Organizations & Archives

Organizations and Archives help researchers by maintaining repositories of local historic information and making them available to the general public. With today's Internet, directory publications of these groups have become obsolete. Almost all public archives and local history organizations have websites.

This page serves to compile an online directory of those archives and local history organizations in the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito.

Santa Clara County

California Pioneers of Santa Clara County, Paulson House at History Park and Roberto Sunol Adobe, San Jose

Computer History Museum, Mountain View

Hooked on Los Gatos , Los Gatos Public Library, Los Gatos

Japanese American Museum of San Jose, San Jose

Louis E. Stocklmeir Regional History Library, California History Center, DeAnza College

Gilroy Museum, Carnegie Library Building, Gilroy

New Almaden Quicksilver MIning Museum, New Almaden

Genealogy Collection, Santa Clara City Library, Santa Clara

Los Altos History Museum, Los Altos

Special Collections & Archives, San Jose State University, San Jose

Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University, Stanford

Santa Clara County Archives, County of Santa Clara, San Jose

Santa Clara University Archives, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara

Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History, San Jose State University, San Jose

Wings of History Library, Wings of History Museum, San Martin

Research Library and Archives, History San Jose, San Jose

California Room, San Jose Public Library, San Jose

Santa Cruz County

Agricultural History Project, Watsonville

Archives & Library, Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz

California Agricultural Workers' History Center, Watsonville Public Library, Watsonville

Capitola Museum, Capitola

Regional History Project, UC Santa Cruz University Library, Santa Cruz

Research Center, Watsonville Public Library, Watsonville

Pajaro Valley Historical Association, Watsonville

Monterey County

California History Room, Monterey Public Library, Monterey

Library, California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside

Monterey County Free Libraries

Pacific Grove Public Library, Pacific Grove

Salinas Public Library, Salinas

San Benito County

San Benito County Free Library, Hollister

Museum and Archives, San Benito County Historical Society, Hollister

Special note:

Bibliographies of local history archives and organizations have shared points of access with the public to these groups since the California Library Association first published its California Local History: A Centennial Bibliography in 1950. Revised and enlarged in 1970 by Margaret Miller for the California Library Association as California Local History: A Bibliography and Union List of Library Holdings, it remains a detailed listing of local research repositories in California that continues to have value as a finding aide.

In the late-1980s, the California Council for the Promotion of History published a statewide organization directory with the California History Center, and the local (now defunct) Heritage Council of Santa Clara County followed with a focused directory that went through four revisions during the 1990s.

The 1996 Heritage Council Directory of Heritage Organizations and Resources was the most comprehensive of this group. It was compiled by Franklin Maggi and Patt Curia from the research work of librarian John Kensit and historian Glory Anne Laffey, with help from students at San Jose State University.