Local Historical Figures Come Alive with Archival Biography Files Now in South Pasadena Public Library’s Catalog

The South Pasadena Public Library is pleased to announce that its Local History Collection’s Biography Files are now included in the Library’s online catalog. These are the first listings for archival documents to be included in the public catalog, allowing for new public awareness of the items in the historical collection.

With this new accessibility, Library users searching for an included person’s name will see that there is a Biography File for that individual in the Local History Collection. Upon request, Reference Librarians can retrieve the appropriate file, and visitors can then review the file within the Library and make copies if desired.

The Biography Files include a variety of information about the lives and accomplishments of notable South Pasadena residents, as well as individuals who made a significant contribution to the South Pasadena community.

Biography Files are available for movie star William Holden (William Franklin Beedle, Jr.), former First Lady Lucretia Garfield, inventor Thaddeus Lowe (of Mount Lowe Railway fame), and over 135 more. There are also entries for influential artist Mike Kelley, Georgia M. Bullock (the first woman judge of the California Superior Court), and World War II prisoner of war poet Lt. Henry G. Lee—all former residents of South Pasadena. There are several types of materials contained in the files including newspaper articles, city directory entries, photographs, vital records (birth, death, marriage), obituary articles and more.

With the Library’s ever-expanding Flickr page, the digitization of local newspapers and city directories, and converting microfilm to searchable hard drives, the addition of these records is one more way that the Local History Collection is now more accessible to library users. For more information, please contact the Library’s Reference Desk at (626) 403-7350, or contact Chelsea Clark, Local History Librarian at (626) 403-7359 or cclark@southpasadenaca.gov. More information about the Local History Collection is available on the Library’s website, www.southpasadenaca.gov/library, under the Local History tab.