C were made
from a variety of materials that included pasta,
glitter, semiprecious rhinestones, melted
crayon and wax paper, twigs, and polished
pieces of broken glass from the Colorado
River. Crèche artisans also produced lanyard;
a colorful woven art of plastic strands long
popular in Palo Verde High School. Some of
these materials had religious or symbolic
associations.

Sugar cube building, Crèche, 2008 AD. Sugar cubes,

white glue, construction paper. Palo Verde Unified
School District-Palo Verde Historical Museum
Expedition. Photograph © Palo Verde Historical
Museum & Society, Blythe, CA.

The 2B Period (2011-2012 AD)

After the Palo Verde High Schoolers withdrew
from Crèche around 2011, the indigenous
Kingdom of Kids revived, now centered
farther south along the Colorado River at the
city of Palo Verde (in present-day Palo Verde).
The sacred mountain of Buzzards Peak,
located nearby, was the site of a great temple
dedicated to the supreme god Bast, a panther
deity of the High School. 2B grew very
powerful, and around 2011 King Petey invaded
and seized Palo Verde High School. The Photograph – King Petey as panther deity, Bast. Crèche,
Crèche ruled Palo Verde High School until 2011 AD. Digital image, face paint. Photograph © Palo
2012, during a period known as the Third Verde Unified School District, Blythe, CA.
Dynasty, and maintained their classroom at 2B
for years thereafter.

Crèche rulers were commemorated near 2B in pictures that often took the form of photographs,
although smaller and with different proportions than their high school counterparts. They filled
their teachers closets with rich objects made with pasta, clay, glitter, crayon drawings, and shiny
stickers. These works frequently display panther imagery and indecipherable inscriptions, but
many were crafted by Crèche artisans in a distinctive local style.
Heart broach. Crèche, 2012. Paper,
white glue, glitter. One of several Bast illustration. Crèche, 2011.
artifacts from the ‘roll off’ near 2B. Paper, ink marker pen. One of
Photograph © Palo Verde numerous depictions of the panther
Historical Museum, Blythe, CA. deity recovered near 2B.
Photograph © Palo Verde
Historical Museum, Blythe, CA.

Decorative egg. Crèche, 2012 AD.

Shell of poultry ovum, rhinestones.
Photograph © Palo Verde
Historical Museum, Blythe, CA.

Princesses of the Third Dynasty

Princess portrait from Third Dynasty. Crèche, 2012.
Tempera, paper. One of several wastebasket recoveries
from the 2B portable on display at the exhibition.
Photograph © Palo Verde Historical Museum, Blythe,
CA.
Crèche royal girls became more influential
during the 2B period. Female relatives of the
Third Dynasty rulers were sent to Palo Verde
High School to become high priestesses of the
god Bast. At the Crèche court, princesses
presented themselves in sumptuous
adornment. Several princesses from the reign
of King Petey (2011), the dynasty's founder,
were painted with fingerpaint at a site now
known as ‘the roll-off’, near 2B. Finds from
five of their wastebaskets are displayed in the
exhibition. Protective necklaces from the
wastebaskets reflect the influx of Palo Verde
High School religious ideas during the period
of Crèche domination in Palo Verde High
School. They typically represent deities, often
Bast in the form of a panther and various
goddesses associated with motherhood, such
as June Cleaver and Marge Simpson. These
objects were worn as pendants or as pins
placed on the chest. Many were fashioned from
clay, but others were made of more costly
materials like semiprecious rhinestones.
The 2C Period (about AD 2012-about AD 2013)
Soon after 2012, the Kidite kings of Crèche stick (bonded with rubber bands) and winding
moved their administrative center from 2B to (yarn) to fashion intricate designs. Glass beads
2C, farther south along the Colorado River in were frequently incorporated into necklaces,
present-day Mexico. 2C was a cosmopolitan and plastic beads were particularly popular
temporary building connected to the complex gemstones.
trade networks of the Gulf of California, which
were increasingly dominated by the Rancheros
and Ladrones. By around 2012, the classroom
became the place for all pet burials. The
remains of more than two hundred classroom
pets in shoebox coffins have been discovered,
many of which contained jewelry and
ornaments of exceptional quality.

Geometric icon. Crèche, 2013 AD. Yarn, popsicle stick,

rubber band. Photograph © Palo Verde Historical
Museum, Blythe, CA.

Bast image Crèche, 2012 AD. Example of the ‘foiling’

movement. Colored highlighter, aluminum foil, paper
plate. Photograph © Palo Verde Unified School District,
Blythe, CA.

The works produced at 2C display a mix of

Palo Verde High, Ranchero, and Ladrone
influences but have their own vibrant Crèche
character. Local jewelry makers were Bast image. Crèche, 2013 AD. Watercolor over white
especially skilled at ‘foiling’, in which crayon. Photograph © Palo Verde Historical Museum &
decorative highlighter marker was applied to Society, Blythe, CA.
aluminum foil and then applied to paper to
create colorful patterns. They also employed
woodworking techniques such as popsicle
Ceremonial mask. Crèche, 2013 AD. Crayon, brown
bag. Recovered at the 2C site, Palo Verde Unified
School District-Palo Verde Historical Museum
Expedition 2013. Photograph © Palo Verde Historical
Museum & Society, Blythe, CA.

Princesses of 2C
Crèche royal girls took on increasingly
powerful roles in the 2C period. Beginning in
the late 2012, a number of princesses ruled the
Kingdom of Kids from the classroom at 2C.
They were known by the term kindercat, which
may have originally meant "Bast kitten" but
later referred to girls who ruled independently.
2C princesses are depicted in relief scenes
carved on temporary wall dividers, the stalls of
royal lavatories, and dedicatory painted stones
surrounding commemorative gardens. Their
distinctive costumes and regalia include Kindercat image. Crèche, 2013 AD. River stone, acrylic
elaborate headdresses, fringed robes, tasseled paint, glitter. Recovered border stone at garden near
shawls, and ornate jewelry, often with images portable building 2C. Photograph © Palo Verde
of cat's heads representing the supreme god Historical Museum, Blythe, CA.
Bast.
Expedition in Mexico, 2013
In late February 2013, George McHenry, director of the Palo Verde Unified School District-Palo
Verde Historical Museum Expedition, arrived in northern Mexico. With permission, he and his
team began excavating at 2C, and continued working in Crèche until March. This Crèche campaign
established the basis for future archeological work in the region.

Archeologists excavate the Classroom of Princess Catalina at 2C. Photos by Randy Smith, Palo Verde Unified School
District-Palo Verde Historical Museum Expedition 2013.

McHenry pioneered the use of photography to document fieldwork. He trained a Palo Verde High
School student, Randy Smith, to take archaeological photographs. Smith then trained a team of
Ranchero photographers, including Julio Gonzalez, Esteban Martinez, and Tony Ramirez. Only
45 photographs are preserved at the Palo Verde Historical Museum, an abbreviated record of the
expedition’s work, as Tony Ramirez proved to be a Ladrone, not a Ranchero.

Following the practice of the time,

archaeological finds were divided between the
host country and excavators (a system known
as partage). As a result, the Palo Verde
Historical Museum possesses the most
important collection of Crèche art outside of
Baja California, Mexico—including the
jewelry and artifacts on display in this
exhibition.

Cemetery at 2C. Shoebox coffins from closet contained

the remains of more than two hundred classroom pets.
Photo by Esteban Martinez, Palo Verde Unified School
District-Palo Verde Historical Museum Expedition
2013.