Horticulture and Gardening

The Whittier History Room is located on the mezzanine of the Central Library and is home to the Whittier Local History Collection. The purpose of this collection is to collect, preserve and make available to the public materials reflecting the development of the City of Whittier and surrounding areas. The main areas of collection are Whittier history, Whittier Hills and California history. The Whittier history collection includes Whittier College yearbooks, local high school yearbooks, Whittier City Directories, local telephone books, Haines Directories, and titles by local authors. The entire book collection is cataloged and searchable through the online catalog. There are various files and archives supporting both the Whittier Hills and the Whittier History collections. These consist of clipping files, periodicals, pamphlets and ephemera. Finding aids are available in Archives that list all items with a brief description. Selected materials have been digitized and are available in the Visual Collection. The Map Collection contains over 250 maps. A listing of the entire collection can be found on this website. A selection of these maps has been digitized and is available online. The Whittier Historical Photograph Collection is a collection of photographs of Whittier, the surrounding areas and its people. It is made up of several smaller collections such as the Espolt, Whittier National Trust & Savings Bank, and (most recently acquired) the White-Bailey, as well as individual gifts. This collection continues to grow and we encourage any donations that would broaden and enhance its scope and depth. The Shades of Whittier Collection was created in 1999 with funding from the federal Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA). It is a collection of photographs reflecting the ethnic and cultural diversity of the community. The 301 photographs in the collection were donated by numerous individuals and depict not only the local area, but also the many geographic areas that the people of Whittier came from. The Oral History Collection includes oral histories, video interviews and written transcripts. The older oral histories were done during the 1960s and ‘70s and include many old Whittier family names such as Perry, Tebbetts, Myers, Milhouse and Hodge. In the late 1990s, as part of the Whittier Hills collection, a series of interviews was conducted with individuals active in the preservation of the Whittier Hills. The more recent interviews are done in video format. The Local Newspaper archives are digitized from 1888-1955 and are keyword searchable. 1888-1923 are available on the web. 1924-1955 is restricted to library use only. 1956 to current is available on microfilm, for library use only. Lastly, a list of Local History Resources has been provided. This list includes links to local history organizations and relevant city departments that strive to conserve not only historic structures and neighborhoods but also natural resources of the City and surrounding hills. The Community Development website includes a listing of the City's historic landmarks and districts.

The collection at the museum is an eclectic assortment of items from the 1800's through the 1900's. There are tools for the home and farm, furniture, household accessories, office equipment, documents, photographs, and all types of clothing. Many items have been contributed by local residents over the years and have a direct connection to the "Upper San Gabriel Valley" and its residents.

Little Tokyo Historical Society commemorates the Japanese American history and heritage related to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles through archival collections, photos, videos, gallery exhibits, lectures, and workshops. "Los Angeles's Little Tokyo (Arcadia Publishing, November 2011). "Little Tokyo: The 1930's Golden Years", 2013 calendar now on sale at www.littletokyohs.org.

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 Sierra Madre social life and customs. The collection's subject area strengths include San Gabriel Mountain resorts accessible via local trails and Sierra Madre art and artists. The local history collection is built on a partnership. It is jointly owned and maintained by the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society and the Sierra Madre Public Library.

The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden has a large archive of historic photographs relating to Rancho Santa Anita, Elias J.(Lucky) Baldwin and this history of the Arboretum. It also holds thephotographic archive of William Chrisman Aplin (1912-1993) a photographer who worked for Sunset magazine and photographed extensively the plants and gardens of Southern California.

An online resource exploring the people, places and culture of the greater Los Angeles region.

Pasadena, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, Altadena, Long Beach, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Pedro, Santa Monica

Collections include 5,000+ oral histories in 250 projects, representing geographical, ethnic, political, religious, and social communities of selected Orange County, Los Angeles, Southern California, and Western US locales. Topics include community histories, environmental studies, including Sierra Club, Laguna Beach Greenbelt, Bolsa Chica, ethnic studies (African American, Native American, Mexican American, Japanese American, Judaica Studies, Vietnamese Americans), politics and government (Orange County politics, conservative women), society and culture (sulf culture, surf music, women with silicone breast implants, sports and society in Cold War Southern California, theater, baseball, women in long-term marriages, transformation of grocery stores, and new wave in Czechoslovakian film, 1990s UCI fertility clinic scandal, Mormon colonies in Mexico), just to name a few.

Subject strengths: local history, wine, cookbooks, poetry, botany, mycology, philosophy, art and architecture. Collections: University Archives, Cal Poly Rose Float Collection, Wine Industry Collection, The Thomas Pinney Collection of wine books and wine related research files, the United Farm Workers Collection, Virginia Hamilton Adair Collection, First Edition Collection, John Gill Modern Poetry Collection, Abraham Kaplan Collection, League of Women Voters (East San Gabriel Valley) Collection, Academic Senate Archive, Low magazine archive (student underground newspaper), Cal Poly Women's Club, Student Wives Club, Voorhis School for Boys, Voorhis Family, Robert Lawrence Balzer Collection, World Menu Collection, Kennedy Collection, Humphrey Mycology Collection. Campus History: Cal Poly Pomona was originally founded in San Dimas in 1938, as an all male agricultural/horticultural southern branch campus of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In 1949 the college acquired the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch in Pomona where it moved the campus in 1956. In 1961 it went coed and in 1966 separated from San Luis Obispo. In 1972, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona was awarded full university status. The University Archives, which document this history includes: photographs, books, records, memorabilia, architectural drawings, sound and video recordings, newspaper clippings and scrapbooks. The University Archives also include materials from the Voorhis School for Boys--the San Dimas institution for orphaned and underprivileged boys that originally inhabited the site of what later became the San Dimas/Voorhis campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Charles Voorhis built the school and his son H. Jerry Voorhis was headmaster. The school operated from 1928 to 1938, when Jerry Voorhis was elected to Congress. In 1938 Charles Voorhis donated the school facility to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to be its Southern California branch. This permitted students to gain experience with cultivation of important "sub-tropical" crops such as oranges. Materials include photographs, film, video, DVDs, books, files, memorabilia, and architectural drawings. The Wine Industry Collection documents all aspects of the wine industry in Southern California, beginning with the Missions. This collection includes books, journals, newspapers, photographs, oral histories, posters, files, winery memorabilia, video recordings, news clippings, wine labels, wine bottles, medals, and wine club newsletters.