LibraryAware H&G December 2020 Newsletter

SONOMA COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY LIBRARY

NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2020

Volume 2 Issue 11

New SCL Digital Collections

Welcome to the Sonoma County Library Digital Collections, now hosted on Quartex, a new platform created by AM Digital. In the last decades, our digital collections, which make available a variety of digitized historical materials and other resources from our Special Collections locations and from a number of partner organizations, have grown to more than 122,400 digital items, including photographs and other audiovisual materials, historically significant documents and maps. Housed in 51 collections, they cover a variety of subject areas and are now accessible on a single platform.

Search by keyword or phrases in the simple and advanced search boxes or browse the collection and filter by file type (images, videos, audio, data records), date, creator, subject, and more. If you are interested in a specific topic, click the Local History & Culture tab in the upper gray bar and explore 22 Local History & Culture themes to find items that would be harder to gather through the use of a regular subject search. Stay tuned for regular updates and more search tips in our next newsletter issues.

Same address - more possibilities!

digital.sonomalibrary.org or sonomalibrary.org > Online Resources > Digital Collections

Questions? Learn more at Virtual Community Coffee

Looking for historic photos and other digital material? Have permissions-to-use and copyright questions?

Virtual Community Coffee

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

11 AM - 12 PM

Join the staff of the H&G Library and SCL Cataloging Supervising Librarian Geoffrey Skinner, and learn how to navigate our new digital collections platform Quartex at digital.sonomalibrary.org.

To join, register here!

Interview with Local Author Iris Jamahl Dunkle

You recently published the first comprehensive biography of Jack London's wife Charmian London, Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer. What motivated you to write it?

When I was researching Charmian, I realized that she did not seem to be the same person I had met in other biographies – especially in Sailor on Horseback by Irving Stone. I started to look more closely at circumstances I felt had not been attributed to her. For example, there is a famous photograph of Jack London on horseback, on the peak of Sonoma Mountain, and I had always wondered who had taken it. When I was working on my book of poems about Sonoma County, There’s a Ghost in this Machine of Air, I was researching Nathaniel A. Griffith, the "grandfather" of the Gravenstein apple, and knew that one of his daughters, Nell Griffith Wilson, was a poet and good friends with Charmian. I found out that Charmian had given Nell a photo she had taken of Jack on the hillside when Nell had asked her for a contribution for one of her books. It was the same photo, and Nell’s book of poems, Our Valley of the Moon in Poems and Pictures, attributed it to Charmian. That was the first time I found evidence of how Charmian was excluded from the whole Jack London story, and it led me to think that no one had told her story correctly.

Can you describe your research process – how did you find the resources and uncover the records?

I spent a lot of time in archives – happily! I had wonderful librarians at libraries like yours to work with. I also consulted a great deal of public and vital records - with the story of someone who has been misremembered, you cannot just use reiterated facts; you have to go back to the source. Charmian's death certificate, for example, is completely inaccurate, and I had to triangulate information from several sources to understand what had happened. There is this tremendous amount of research on Jack London, but when you tell the story with Charmian at the center the perspective is different, and it leads you to a completely different story! I also worked with many historical societies. In Wilmington, CA, for example, where Charmian was born, and in Mount Desert Island, ME, where her family came from. Random collectors would send me copies of letters by Charmian’s dad, "Kitt", Willard Kittredge. It was almost like forensic science.

What challenges did you face in your research?

Quite a few! The most challenging aspect, however, was that publishers were not interested in telling the story of a woman, or better, of a woman who really disrupted the narrative of a man. They thought it would not sell enough copies. Hard to believe, right? The assumptions I had about the publishing industry were all completely wrong! As I move forward towards my next couple of projects, I am starting to see how to approach things differently. It took me six years to research and publish this book, but I now know the mistakes I made and can consequently improve on my process.

Are there sources you wished existed, but did not?

Charmian burned her diaries from the 1890s, after Irving Stone, who wrote Sailor on Horseback, a fictional biography based on the life of Jack and Charmian, came to the House of Happy Walls to write his book in 1937. Charmian had granted Stone access to almost everything, but had put some documents like her early diaries in her safe. When she left for a few days because she was frustrated with his aggressive approach and lack of collaboration, he broke into it and took notes. You can access the notes he took about her early diaries today at the Bancroft Library, and they really condemn her. Before she got married, Charmian had dated married men, as well as several men at the same time, but she was a career woman, not being able to marry without losing her job, since employers at the time favored single women. Her aunt Netta Wiley Eames, who lived in an open marriage, had also raised her quite unconventionally. Irving Stone, however, found all of this ridiculous and thought that she was a big floozy. Charmian realized people did not understand who she was. She later also burned some of her love letters, and even though I was able to recreate the 1890s, I would love to see those documents.

Is there a story that stands out for you?

The most important discovery was that Charmian helped write Jack’s books, including passages in The Valley of the Moon and the ending of The Mutiny of the Elsinore. No one has ever credited her with this collaboration. She was always put forward as Jack London's secretary, but in reality, Charmian was his literary partner. She was very much like a modern woman, someone that you and I would probably have a wonderful conversation with if she were alive today. I have studied the era with regard to the lives of women before, but it was still surprising to discover such a clear example of a modern, college educated professional woman, someone I would have been during that era. It was amazing to get to know her.

