One of the things I enjoy about working at the Sonoma County H&G Library is that I discover something new on a weekly if not daily basis. Case in point, recently local historian Jeremy Nichols came in looking for an image of the powerhouse that was built for the former Sonoma County Farm on Chanate Road, Santa Rosa.
Using the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Jeremy discovered an article about the powerhouse which generated electricity for the farm's laundry and other machinery. According to a Press Democrat article, dated July 2, 1911, J. W. Dolliver designed the building. The name Dolliver didn't ring any bells for Jeremy, but it did for me. Just the week before Jeremy's visit I gave a presentation on the history and architecture of Petaluma's D Street. Included in my slides were images of 849 and 853 D Street - homes designed by J. W. Dolliver in 1922.
John W. Dolliver (1869-1927) was born in San Francisco and maintained an office there in the Monadnock Building at 685 Market Street, but lived in Kentfield, Marin County for most of his career. He designed the 1908 Sonoma County Courthouse and the 1913 Sonoma County Jail (demolished in the 1960s). Other Dolliver commissions include Tamalpais Union High School in Mill Valley and the Grand Island Mansion. The latter was designed in 1917 for German financier Louis Meyers. The property is located near Walnut Grove on the Sacramento River and today serves as a venue for weddings and other events.
Federal and Private Dollars to Enhance Sonoma County Library's Special Collections, by Joanna Kolosov
The H&G Library is happy to share with our community of supporters the exciting news that Sonoma County Library was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance Grant. The October 2017 fires that directly threatened the library’s off-site storage of county government records prompted staff to seek out funding to improve the management and protection of our special collections held at the off-site archive, the Wine Library in Healdsburg, the Petaluma History Room and the History & Genealogy Library.
Sonoma County Library was among 45 organizations selected from 102 eligible applicants. The award, in the amount of $7,663, will fund the purchase of environmental monitoring units (“data loggers”) to track the temperature and relative humidity of collection storage areas, shelving for oversized archival materials and disaster recovery supplies that can easily be mobilized during an emergency.
The library also recently learned that the Kahle-Austin Foundation is extending its support of the Community Webs program, a national public library web archiving initiative led by Internet Archive, through 2022, enabling the library to expand its web archive collections. With three additional years of data budget, staff can apply what they’ve learned in archiving the 2017 fires to another collecting priority—documenting under-represented cultures and communities of Sonoma County.
Photo: Library staff and other organizations participate in the WESTPAS Protecting Cultural Collections: Prevention, Preparedness, Response & Recovery Workshop at Central Santa Rosa Library on November 29, 2017. Front: Sonoma County Library Head Cataloger Geoffrey Skinner and right, WESTPAS coordinator Julie Page.
Hidden Art in Sonoma County
Marguerite Wildenhain - Bauhaus to Guerneville Pond Farm, by Kathleen Deadder
If you find yourself wandering around Guerneville, may we suggest a visit to the local branch of the Sonoma County Library? Located on the wall near the forum room, you will find a treasure any enthusiast of the Bauhaus movement will be elated to discover.
Sonoma County has a long, unique history of supporting utopian artist colonies such as Marguerite Wildenhain’s Pond Farm. Wildenhain was the first female to enroll in the Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany (founded in 1919). She studied with photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, as well as painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. She also apprenticed under potter Max Krehan and sculptor Gerhard Marcks.
Following her Bauhaus training Wildenhain taught in Halle-Saale, Germany for seven years. In 1933 Wildenhain and her husband Frans moved to the Dutch village of Putten where they founded the pottery studio “Het Kruikje” or Little Jug. While in Putten, Wildenhain met Gordon and Jane Herr, a couple visiting from San Francisco who inspired Wildenhain’s 1940 move to the United States.
By 1942 Wildenhain was living in her tent on land owned by the Herrs outside of Guerneville. The Herrs purchased the property envisioning a creative “refuge” when World War II ended. In the years to follow, other artists joined Wildenhain, but creative differences resulted in Wildenhain being the only one to stay. For most of the year, Wildenhain worked on her own but during summer months she conducted workshops for other artists.
