Merced County Museum director promotes local history and education

Sarah Lim has served as director of the Merced County Museum director for 22 years. It’s a job that fits her passion for history, which led her to jump at the opportunity to serve her community.

“It’s my passion of preserving history and recording and documenting history that drives me to do what I do every day,” she said.

Lim, 53, has a masters degree in history from California State University Stanislaus and a bachelors of arts degree in history from University of California, Berkeley with a minor in Asian American studies.

Despite challenges, Lim was able to obtain her education.

The third-born of four children, Lim was 17 when she immigrated to the United States from Guangzhou, China with her mother and a younger sister to pursue better educational opportunities.

However, Lim said they left China before she was able to complete high school there and was too old to enroll in high school in the United States. Her father remained in China to continue working, she said. The remainder of her family would eventually immigrate to the United States as well.

But during those early years, Lim’s mother worked in a sweat shop to support her two daughters. Lim attended adult continuation school while she and her sister worked part-time jobs. Lim would eventually enroll at City College of San Francisco.

It was in 1996 that she and her fiance’ moved to Turlock. Lim pursued her masters degree while her fiance’ worked for the Merced County. The two eventually moved to Merced in 2001. And it was during that time that time, while Lim was completing her masters, that she would visit the Merced County Courthouse Museum to do research and access the museum’s archives.

She said she became familiar with the museum’s system and archives, and developed friendships with museum staff and volunteers. A year later, the museum was in need of a director and Lim was encouraged to to apply.

“So that’s how I got it,” Lim said.

As the only full time county employee at the museum, Lim oversees five part-time staff who are employed by the Merced County Historical Society. She also oversees more than 60 volunteers at the county museum and collaborates with the other museums in Merced County.

“I could not have done my job without the hard working staff and the dedicated volunteers and without the support of the community, more specifically, the leadership of the Merced County Historical Society board directors and the county of Merced,” said Lim.

She has curated more than 75 local exhibits, Lim said. About 95% or more are original productions of the Historical Society, said Lim, meaning the Merced County Courthouse Museum produces, researches and curates the exhibit. The museum averages about three exhibits a year.

Lim said she enjoys the flexibility she has to design interesting and education exhibits for the community. While working to create the exhibits, Lim said countywide collaboration is key.

“Whenever I do an exhibit, I want to make sure that collaboration is the key component of you know, this inclusiveness,” said Lim. “I often get participation from the west side, from the east side, from south side and from the north side.”

The museum works with various groups to engage the community. In 2015, the museum worked with the University of California, Merced to produce the “UC Merced at 10: A Decade of Building, Developing and Contributing to Our Community” exhibit.

The museum also hosts youth from local schools, makes educational DVDs available to teachers and makes different history trunks with various themes available for area schools, allowing school children a chance to experience hands-on learning. The trunks are available for teachers to check out free of charge and use in their classroom.

Lim said she also works to create learning and mentoring opportunities for high school and college age students. The program serves to bring in college students from UC Merced to mentor local high school students in the summer allowing them a chance to learn about local history. While her education in history may not have fully prepared her for some of the daily duties and challenges that come with the position of director, Lim said her passion for history is what continues to drive her.

The latest exhibit Lim has worked to curate is the “Celebrations and Festivals Around Merced County.” The exhibit offers a glimpse into the various fascinating and vibrant festivals celebrated by different cultures and features 65 annual events from throughout the county. The exhibit showcases the celebrations arranged in different categories such as seasonal, social, traditional, agricultural, local and cultural celebrations.

The exhibit also shows how different settlements, newcomers and the development of industries and the local economy have shaped and enriched Merced County. The exhibit opened to the public on March 13.

This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 1:09 PM.