SONOMA COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY LIBRARY
 
 
NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2020
Volume 2 Issue 9 
Share your story!
Build the archive!
 
How has life changed for you since COVID?
Now is a chance to take a moment and write, create, reflect. 
Your story is important!
 
Sonoma Responds
A Community Memory Archive
Un Archivo de Memoria Comunitaria
 
Sonoma Responds is an opportunity for all Sonoma County residents to submit original, local content so that future generations can learn how our community reacted and responded to this time.
 
View a selection of recent submissions!
Submission to Sonoma Responds: Fence post with message found during shelter-in-place
Found on a daily walk in Sebastopol during the Shelter-in-Place - April 25, 2020 - Terra Emerson
Submission to Sonoma Responds: Sign that Joe Rodota trail is open to pedestrians
Sign on the Joe Rodota Trail in Sebastopol warning that the trail is open to pedestrians only during this emergency - April 29, 2020 - Geoffrey Skinner
 
 
You can contribute by visiting the project site to upload a photo, document or video; respond to reflective prompts; suggest a link to online articles, websites, blogs; and/or nominate materials for the physical archive. You may also share your stories on social media using the hashtag #SonomaResponds.
 Submission to Sonoma Responds: Closed city park sign during shelter-in-place
The Shelter-in-Place order had just been given. On the first morning after the order, the signs went up on all the city parks. This was our first indication that the SIP was 'real' - March 26, 2020, Thompson Creek Park, Petaluma - Connie Williams
 
NEW! H&G Library Community Coffee
  Have questions for us? Miss talking to fellow researchers?
 
The History & Genealogy Library
is hosting its first virtual 
Community Coffee!
 
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
11 AM - 12 PM
 
This virtual BYOC (bring your own coffee) event will be led by History & Genealogy Library staff and is meant to create a safe place to interact, meet community members and talk about H&G Library news and resources.
To join, register here!
 
Meet Local Author and Archivist Lynn Downey
Hi Lynn, tell us who you are, and what you have been up to these days!
I'm an archivist and a historian. For 25 years, I was the company historian for Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco. Then, I "retired" in 2014 to start an archival/historical consulting business and have since worked with the Sonoma County Archives, the Charles M. Schulz Museum, and the Special Collections department of the Sonoma State University Library. Last year I published a book about the Arequipa Tuberculosis Sanatorium, which was located in Fairfax from 1911 to 1957. My grandmother, who lived in Sonoma, was a patient there in the 1920s. Right now I'm writing a cultural history of dude ranching, which will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Did you know there were dude ranches in Sonoma County? Those stories will be in the book, one of them featuring the Covered Wagon Dude Ranch near Preston in the 1930s. And finally, my first novel comes out in October, called Dudes Rush In, a historical mystery set on an Arizona dude ranch. Are you seeing a theme here?
 
Local author and archivist Lynn Downey in front of a truck
Can you describe your research process – how do you find the resources and uncover the records?
Well, the first thing I do is go to the library! I read books related to whatever topic I'm working on, and then I flip to the back and read the bibliography and the notes, because those are clues to where I can find more sources, especially original historical records. I also look at the photographs. I consider photos historical records too, because if you really study them, they can tell stories. Then it's off to finding primary sources like letters, diaries, speeches, school yearbooks, and even clothing, in libraries and archives.
 
Are there sources you wish existed, but don't?
I wish there were more sources regarding women's history. Women didn't always show up in the traditional historical record. Many of them kept diaries and wrote letters, but these don't always survive after their death. And so many women are anonymous. When I was writing my book about the Arequipa Sanatorium, I discovered that many wealthy society women had provided the funding to help build it, but they were only identified in the newspapers as Mrs. C. B. Raymond, Mrs. James C. Jordan, Mrs. S. I. Wormser, and so on. It took a bit of digging to find out their first names, and I consequently discovered how much they all did to further charitable causes in San Francisco. On that note, I want to mention how valuable historical newspapers are for research, and to thank the library for providing access to so many of these databases, like Newspapers.com.
 
