Humboldt County Historical Society

This is a partial list of collections. Many people donate wonderful collections of photographs and memorabilia that we add to our archives. As time allows this list will change also.

George Albert Research on Military Units, Humboldt Co.

One box of research materials collected by George Albert and used to write his 1985 "Brief Overview of Military Units, Humboldt County." All information relates to part-time units from this area, including militias and reserve units.

Amity Birthday Club Collection

One box of records and photos from the Amity Birthday Club, started in 1952 by a group of black women in Eureka. The club existed for thirty years to fill the needs of friendship, Christian fellowship and service. The sponsored annual scholarships for college students.

Associated Charities Record Books

One box of record books. Minutes of the meetings of this group of social workers (primarily women) illustrate situation for people in financial need and actions taken to help them. 1930s-1960.

Avenue of the Giants Assn. Collection

Three boxes of tourist promotion business records, including abundance of banking records. Some examples of promotional materials, 1970s and 1980s.

Baadsgaard/Schuler Collection

Four boxes including approximately 225 photos, a wedding scrapbook, personal correspondence, greeting cards and 200 or so items of business and organizational records. Baadsgaard turkey ranch was on land adjacent to Arcata-Eureka Airport, McKinleyville.

Vada Bissell Collection

Two boxes including family and social history. Included are approximately 40 pieces of correspondence from the 1850s to the 1880s from and to Humboldt County residents. Families include Smith, McLeod, Wilson and Sweasey. (See article by Sharon Marble-Loetz, Spring 1994 Humboldt Historian.)

Bohmansson Drugs Pharmacy Records

Approximately 120 bundles of prescription records dated 1883-1898.

Brizard Correspondence

A single "copying book" of letters from Alexander Brizard to customers in China Flat, Somes Bar, Maple Creek, Hoopa, Weitchpec, Gold Hills, Blue Lake, Orleans, etc. 900 pp. April 1900 to March 1901.

T.M.Brown "Wanted Notices"

Two scrapbooks containing wanted notices. Apparently these were posted in Humboldt County during Sheriff Brown’s tenure. The majority are for people whose criminal activities took place out of the area, 1892-1906. Fragile.

California Barrel Company Payroll Ledger 1919

Hours worked, rate of pay, total wage for company employees for the single year 1919.

Chamber of Commerce Manuscript and Photo Collection

Donated by the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce in 1990, the twenty or so boxes of materials cover the years 1883 to 1989. Reports relating to the timber industry, water projects (Eel River, Trinity River, Butler Valley Dam, flood control, etc.) economic development, etc. Minutes of the Chamber and its predecessor, the Board of Trade (A recent example of use of the minutes books by a researcher was to chronicle homefront activities during WWII.) Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings re land and resource use, elections, community activities and anything in which the Chamber was involved. Also included in the scrapbooks are many of Chet Schwarzkopf’s articles on local communities. Maps from the period 1949-1978. Several hundred photos of a promotional nature. Six photo albums, scenic views Humboldt Co. 1920s-1940s.

Carl M.Christiansen Correspondence and Photos

Most of Carl Christiansen’s collection of Maritime photos is in San Francisco at the National Maritime Museum, but 12 albums of photos that he took of boats and ships locally are here at the Society. Christiansen began work for Walter C. Coggeshall in 1925. Fifty years later, according to Melvin Krei, donor of this collection, Christiansen "ran the boats during and for the construction of the Eureka/Samoa Bridge, the bridge that put the last commuter boats and Carl out of business." In the 1980s, Melvin Krei corresponded with Christiansen, asking him questions about local maritime history. Christiansen’s replies to Krei are part of this collection.

June Christopher Scrapbooks

Family photos include members of the Carson, McFarlan, Wilson and Hill families. There are also clippings and ephemera in the two scrapbooks.

