Pasadena History

Pasadena History Collection

The Pasadena Public Library is dedicated to the preservation of local history and culture. Its Centennial Room, located in the Central Library, brings together the Library’s collection of books and other materials which reflect Pasadena’s unique historical and cultural development. Materials include magazines and newsletters, newspapers and news clippings, oral history transcripts, pamphlets, scrapbooks, yearbooks, city directories, historical maps, photographs, sound and video recordings, ephemera, city reports, and many other types of city documents. Special attention is given to collecting “tomorrow’s history,” which means that essential current information about the City is also a part of this collection and available for research or personal study.

Public access to current information is provided via the Neighborhood Information kiosk, which has on display City Council agendas, minutes, budget reports, and EIRs, as well as materials from City Commissions for public review. While the Central Library is closed for seismic retrofit and renovations, the information maintained in the kiosk is available at Hastings Branch Library. Many of these documents and information about Pasadena can also be found online, on the City of Pasadena’s website or at other branch library locations.

Books About Pasadena

Pasadena’s well-documented history is represented in the collection of historical and descriptive books about Pasadena and Pasadenans, many of which are housed in the Centennial Room. The book collection includes titles that are relevant to the City, as well as the surrounding communities, such as Altadena, South Pasadena, and San Gabriel. History of Pasadena (Hiram Reid, 1895), Pasadena: Historical and Personal (J.W. Wood, 1917), Pasadena Area History (Manuel Pineda, 1972), and Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History (Ann Scheid Lund, 1999) are a few notable books in the collection that are excellent resources for anyone interested in the Crown City’s history. While Central Library is closed, these titles are available in Reference and/or circulating collections at branch locations.

In addition to books about Pasadena and its neighboring communities, the collection in the Centennial Room includes city and business directories going back to 1880, architectural notebooks containing news clippings and ephemera about prominent buildings and structures in Pasadena, biography notebooks containing news clippings about Pasadenans who helped develop the area or contributed to its cultural development, yearbooks of local high schools and junior college, a selection of novels set in Pasadena as well as a representative selection of books by Pasadena authors and local publishers and presses.

Because local government is intricately tied to a city’s history and development, an extensive collection of City-issued publications—documents, reports, codes, newsletters, and studies—which provide citizens with historic and current information about the City and its operations are also available.

While Central Library is closed, we are continuing to investigate spaces to make Centennial Room materials available. If you have a question or research topic requiring access to Centennial Room materials, please contact library staff or submit a request for assistance. Staff can assist with research, or in some cases can provide access to materials via appointment. Find out how to get help, submit a question, or book a consultation in Questions & Help.

Historical Photographs

Pasadena’s history is also reflected in the Library’s collection of over 10,000 photographs. The following broad subject areas are covered in the collection: buildings and structures, businesses, municipal departments, people, organizations, transportation, and urban development. The collection encompasses dates from the 1880s to the 1990s with the majority of the photos documenting Pasadena prior to 1925. Since 2010, the Library has been digitizing its photo collection and making them available online through the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration. If you are unable to locate an image you are looking for, please call us at a branch location or submit an Ask Us! request online for research help.
Historical Materials & Reproduction

Ephemera & Other Materials

Other materials in the Pasadena Centennial Room include historical maps, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, scrapbooks, newsletters, periodicals, posters, postcards, films, videos, sheet music, and sound recordings. The Pasadena Master Index provides a topical index to much of this material.

Pasadena Newspapers

The Centennial Room has a number of historic newspapers stored in map cabinets. Most of them are California and local publications, such as the California Star, Sacramento Daily Union, San Francisco Daily Herald, Pasadena Chronicle, and Pasadena & Valley Union. A few others are from around the nation, such as the Boston Evening Post, New York Tribune, Chattanooga Daily Rebel, and Chicago Tribune. Most of these newspapers are from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s and do not represent a complete collection. A comprehensive collection of Pasadena newspapers on microfilm is available in the Microform Center. The Pasadena Public Library maintains an online news index which indexes articles about Pasadena from the Pasadena Star-News, the Pasadena Weekly, the Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley Journal, and a number of other local papers dating back to 1880.  This database only gives citations and not the full-text article; it's used in conjunction with the Library's microform collection.

California Collection

The Library’s Californiana collection dates back to the turn of the 20th century when Nellie Russ became the second city librarian in 1898. During her tenure, she assembled a collection of books which were rare at the time of their acquisition. These books, including some newspapers, trace the history of California from its discovery to its exploration and ultimately to its development. The collection contains works in English and Spanish that relate to California’s rule under Spain, Mexico, and the United States. The growth of the collection is chronicled in Gertrude Stoughton’s The Books of California.

Treasures in the Californiana collection include:

• A collection of letters of early Californians such as Antonio Pico, Hugo Reid, and Abel Stearns
• Copies of The Californian, the state’s first newspaper, founded in 1846 by Walter Colton in Monterey.
• A vellum bound 1787 copy of Father Francisco Palou’s life of Father Serra, Relacion Historica de la Vida y Apostolicas Tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra.
• Early accounts and guides to life in California’s gold fields such as an 1849 second edition of Felix Paul Wierzbicki’s California As It Is and As It May Be, Or, A Guide to the Gold Region.

Centennial Room Services

The Centennial Room is currently closed to public access. If you have questions about the materials, a research request, or need further information, please contact us to inquire.

Library staff is happy to assist with your research needs in person, online through our Ask Us! service, or by letter addressed to:

Reference Services
Pasadena Public Library
285 East Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91101