What was your most interesting find at the H&G Library or other libraries?
The find that meant the most to me was more personal than historical. The H&G Library has Sonoma County city directories, and I found the addresses for members of my family in Sonoma in the 1910s and 1920s, including my grandparents Harvey and Lois Downey who lived on First Street West for a few years. Then, last year, I was at the Buffalo Bill Center in Cody, Wyoming, doing research for my next book. I happened to be there on my birthday, which I share with Annie Oakley. The McCracken Research Library has a lot of primary sources on Oakley, and I asked the head librarian if I could hold something that belonged to her on our shared birthday. She brought out a photo signed by the famous sharpshooter, so I put on the cotton gloves and held in my hand something that Annie Oakley had once held in hers. I've been researching and writing history for 40 years, and these moments are still thrilling.
 
What might someone be surprised to know about you?
I have cowboys in my family, and some of them were bulldoggers and calf ropers on the rodeo circuit. I am a historian of the West, and I'm spending years writing about dude ranching, but horses scare the heck out of me!
 
Lynn Downey’s great-great grandparents moved to Sonoma in 1913. Though she was raised in Marin, Sonoma was always her second home, and she has lived in town since 2006. After having retired as the company historian for Levi Strauss & Co., she now works as a historical and archival consultant and also serves as a board member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Marin County Civic Center Conservancy. Her biography, Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World (2016), won the Foreword Reviews silver INDIE Award for Biography. Her next book, Arequipa Sanatorium: Life in California’s Lung Resort for Women (2019), won the 2020 WILLA Award for Scholarly Non-Fiction from Women Writing the West. Find a full list of her publications and more information at lynndowney.com.
 
Interview: Simone Kremkau. Photo: Mark Yateman.
 
New! Find us on Instagram
In the past years, we have used Facebook to keep you informed about our collections, new books and upcoming events. Now, in addition to Facebook posts, we will offer a view of our work behind-the-scenes and feature highlights from our collections on Instagram. Follow us for all the latest updates! 
 
Sonoma County Library Events 
Sonoma County Library and OPEN (Outstanding, Proud, Enthusiastic Nerds) are pleased to present
 
Santa Rosa Zine Fest 2020 
Saturday, November 7, 2 PM - 5 PM
 Registration will open in early October
 
Meet Sonoma County's creative community in this all ages event. Create a Zine! Share your work!
Learn about community building, art making culture!
Archive your zine with Sonoma Responds! 
 
Click for more information!
 
Virtual Events 
Click on flyers to view larger image
In October, the Petaluma Library History Room is hosting two virtual presentations with Petaluma historian and author John Sheehy. Pre-registration is required.
 
 Thursday, October 15
7 PM - 8 PM
 
 In association with the AAUW, this presentation will discuss how Petaluma, led by its first female mayor Helen Putnam, battled developers all the way to the Supreme Court in the 1970s. 
Click here for more information and registration.

Wednesday, October 28
7 PM - 8 PM 
 
 John Sheehy will present a new look at Prohibition, women, and getting the vote. This presentation is part of the exhibit Petaluma's Participation in the Women's Suffrage Movement at the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum.
Click here for more information and registration.
 
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How to reach the Sonoma County Library's Special Collections
Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library: history@sonomalibrary.org.
Call (707) 308-3212, Tue-Thu 10 AM-5 PM. 
Petaluma History Room: cwilliams@sonomalibrary.org.
Call (707) 763-9801 x0722, Mon-Wed 10 AM-3 PM. Starting Oct. 29, Thu-Sat, 10 AM-3 PM.
Sonoma County Wine Library: mjones@sonomalibrary.org.
Call (707) 433-3772 x0416, Thu-Sat, 10 AM-3 PM. Curbside available Mon-Sat. 
 
Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library
Mailing Address: 211 E Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Physical Address: 725 3rd Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 308-3212 
Read about us in the Press Democrat
Email the editor: skremkau@sonomalibrary.org   
Sonoma County Library
707-545-0831www.sonomalibrary.org