Yearbooks and student publications from the early 1900s. Materials come from five schools: Analy Union High School (Sebastopol), Cloverdale Union High School, Healdsburg High School, Petaluma High School and Sonoma High School. Most issues are the only known surviving copies and are in fragile condition.They were digitized through California Revealed, a project of the California State Library.

60 years of stories about local history in the pages of the Sonoma County Historical Society's journal, the Sonoma Historian (previously published as The Journal)

The Petaluma Historic Resource Survey was the first of three surveys of Sonoma County historic resources conducted under the direction of the firm of Dan Peterson, A.I.A., Architect between 1977 and 1981. This first survey (Sonoma I) took in historically significant buildings and other features within the city limits (with a small number of outlying sites). Later surveys examined the resources of the City of Santa Rosa (Sonoma II), and of Sebastopol and western Sonoma County (Sonoma III). An additional survey took place in Healdsburg in the mid-1980s.

The Final Report of the 1981 Historic Resources Survey presents a comprehensive visual assessment of historic resources in coastal and western Sonoma County, as well as in the City of Sebastopol, excluding prehistoric or archaeological data. This survey presents a well-balanced collection of resources showcasing various activities that have taken place since the 1830s. It includes landmarks, farm units, the rural narrow-gauge railroad, towns of different sizes, and remnants of various structures representing human involvement in the area's growth between 1850 and 1940.

The survey is available in three volumes (see collection page for detailed contents and access to specific sections). In addition, expanded versions of the lists are available for download as Excel files.

The Sonoma County Library History collection features documents, photographs, video and other materials related to the history of public libraries in Sonoma County from 1869 through the 2020s

The Sonoma County Civil Grand Jury (CGJ) and its predecessor, the Sonoma County Grand Jury (GJ), is an independent institution with the principal function of overseeing all aspects of county, special districts and city governments in the County to ensure that the best interests of its citizens are being served. Reports for 2001-2002 through the present are available in two groups.

View the latest report here.

Residence, business and telephone directories for cities and rural areas of Sonoma County from the 1870s through the 1950s. Includes telephone directories covering the three-county region of Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.

The largest group of directories are the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company's Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties directories issued 1921 through the 1930s. The earliest issues are customized for Petaluma, although coverage includes all other communities in the three-county region.

This collection consists of meeting agendas, minutes, announcements and other material from the first ten years of the Commission. The County Supervisors Office supplied the scans following a research request from Kate Todd, a Masters student at Sonoma State University, for her 2018 thesis, Sonoma County’s Responses to the AIDS Epidemic, 1981-1997.

(SCG.00084)

A selection of pages from Sonoma County newspapers. The collection includes clippings as well as entire pages, but does not yet include entire issues.