Use Library online book catalogs at Long Beach Public Library, California State University, Long Beach, Melvyl (the University of California Catalog) and others to find books. To find books about a city or place type in "Long Beach, Calif." Use the same formula for other cities. "Lakewood, Calif". For more precise results, try "Long Beach, Calif--History." This link will take you to what is available at Cal State Long Beach.
California State University Library, Special Collections. California State University, Long Beach. Emphasizes History of Long Beach State, also many books, documents and maps on the history of Southern California.
Electronic Neighborhood. Several sites created by Los Angeles Public Library. It provides access to history databases: 1) California Index, "information about people, places, and events that have impacted life in Southern California" it covers historical newspaper and magazine articles, 2) California Fiction Index, where you can find stories and novels written about a locality, 3) Menu Collection, to find historic menus from L.A. restaurants back to the 1860s and 4) Photo Collection of Southern California.
Historical Society of Long Beach. Offers descriptions of exhibits, programs, publications and archives.
Long Beach Newspaper Index A service created by Long Beach Public Library. It indexes articles relating to Long Beach history from local newspapers and other material. The Index begins in 1881 and continues up to the present day. Indexed newspapers include the Daily Telegram, Long Beach Press, Press-Telegram, and many more. It also contains over 2,000 photographs, local documents and ephemeral materials. Be sure to use a wide variety of alternative terms when you search because there is a lot of variability in this old index. To see which of these newspapers are available at Cal State Long Beach, visit local newspaper list. For more information see Long Beach Public Library. Special Collections
L.A. Comprehensive Bibliographic Database. (Website currently inactive) Developed by the University of Southern California, it contains an "online index comprising two outstanding bibliographies on L.A.area history, both are in Library Reference: 1) Los Angeles and its Environs in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography of a Metropolis. (historical articles up to 1969) REF F869 L8 N85 1973) 2) Los Angeles and its Environs in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography of a Metropolis: 1970-1990. (REF F869 L8 R83 1996)
Long Beach Heritage. "Dedicated to the Preservation of Long Beach Architecture."
Long Beach Historic Landmarks. A commercially produced site. It contains some lengthy descriptions of local landmarks.
Online Archive of California. Developed by the University of Calfornia, the archive "is a digital information resource that facilitates and provides access to materials such as manuscripts, photographs, and works of art held in libraries, museums, archives, and other institutions across California". It has several "virtual collections" providing access to online documents and images.
VOAHA: The Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive. Created by CSULB History professors Sherna Berger Gluck and Kaye Briegel, it contains extensive textual and audio files on Long Beach and Southern California local history, labor history and women's history. There are approximately 300 hours of local history materials at present with more being added continually.
America History & Life. (A subscribed database at CSULB, requires CSULB proxy authentication to access off campus.). Accesses thousands of scholarly journal articles published since the 1950s. Useful for locating Southern California history articles and books.
Biography and Genealogy Master Index. (A subscribed database at CSULB, requires CSULB proxy authentication to access off campus.). Lists several thousand biographies. May be used to locate local historical figures. This source directs you books and journal articles that provide biographies
Electronic Neighborhood. Created by Los Angeles Public Library. Its website says: "The California File indexes information about people, places, and events that have impacted life in Southern California." It has four separately searchable components: 1) California Index, for historical newspaper and magazine articles, 2) California Fiction Index, where you can find stories and novels written about a locality, 3) Menu Collection, to find historic menus from L.A. restaurants and 4) Photo Collection of Southern California.
L.A. Comprehensive Bibliographic Database. (Website currently inactive) Developed by the University of Southern California, it contains an "online index comprising two outstanding bibliographies on L.A.area history, both are in Library Reference: 1) Los Angeles and its Environs in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography of a Metropolis. (historical articles up to 1969) REF F869 L8 N85 1973) 2) Los Angeles and its Environs in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography of a Metropolis: 1970-1990. (REF F869 L8 R83 1996)
Making of America, Cornell. Provides access to more than 20 full text online magazines from the 1800s. The Cornell site accesses different titles than the University ofMichigan site below. It can search for words within any journal article. You might find some Southern California towns and events. To search journals, click on Advanced Searchlink.
Making of America, University of Michigan. Provides access to 10 full text journals (different than the site above) from the 1800s. In particular, it contains online access to Overland Monthly (1868-1900) which frequently covered topics in frontier California. To search journal articles, click on Go to MoA Journals.
19th Century Masterfile. (A subscribed database at CSULB, requires CSULB proxy authentication to access off campus.) This database might be useful to find identify old periodical articles about Southern California. CSULB subscribes to Series I and Series III of the 19th Century Masterfile. Series I accesses over one million journal citations published from 1786-1922 and includes the contents of four 19th Century periodical indexes: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1906; Index to Periodicals, 1890-1902; Index to Legal Periodical Literature, 1786-1922; and An Alphabetical Subject Index and Index Encyclopedia to Periodical Articles on Religion, 1890-1899. Series IIINew York Times 1863-1906, the New York Daily Tribune, 1875-1906, the London Times, 1880-1890 and the first West Coast U.S. newspaper, the Oregon Spectator, 1846-1854. CSULB library holds all these newspapers (except the N.Y. Daily Tribune) in microfilm. indexes the
Online Index to Journal, "California History." Indexes the journal for the years, 1922-1998. Can search by subject, author, or table of contents. Website created by the California Historical Society.