Iris Jamahl Dunkle writes and lives in Northern California. She was the 2017-2018 Poet Laureate of Sonoma County and has received fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, the Lannon Foundation and Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her newest collection of poems, West : Fire : Archive is forthcoming from The Center for Literary Publishing in 2021. Her previous poetry collections include Gold Passage (2013), There's a Ghost in this Machine of Air (2015) and Interrupted Geographies (2017). Her poem “Listening to the Caryatids on the Palace of Fine Arts” will be featured on 100 buses as part of the San Francisco Beautiful Muni Art 2020 campaign. Her works have been published in Poet's Market, San Francisco Examiner, Los Angeles Review of Books, Women's Studies, and Chicago Quarterly Review, among others. Dunkle teaches at Napa Valley College and is the Poetry Director of the Napa Valley Writers' Conference.

Interview: Simone Kremkau. Photo provided by Iris Jamahl Dunkle.

NEW at the H&G Library!

Cartoon computer with pencil and text bubbles

Virtual Desk Service - Live Zoom Help

Need live research assistance? We can help you! Get free, online, one-on-one help with H&G Library staff Wednesday, December 9 and Wednesday, December 16, 2 PM-3 PM.

Learn to navigate our databases - Get started with property research - Find an obituary ...

Book an appointment! Call (707) 308-3212 or email history@sonomalibrary.org.

Virtual presentations with Dvorah Lewis, Sutro Library

Sutro Library Genealogy Treasures

Saturday, December 5, 2020

11 AM – 1 PM

The Sutro Library is the California State Library branch located in San Francisco and has one of the largest genealogy collections west of Salt Lake City. Dvorah Lewis, Sutro's Genealogy Librarian, will present “Labor Omnia Vitae: How Your Hard Work Can Conquer All at the Sutro Library,” and showcase the library’s fabulous genealogy collections. Participants will learn about the highlights, how to search online and how to access the collections on-site once the library is open again. Presented by the Solano County Genealogical Society. Please contact the society at scgs@scgsca.org no later than 4 pm (PST) Friday, December 4 to request a Zoom invitation.

Portrait of Sutro genealogy librarian Dvorah Lewis

Researching your Orphan Ancestors

Thursday, January 21, 2021

3 PM - 5 PM

Presented by the H&G Library! In this talk, as Dvorah shares her own journey, attendees will learn how to trace orphan ancestors through go-to genealogical records, like census and city directories, as well as the types of records created by the orphanages themselves from annual reports to internal newsletters. Researching orphanage records is what originally sparked Dvorah's interest in conducting her own genealogical research. Register here.

Dvorah Lewis joined the California State Library in 2017 as the Genealogy & Local History Librarian at the Sutro Library. She is also a board member for the SF Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Jewish Studies at UC Irvine and earned her Master's in Library & Information Science at UCLA. Her passion for archives and genealogy was inspired by an interview with her great Aunt Essie, the then eldest member of her family. She is excited to help researchers learn how to navigate the State Library’s extraordinary collections and resources. Dvorah feels that by preserving the past we can understand the present and bring positive change to the future.

Virtual Events in December

The Russian River and Its Watershed - Book Release Party

Friday, December 11, 2020, 4:30 PM

The 110-mile Russian River flows like a ribbon of silver through the valleys of Mendocino and Sonoma counties, providing drinking water for thousands of people, a home for fish and other riparian critters, and irrigation for crops. But only people who live on its banks or who regularly spend time on its waters can attest to the changing beauty of the Russian River and its many colors, moods and seasons.

Produced by Sonoma Land Trust and Sonoma Water, The Russian River and Its Water-shed tells the story of the river through 41 full-color paintings by local artist Richard McDaniel and the voices of local essayists — including author and tribal leader Greg Sarris and historian Gaye LeBaron. From a sighting of a single osprey to a real-life fish story to a life-changing canoe trip, the stories told by the authors are as varied as the river itself. Register here. Purchase your book here.

Wednesday Dialogues with Frances Rivetti Petaluma Museum

December 9, 2020

7 PM - 8 PM

British/American freelance journalist and award-winning author Frances Rivetti is a long-time Petaluma resident and former Argus Courier columnist with two independently published non-fiction books and a novel, each one set against the backdrop of coastal Northern California.

Rivetti will discuss her writings, read from her books and answer questions.

Zoom login information will be posted on the Petaluma Museum website prior to the event. Purchase signed books and more at the museum's new online gift shop!

Hint: Books make great holiday gifts!

Wishing all of our patrons a happy holiday season and best wishes for the New Year!

We look forward to working together with you in 2021.

The Sonoma County Library Special Collections team Megan Jones, Zayda Delgado, Joanna Kolosov, Simone Kremkau and Connie Williams

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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 11 AM-7:30 PM; Fri 10 AM-5 PM; Sat 10 AM-1 PM.

Sonoma County Wine Library: mjones@sonomalibrary.org.

Call (707) 433-3772 x0416, Mon/Tue 12 PM-7 PM; Wed-Sat 10 AM-5 PM.

Curbside pick-up of materials 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