In 1963, the State of California attempted to seize the property through eminent domain to create Austin Creek State Recreation Area. Wildenhain fought back and state officials allowed her to stay on the land, paying rent. Wildenhain continued to grow as an artist and her summer sessions continued until she was in her mid-80s.
The plaque in our Guerneville library is just one example of her many extraordinary contributions to the area. On the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement, Sonoma County Library is proud to share this work with our community.
Hi David, please tell us who you are and why you came to the H&G Library!
I am a retired ophthalmologist and historic railroad buff. Right now I’m researching model railroad articles in 1920s Popular Science magazines. They are interesting because at that time models were built from scratch and on an O-scale, not on today's HO-scale which is half its size. This is the time before specialized model railroad magazines hit the market and I’m drawing a lot of inspiration from it.
What do you wish people knew about the H&G Library?
The staff is very friendly and helpful, there is an excellent genealogy section, and you can research all kinds of arcane subjects!
What would you like to see added to the H&G Library’s collection?
My mother’s side of the family came to Ohio and Missouri from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, and I wish there was a resource to help me decipher Welsh American newspapers of the time. Apparently they carried a lot of good information about local immigrant Welsh communities, but there is no way for me to know.
What do you do when you are not researching model railroads?
I’m Chair of the Continuing Medical Education Committee at Memorial Hospital, which was, by the way, the first hospital with specialists in the county. I also do a lot of fine woodworking and create picture frames, boxes and cabinets. The biggest structure I’ve ever built was a shed. My dad left me a lot of equipment from the former Santa Rosa lumber store Yaeger & Kirk that I’m using now in a creative way.
Do you have a favorite ancestor in your personal genealogy?
My grandfather William Waters owned a weekly newspaper in Scotland County, Missouri, in addition to being a lawyer and working in real estate. At that time, around 1890, it was relatively easy to set up a local paper at no cost since ad companies sponsored 'the hardware', a sheet of paper folded once to make four pages. They supplied two pages of advertising (mostly patent medicines) and national coverage, and expected the owner to fill the rest with county news, mostly from local 'correspondents'. My grandfather's Missouri State News ran for ten years with my grandmother setting the type. The Missouri Historical Society sent the microfilm through Interlibrary Loan and I was able to browse the paper on one of the microfilm readers here at the H&G Library.
David Lightfoot is also the secretary of the Sonoma County Heritage Network, a committee of the Sonoma County Historical Society that strives to keep all the historical societies, museums, libraries and individuals with an interest in Sonoma County in touch with each other. Contact us if you’d like to join at history@sonomalibrary.org or (707) 308-3212. If you are in the position to help David with Welsh, contact us as well.
2020 Women's Vote Centennial
Suffrage Movement Speaker Series
H&G Library hosting presentations by leading women's history scholars
December 16, 2019, 7 PM - Central Library, Santa Rosa
Presentation by Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, editor of The Women's Suffrage Movement (2019), an intersectional anthology of works by the known and unknown women that shaped and established the suffrage movement - with a foreword by Gloria Steinem.
January 25, 2020, 2 PM - Central Library, Santa Rosa
Presentation by Dr. Khal Schneider, who will discuss voting rights within the context of the Native American experience. Dr. Schneider is a Sacramento State University assistant professor of history who specializes in American Indian and 19th-century U.S. history. He is a tribal citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and a member of the California Indian History Curriculum Coalition.
February 15, 2020 - Rohnert Park Regional Library
Presentation by Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr., author of Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. On this date 200 years ago, Susan B. Anthony was born and the League of Women Voters was established on February 14, 1920 - look for this presentation to also be a celebration of these anniversaries.
Summer 2020 - TBA
Presentation by Rebecca J. Mead, author of How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914. Rebecca J. Mead is an associate professor in the History Department at Northern Michigan University, where she teaches U.S. history, women’s history, public history, labor history, and Native American history.