Connolly Scrapbooks

The brothers Connolly were engineers. These two scrapbooks are filled with newspaper clippings re a proposed dam project on the Mad River (the site, according to a reporter for the Times, was reached by turning off just before Korbel and traveling 6 miles up the northeast bank of the Mad). Clips are from 1936 to 1939.

Henry Cox and Son Collection

Eight ledgers (with mold damage) from the Bridgeville store, Henry Cox and Son.

Daly Brothers Department Store Collection

The undamaged portion of this collection came out of Daly’s advertising department shortly after the business closed in 1995, but we also salvaged dozens of ledgers of financial and personnel records that were left to rot in a moldering building for over a year (including two winters). The mold-damaged records are in the garage. The advertising department records stored in the Barnum House include: 20 large advertising scrapbooks (1929-1956); a radio-tv copy log for 1973; advertising campaign records for 1984; a log of sales in the women’s coat department, 1970-73; sales campaign records 1966-1970; and the blueprints of the 1920 alterations to the Daly Brothers Building.

J.N. Davies Diaries and Scrapbooks

Davies began teaching at Janes School in the late 1870s. Six of his scrapbooks include clippings and ephemera of local interest from the 1880s and 1890s, with a particular emphasis on politics, education and social events. Some of the ephemera would make good illustrations. There is also a collection of 54 photos of the Philippines, its countryside and people, taken c.1910. (See Collections column, Spring 1999 Humboldt Historian.)

Harriet DeLong Collection

Another past president of our society, Harriet Tracy DeLong died in 1994. Her collection of research materials, photos, and books came to us in 1997, a donation from the Phil Delong family. The collection includes three boxes of family mementos including cards and approximately 100 photos, WWI and 1920s era. Also a Maternity Home List dated 1924-1938.

Besides 158 books on North Coast history (some of which we do not have duplicated in our main reading room), Phil DeLong donated 123 of Harriet’s books on the history of the areas north of California, especially Washington state where the DeLongs spent twenty years, including 19 books on Maritime history. There are also 90 files of Harriet’s research on Humboldt County topics. (See Collections column, Fall 1997 Humboldt Historian.)

Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Co. Collection

One box plus 12 large ledgers from the 1930s, including financial records and appraisals. Caltrans employee, Jody Brown, said that the company that was Dolbeer and Carson was sold in 1950 to Pacific Lumber, in 1956 to Simpson Timber, in 1960 to Park Loading Co., and in 1969 or so to Halvorsen.

Elwain Dreyer Research and 16 mm Film Collection

Dreyer, a former vocational agriculture teacher and friend of many rural people, collected information on the poultry industry and on the raising of jersey cattle in Humboldt County. The poultry research is printed up, but the dairy research is not. We also have a dozen 16 mm films of local subjects made by his father, including some of whaling off the Humboldt coast and the whaling station at Fields Landing, ‘55 and ‘64-’65 flood damage and other ocean and mountain fishing films.

Denis Edeline Collection

One box of information that Edeline used in writing his books about the Eel River Valley area. There are photos in here as well.

Eureka Travel Club

Scrapbooks of photos and clippings, as well as membership and financial records from this long-lived club (1935-1980s).

Everybody’s Furniture Mart Advertising Collection

One box of clipped and mounted advertising material dated 1946-1951.

Ferndale Hotel Registers

Two ledgers, 1891-92 and 1897-98.

Garberville Mercantile Co. Records and Correspondence

6 boxes of business records and correspondence, 1911-1927. Clean and processed, with an inventory. (See Collections column, Winter 1997 Humboldt Historian.)

Franny and Bess Givins Collection

Descendants of Alton and Ferndale working class people, Franny and Bess Givins attended Humboldt State in the 1930s. Bess became a grammar school teacher and Franny coached HSU basketball. Scrapbooks, photos, records of daily life, equivalent of about 8 boxes. Among them, perhaps 3 boxes of social history, 1930s and 1940s.

