Research Guides: Local History & Information: Local History in Libraries

Be Prepared to Visit Libraries & Historical Societies:

To gain access to many of these useful resources, you will need to actually go to local libraries and historical societies, because most of this old, local information is not available online.

Useful Search Terms

The MJC Library has several books and other publications about the history of Modesto, Stanislaus County, and other local cities.

To find these publications, use the subject terms below to search the MJC Library catalog. In addition to these subject terms, you can use a person's name to search the library catalog for materials about that person.

You can copy and paste these subject headings into a search of the MJC Library catalog. Click the button below to begin your search.

Stanislaus County (Calif.) History
Stanislaus County (Calif.)
California Stanislaus County
United States, California, Stanislaus, Modesto History
Modesto (Calif.)
modesto junior college
California Biography

Libraries & Online Archives

Libraries:

Modesto Junior College Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
The library has digitized its student-published yearbooks and newspapers to preserve and make available the history of MJC. These resources should be of interest to students, teachers, genealogists, historians, and interested citizens who want to learn more about the history of Modesto Junior College.

Stanislaus County Free Library
Our public library is a great resource for finding local information. Even though this is NOT an online archive, it is a library that has materials you should use for this project.
Search their catalog using terms like modesto california to find many sources you can use. They also have the Modesto Herald which was the local newspaper at the time. Even though this is NOT an online archive, it is a library that has materials you should use for this project.
CSU Stanislaus - Local History Resources
Discover the manuscript collections that are part of the CSU Stanislaus Special Collections & University Archives. Beginning February 14, 2022, their archive will be open by appointment. They have a wonderful local history resource entitled Stanislaus Stepping Stones, which you can use for this assignment. The MJC Library has it also, but CSU, Stanislaus has more issues than we do. To schedule an appointment call, Mary Weppler-Van Diver at (209) 664-6538.

Online Archives:

Stanislaus History and Culture Collection
Several collections that are part of the Online Archive of California.
Online Archive of California
The Online Archive of California provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California campuses.
Calisphere
Calisphere is the gateway to California’s remarkable digital collections. Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically-important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over one million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.
The collections on Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.
County Registrars and Recorders
Obtain birth and death records from the County Recorder where the event took place.
United States Census Publications
The United States Census provides a wealth of data on many aspects of the United States. Scroll down this publications page to find historical census data going back to the 1800s.
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You can learn a lot about a state or county by looking at the census for the decade about which you are researching.