SAVE THE DATES! Check future H&G newsletters for updates and contact krinehart@sonomalibrary.org for more event information. Visit the Sonoma County 2020 Women's Suffrage Project website and our August newsletter for additional events, programs and how to get involved locally.
Hispanic Heritage Month: September 15 - October 15
Santa Rosa Junior College Community Education Program
Saturday, October 19, 2019
10 AM - 2 PM
SRJC, Maggini Hall
Instructor: Laura Gonzalez
Have you wanted to learn more about your Mexican ancestors, such as where did they live, or maybe even who came over from Spain? This class will look at the basics of Mexican genealogy. Using your laptop or a computer in the computer lab, you’ll learn how to get started, how to keep records, and how to search for vital records from both the USA and Mexico. Tips and strategies, such as what to do when you hit a wall, will be presented. You’ll discover how to use maps in your search, how to decipher documents and much more. It’s time to start sleuthing!
Contact Laura Gonzalez if you are interested in joining the SCGS Mexican Genealogy Interest Group which meets on a monthly basis. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at the Sonoma County Library, with Flamenco, Tamales, authors' readings and other programs. And check the H&G Library October newsletter for more stories.
Sonoma County Library Events
National Voter Registration Month
The Sonoma County League of Women Voters hosts
National Voter Registration Events at Sonoma County Library Branches
September 21: Roseland, 12 AM - 3 PM
September 23: Rohnert Park, 2 PM - 6 PM, Guerneville, 10 AM - 1 PM September 24: Central Santa Rosa, Rincon Valley, Sebastopol, 2 PM - 6 PM
September 24: Healdsburg, 10 AM - 12 PM
September 25: Sonoma Valley, Petaluma, 2 PM - 6 PM
September 26: Cloverdale, 2 PM - 6 PM
September 26: Northwest-SR, 10 AM - 2 PM Free and open to all - Register to vote!
First Sonoma County Archives Crawl
Free countywide event!
Explore and engage with Sonoma County organizations
that help preserve and collect archival materials
Saturday, October 5, 2019 11 AM - 4 PM
Participating institutions
Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library, Wine Library (at the Healdsburg Regional Branch) and Petaluma History Room (at the Petaluma Regional Branch) - California State Parks: The Blue Wing Inn - The Sitting Room Community Library - West County Museum - Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society - Cotati Museum and Historical Society - Charles M. Schulz Museum and Museum of Sonoma County (admission fee required) - Geyserville Historical Society Museum - Petaluma Historical Library and Museum - Northwestern Pacific Railroad Historical Society
Hosting tables at the Central Santa Rosa Library Forum Room
Sonoma Valley Historical Society - Sonoma County Genealogical Society - The Sitting Room Community Library - Sonoma County Historical Society - Lesbian Archives of Sonoma County - Historical Society of Santa Rosa - John Burton representing the Northwestern Bottle Collectors Assn. - Sonoma County Historical Records Commission - Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor-Registrar of Voters - Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery
Special presentations at the Central Santa Rosa Forum Room
12:30 PM - Preserving History and Democracy
Deva Marie Proto, Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor-Registrar of Voters
2:30 PM - Saving, Sharing, and Celebrating Your Family's History & Heritage
Jack Schaeffer, Act3 Partners
For more information, please contact Steve Lovejoy, a member of the Sonoma County Historical Records Commission, at stevelov@comcast.net.
Photo: Sonoma County H&G Library hosting an Open House on January 9, 2019.
Thursday, September 19 7 PM The Chapel at Mission Solano, Sonoma
New Sonoma County Library Services
RBdigital- Free digital magazine subscriptions - Over 100 magazine titles with back issues: The New Yorker - The Economist - Newsweek - Smithsonian Magazine - New Scientist - National Geographic - The Atlantic - Vanity Fair - Dwell - Vogue - The New York Review of Books - Rolling Stone - MAcWorld - Entrepreneur - Wired - Mother Earth News - Mother Jones - Out - The Writer - and more!