Sam Greenwald Collection

Greenwald was in Teddy Roosevelt’s company during the Spanish-American War. We have, in one box, military papers, newspaper clippings, photos, medals and ribbons of honor, and Greenwald’s hat with (is it?) a bullet hole.

Ina Harris Humboldt County Labor Collection

Three boxes of clippings and ephemera about issues related to organized labor. Ordered by donor into subject categories including, e.g., Boycotts, Lumber Companies, Strikes, Labor Day, etc. Primarily 1970s and 1980s.

Doctors Horel and Caskey Financial Records

One box of financial ledgers and an envelope of notes on patients dated 1927.

Humboldt County Chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Inc.

One box of local chapter’s records, 1951-1956.

Humboldt County Court House Photo Album

Collection of photos of "the old court house" in Eureka (cornerstone laid 1885). Fifty-five of the images are of the court house demolition June to September, 1956.

Humboldt County Peace Center Collection

One box that documents concerns of 1970s Humboldt County Peace Center.

Humboldt County Schools’ Collection

Among other records, there are in this collection: Superintendents Reports from Humboldt County schools 1872-1895; Minutes of week-long annual Teachers Institutes held in Eureka for all county school teachers, 1905-1917; volume of the proceedings of the local Board of Education 1880-1895; Green Point School registers from 1919 and the 1920s; and Ferndale School records 1872-1875.

Severn Jacobson Records

Small box of business correspondence and billheads, 1903-1927 Arcata/Eureka.Jacobson was a builder and landlord. Some of the business cards might make good illustrations.

Lazio Collection

Two boxes and 10 ledger books of business records, 1941-1980, from the Tom Lazio Fish Co. and Lazio Restaurant. Included are various financial and personnel records and some correspondence. Also contains records for the Consolidated Fish Company.

Mahan and Mahan Correspondence

Approximately 1000 letters; perhaps 200 are from 1899, the rest from 1912. Not indexed in any way.

Florence C. Mathews Scrapbooks

3 scrapbooks. Newspaper clippings and ephemera, many obituaries and marriage notices. 1904 -1935.

Melendy Manuscript and Photo Collections

Collection donated by H.Brett Melendy in 1993. Primary source materials on daily operations at Fort Humboldt; a Klamath County assessment roll 1859; 8 diaries of Adeline A. Ricks 1873-1892; booklets, pamphlets, brochuresof railroads, lumbering, tourism. Approximately 400 photos, about half of which have to do with the timber industry in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties. The Melendy family photo collection includes photos and ephemera from bands in the 1920s to 1940.

Helen Delaney Muse Collection

Two boxes of photos, correspondence, clippings, ephemera, and Delaney family genealogical information, 1890s to 1940s.

NAACP Collection

Seven boxes of business and membership records, clippings, and correspondence of the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. Also one carousel of a slide show on national black leaders and two boxes of national black periodicals.

Newspaper Collection

List of hard copy newspapers available on request.

Oral History Collection

Old Timers Series: 60 interviews first broadcast over KIEM radio in the 1940s. Original reel-to-reel tapes have been duplicated on cassette. Indexes available.

Approximately 100 Individual Interviews, done by Society members with local people, primarily in the 1970s through 1990s.

HCHS General Meeting program tapes from 1958 to the present. Very consistently taped from 1958 to 1964; inconsistently done thereafter. Indexes and some transcripts available.

This collection is currently receiving attention and will be increasingly more accessible within the next two years.

Peace and Freedom Party Collection

One box of records of local party activities, 1991-92.

Post Office Records

Variety of post office records from Shelter Cove, Weitchpec, Tunnel Island, Crannel (1932-38 and 1950-56) and Loleta (1893-1907). Not overly informative, many receipts.

Price Slide Collection

1300 slides created by Neil R. Price and organized into carousels by him; many have written information to accompany them. Subjects include Samoa, Yachting on Humboldt Bay, the Submarine H-3 and the U.S.S Milwaukee, the ships Corona and Bear, and the Redwood Highway.

