Local History

Local History Blog
The Local History Blog brings Santa Monica History to life through information and digitized images of photographs, newspaper articles and documents.

Historical Phone Books
A number of historical Santa Monica phone books have been digitized and are available online, thanks to the Open Library/Internet Archive Project.

Imagine Santa Monica
Contains the Library’s digital collections. These include the Image Archives of the Santa Monica Bay area, a collection of photographs and postcards dating from 1875 to the present day; a set of historical maps of the Santa Monica area; a digitized version of the years 1875 to 1920 of the Santa Monica Evening Outlook; and the Santa Monica Newspaper Index, a selective index to newspaper and magazine articles of local interest dating throughout the Twentieth Century and up to the present day.

Library History
The history of the Main Library and the three branches: Ocean Park, Fairview, and Montana Avenue.

Marcus O. Tucker Collection
The achievements of Marcus O. Tucker are highlighted with a collection of biographical resources.

Santa Monica Collection Room
Special collection containing books and documents on the history of Santa Monica and greater Los Angeles areas.

Stanton Macdonald-Wright Mural
The new Main Library is graced by a cycle of murals created by artist Stanton Macdonald-Wright in 1935 for the former Main Library located at 503 Santa Monica Blvd.

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