The Downey Historical Society is located at the Downey History Center in Apollo Park. For more than thirty years, the society's all-volunteer staff has been gathering and preserving records and artifacts from and about the southeastern part of Los Angeles County. The society's collection includes original photographs from 1870 to the present (copy negatives, duplicate prints, or 35-mm slides are…

The Gledhill Library is a research, non-circulating collection open to the public. Our materials are available to students, history buffs and anyone seeking a better understanding of Santa Barbara's rich history. Collections focus on the history of Santa Barbara County with additional materials on the history of California and the American West. The Gledhill Library online resources and finding…

The Santa Monica Historical Society was founded in 1975 as part of the city’s centennial celebration with the mission of collecting and preserving the history, art and culture of the Santa Monica Bay Area. In 1988, a Museum was established to house the Society’s growing collections of artifacts, documents, rare books, newspapers, textiles, artwork, and photographic images. Currently, the Museum’s…

The Sierra Madre Historical Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to a variety of materials that tell the Sierra Madre story: photographs, slides, postcards, scrapbooks, city directories, maps, letters, periodicals, posters, works of art, sound recordings, moving images, and ephemera. The archives collection includes the Sierra Madre Oral History Project in which residents describe…

The South Pasadena Public Library (SPPL) was founded on September 10, 1895 and is governed by the City Council-appointed Board of Trustees. The Local History Collection collects and preserves our community’s memory for current and future generations. The collection consists of a variety of materials relating to many aspects of South Pasadena history. Some major categories include: historical…

The SCGS Library holds nearly 40,000 volumes, with a relatively small portion of the material related to LA. We have published indices to cemetery records, vital (birth, death and marriage) records, and immigration and naturalization. We provide free access to some data on our website. The Society is in the midst of a project to recreate the 1890 Census for Los Angeles County. The census records…