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen Auxiliary #553

One box of financial and membership records of this auxiliary, 1916-1948. (See Collections column, Humboldt Historian Winter 1995)

Redwood Coast Senior Citizens Club Collection

Two boxes of club records and nationally-distributed information on topics of interest. Club members were retired trade unionists and their spouses. 1970s and 1980s.

Martha Roscoe Collection

This is a constructed collection, decades of notes taken by Martha Beer Roscoe, from every imaginable source--from her neighbors to the National Archives--focused on North Coast history. Available with easy access: 2200 "general files" of Martha’s research, formal and informal; 85 notebooks (32 of which are photocopied and bound); 7000 5X8 file cards; a biography file with index; 70 maps; 750 photographs; approximately 40 audiotapes with Martha as speaker or interviewee.

Thomas H. Selvage Scrapbook

Selvage ran locally for state senator, 1899; in 1910 he was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney. Clips include information about his political career and other items of interest, 1888-1920.

Sequoia Chapter of American Guild of Organists Collection

Two boxes of financial and membership records of the organization. Six scrapbooks of clippings about the organization’s activities, 1950-1992.

Skinner-Duprey Collection

One box of drug store records, including 1903-1940 minutes of the Board of Directors. Also 4 notebooks filled with handwritten pharmaceutical formulae.

Harry A. Shawk, USNR, Scrapbooks

2 large, thick scrapbooks of activities at the Naval Base, where Shawk was Commander. Clippings from newspapers and base newsletter, also photos and some ephemera. Sept.1941 to April 1943.

Sign Smith Collection

Three boxes of "leftovers" from Smith home estate sale. Includes some local Rotary, Eureka sign business and national magic association ephemera, also postcards. Very few photos of Glyndon (Sign) and his wife, Ruth.

George Stewart, Humboldt Nurseries Daybooks

18 daybooks used by nurseryman Stewart to describe work done at his Rohnerville nursery. 1889-1913

Lloyd Stine Photo Collection

Approximately 1400 identified photographs of Eureka and Humboldt County structures taken by Lloyd Stine. Most of them were shot during the decades from the late 1920s to the late 1950s. We have the negatives. Almost all the images are in binders, available for viewing.

Tabor Scrapbook

Clarence Tabor was a transitman for the California Highway Commission. His 1912 appointment to that position is the first item in this scrapbook. He and his wife were active in the Sequoia Club of Music and had tickets to the Chatauqua at Eureka. There are many photos chronicling the process of building Libby McNeill and Libby warehouse in Loleta, also unused labels from the brands produced there. Building of Central Creameries Co. plant in Arcata also documented through photos. Pictures and ephemera in this album contribute to the homefront story for WWI.

Thornbury Scrapbook

Delmar L. Thornbury was principal of the Fortuna School in 1905 and City Superintendent of Eureka Schools from 1906 to 1911. He wrote "California’s Redwood Wonderland, Humboldt County" in 1923. 150 labeled photos of rural areas, assumedly taken while he lived here. Many are labeled and dated. We have a listing of their captions.

Toastmasters and Humboldt Speakers Club Collection

Locally-produced "bulletins" from the Toastmasters (1935-1940) and the Humboldt Speakers Club (1941-42 and 1945-1976).

Weather Bureau Records

Eight boxes of local weather reports 1887 to 1940, generated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, donated by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce.

Weck and Vance Pharmacy Ledger

Prescription slips (1860(?) - 1878) pasted into a record book. Slips list patient, prescription, physician and occasionally the date.

Woodmen of the World Records and Records of the Pioneer Hall Assn.

These two sets of records have been housed together in one box for some time. Not yet determined why.

Yearbook Collection

Dozens of yearbooks from local high schools and Humboldt State. (See Collections column, Spring 1997 Humboldt Historian.)

Young Women’s Christian Assn. Collection

One box of records and seven scrapbooks, covering (but by no means complete) the years 1938-1987.