Historical Los Angeles Times, 1881-1984. (Currently full text up to1976). Full text, page to page content of the Los Angeles Times. Includes complete articles, photographs, advertisements, classified ads, legal notices, comics, editorials, commentary, letters to the editor, sports, radio and television schedules.
California Newspaper Project Database. A product of UC-Riverside. Lets you identify what major and obscure California newspapers exist, what titles, what dates and where they were published. Can be searched by locale.
Jewish Community Chronicle. A resource for local history of the Long Beach/Orange County region. Created by CSULB and Jewish Federation of Greater Long Beach and West Orange County, it contains the searchable online full text of the newspaper from its beginnings in 1947 to 2000.
Long Beach and Los Angeles Area Newspapers Available at CSULB. A listing of Long Beach area newspapers held in the University Library. Arranged by city.
Long Beach Newspaper Index A service created by Long Beach Public Library. It indexes articles relating to Long Beach history from local newspapers and other material. The Index begins in 1881 and continues up to the present day. Indexed newspapers include the Daily Telegram, Long Beach Press, Press-Telegram, and many more. It also contains over 2,000 photographs, local documents and ephemeral materials. Be sure to use a wide variety of alternative terms when you search because there is a lot of variability in this old index. To see which of these newspapers are available at Cal State Long Beach, visit local newspaper list. For more information see Long Beach Public Library. Special Collections
Changing Times. Los Angeles in Photographs Website description: "UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections has selected and digitized 5,124 of the more than three million images contained in the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News photographic archives. The photographs chronicle the history and growth of Los Angeles from the 1920s to 1990."
Online Archive of California, Image Search. USC. Self described as "provid(ing) access to over 8,000 photographs, maps, manuscripts, dissertations, records, texts, and sound recordings owned by USC and partnering institutions with particular emphasis on materials related to Southern California."
Automobile Club of Southern California. Part of USC Digital Archive. Browse images and maps of Southern California
Photo Collection of Southern California. Database provided by LA Public Library.
Early California: Early Forts, Old Mines, Old Town Sites. (Southern Edition) (REF OVERSIZE G1526 S1 E32 1974). Contains key facsimile historical maps of Southern California.
Automobile Club of Southern California Part of USC Digital Archive. Browse images and maps of Southern California
California Historic Topographic Map Collection. Created by the Special Collections Department of California State University, Chico. You can search and view online hundreds of historic topographic maps of the Southern California area as well as all of California from as far back as the 1880s.
David Rumsey Map Collection. Contains several notable early maps of Southern California from 1857, 1880, 1896, 1908 and 1928. Click on "view the collection" and then click on "search". Conduct a keyword search for "Los Angeles".
Historic Maps and Charts Produced by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. View the earliest nautical charts of the Southern California Coast, including San Pedro Bay.
Historic Topographic Maps of Southern California in CSULB Library Special Collections. Locate by sheet name or by county. These are located in our Special Collections on the 3rd Floor.
Los Angeles County Historical Topographic Maps. Produced by Professor William Bowen at Cal State Northridge. Accesses a collection of viewable topographic maps of the L.A.Basin from the 1920s and 1930s.
Metropolitan Los Angeles and Vicinity. A site full of thematic maps of the L.A. Basin. Produced by CSU, Northridge's Professor William Bowen.
Population & Racial/Ethnic Distributions, 1930-2000, - Los Angeles County Maps. Produced by the Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, UCLA. View the growth of population and ethnic diversity in LA.
Union List of Sanborn & Other Fire Insurance Maps. Use this site to identify what libraries have 100 year old detailed downtown district maps. Maps were used to identify ownership and purpose of structures for fire insurance purposes. CSULB library has two microfilm reels of Los Angeles City 1888-1900 (Microfilm Reel Y4389) and Los Angeles Suburban, including Long Beach, 1885-1907 (Microfilm Reel Y3490)
USGS Topographic Maps of California
UC/Stanford Map Libraries Group site that provides links to digitized historic topographic maps.
WPA Maps Digital Archive. "Works Progress Administration (WPA) Digital Archive provides 345 hand-colored maps from the 1933-39 land use survey of the City of Los Angeles". Very detailed and colorful maps of the built up L.A. region.
Ceres Historical & Cultural Resources for Los Angeles County. Links to historical resources for Southern California cities, historical landmarks, and other local history institutions.
Historical Society of Southern California. Provides links to Southern California history resources. Contains chronological history of Southern California.
L.A. History/Historical Resources Out of the Past. A commercial site with an extensive directory of L.A. area historical institutes, programs and resources.
L.A. As Subject Produced by USC & the Getty Research Institute. It "is an on-line directory of less visible archives and collections in the Los Angeles region..."
Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro provides links to local historical resources.
Content maintained by the Greg Armento, History & Geography Librarian
