Wells Fargo’s History Museum

Wells Fargo’s History Museums located in ,and their curators welcome visitors from around the world. Nine major cities host museums, five of those in California and one in Phoenix, Arizona. Collective displays feature original Concord Coaches, Wells Fargo’s Banking and Express documents, artifacts, early photos, gold coins, mining tools, ore, balance scales, working telegraphs, and western fine art. Each museum also showcases Wells Fargo’s role in regional history.

From 1858 on, the stagecoaches of the Butterfield Line, through wild days at Tombstone, to extensive railroad service to the mines, Wells Fargo’s history in Arizona is classic western history. The Phoenix museum includes an art gallery with the largest public display of illustrator N.C. Wyeth’s western paintings.

On display is the Concord Coach #276 that was built in 1865 for use in the Green Mountains of Vermont. In 1915 it showed up in a “Wild West” exhibit in San Francisco. Wells Fargo & Co Express purchased it the following year for use in parades, and named it after Ben Holladay, the “Stagecoach King.”
In the 20th Century the Holladay Coach performed well, representing Wells Fargo in parades across the nation, in advertising, and opening Wells Fargo’s new headquarters. It also helped inaugurate a president and honored the U.S. Army Bicentennial.