The San Lorenzo Valley Museum archives are located at 12547 Highway 9, Boulder Creek, CA 95006.
Access to the archives is by appointment, call (831) 338-8382 or email archives@slvmuseum.org. Non-flash photography of material is allowed, scans of materials will be provided, for non-commercial use, by request. The archives contain a vast selection of different types of content. Some of which are listed here.
Artwork
Original artwork by local artists including collections of works by Rachel Bachrach, Louise Cunningham, John Holm, William Irwin, Annie Locatelli, and Barbara Winner.
Businesses
Transaction record books, invoices, papers, hotel registers, letters, marketing materials, restaurant menus, etc.
Clubs, Organizations, Societies, and Churches
Scrapbooks, photographs, rosters, minutes, by-laws, constitutions, awards, posters, etc.
Santa Cruz Historical Society News & Notes 1954-1977
Legal Documents
Including deeds, contracts, rights of way, proclamations, town plans, and Justice Reuben Page’s Record Book.
Maps
Boulder Creek Sanborn Maps, Standard Maps, local surveys, subdivision maps, and a 1936 Santa Cruz County parcel ownership map.
Newspapers
The archive holds a large newspaper collection, though not contiguous it includes editions of: Boulder Blast 1890s, Mountain Echo 1900s, Community 1920s, Valley Echo 1930s, SLV Journal 1930s, SLV Sun 1950s, SLV Torrent 1950s, Penny Press 1950s, SLV Reporter 1950s, Valley Press/PressBanner 1960-Present, Valley Shopping News 1960s, The Log 1970s, Frontier Gazette 1970s, and more recent publications.
Index to the Mountain Echo
Photographs and Postcards
The local photograph collection is housed in about 50 clamshell binders, with some oversized stored in flat-files.
There are also framed photographs, photographic albums, photographs mounted on album paper, and born digital and digital only images.
In addition, there are around 5000 photographs in the Fredda C. Carr collection that depict life in the San Lorenzo Valley, 1950-1970.
Many of the photographs and postcards have been digitized and some can be accessed online on the Museum From Home page.
School Ephemera
Class photographs, yearbooks, newsletters, newspapers, teachers’ record books, graduation programs, dance cards, theatrical and musical performance programs.
BCHS Alumni Directory 1908-1946
Sports Memorabilia
Little and Pony League yearbooks, team photographs, sports uniforms.
Special Collections
Alba School Archive (one cubic foot). Barry Brown CPW Research Collection. Boulder Creek Post Office Collection. Directories (two cubic feet). Early residents files (ten cubic feet). Family (Numerous) Collections. Forestry Archive (sixteen cubic feet). Johnson Collection consisting of objects, archives, and artwork. Main Street Collection. Redwood Garden Club Collection. San Lorenzo Valley Chamber Collection (four cubic feet).
Some of the archives can be accessed online on the Museum From Home page, through the Google Arts & Culture platform, where there is a link to the scanned content.
The San Lorenzo Valley Museum reference library of around 9 local and regional history books is located in the Faye G. Belardi Memorial Building, 6299 Gushee Street Felton, CA 95018.
The catalog is located at www.librarything.com/profile/SLVMuseum.
Access to the library is during normal open hours (see www.slvmuseum.org) or by appointment. For an appointment call (831) 338-8382 or email library@slvmuseum.org.