Sacramento history photo of the week number 23!

In the Fall of 1918, Sacramento and the country were at War with Germany and Austro-Hungary. Area farms were mobilized to double their crop production, high school boys were pulled from Valley cities to pick crops, Sacramento women were immersed in one of the largest Red Cross chapters in the State, and the county's Southern Pacific routes and tressels were being guarded against "Teuton" espionage.

The following advertisement for Weinstock, Lubin and Co. Department Store was taken from a late October Sacramento Bee. With the capital city in a warmaking mood, even a jolly Saint Nick's depiction with a doughboy helmet seemed okay.

Mark your calendar as, on November 5 at 6:30, the Central Library will be presenting The Great War in the Great Valley: Sacramento During the First World War. The program will include discussion on the city and War and a presentation of photos of Sacramento during World War I.

This photo and many more like it can be found on the Central Library's Third Floor, which is where one can view both the Sacramento Bee and Union back into the mid-nineteenth century.

Dear customer, pardon the delay in posting this serial.

Digging Up Roots at Central Library

Genealogy – the study of one’s past – has become an avid pastime of many Americans. One of the easiest ways for a researcher to get their hands on extremely meaningful family information is to look at the obituaries or death notices of ancestors.

The Sacramento Public Library’s Central Branch holds runs of the Sacramento Bee back to 1857, the Sacramento Union from 1851 to 1994, the Sacramento Transcript, 1850-1851, and the Daily Democratic State Journal from 1852 to 1857.

Too busy to swing by Central and search the archives? No problem. Call us, snail mail us, e-mail us. Our reference staff takes the topic of genealogy very seriously – we boast one of the finest genealogy collections in Northern California, possess in-house indexes (Sacramento Bee Vital Statistics Index (1857-1905) and the California Information File) that you’ll find nowhere else, and welcome the opportunity to help you build your family tree.

Try us. Just give us a week and we can give you your roots.

Letter Mail: Sacramento Public Library, attn. Correspondence, 828 “I” Street, Sacramento, California 95814

E-Mail: askus@saclibrary.org

Phone: 916-264-2920

Ask Us Through "AskUs" and Get the Answer...

An interesting thing happened when we opened the "inbox" to the AskUs reference portal (askus@saclibrary.org). This popped up:


We love questions like these...

A medal - an old one - was located in a collection of keepsakes belonging to a long-time Sacramentan. The fellow had passed away and a family member wanted to get the story on this curious artifact.

It read:

"PRESENTED BY THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO, CAL. DEC. 21st, 1918."

"TO A MOTHER OF DEFENDERS OF LIBERTY."

The story behind the story was found in the library's copy of the Sacramento Bee for dates December 21st and 22nd, 1918. Sacramento lost over 100 of its own in the Great War. On December 21, 1918, the city of Sacramento honored over 1,300 mothers and the sacrifices endured by their sons and daughters at the city's Native Sons' Hall on Eleventh and "J." Two of the mothers received a medal with five stars (indicating the number of sons that they had sent overseas), but most were of the one star variety.

Also present were many area luminaries; D.W. Carmichael, the founder of present-day Carmichael and Governor William Stephens. It was cool on that day in Sacramento and the setting was...

"And when we present you with this little token, we do so, realizing that during the years to come it may, in some degree tarnish and grow old, but with its age may we assure you will grow the thoughts of kindness, the thoughts of appreciation, the thoughts of love and esteem which we, the people of Sacramento, the donors of this badge, bear to you, to whom we give -- the mothers of the defenders of liberty."

In the same issue of the Bee, there was also talk of a new auditorium to be built in honor of those who had served and died in Europe.

We hold a run of the Bee that goes back to 1857. That said, the paper is a great way to better understand the events of the day and the story behind that which could have been easily pulled from a time capsule.

If you have a question that you'd like to submit, Askus would be happy to answer it. Simply write us at askus@saclibrary.org and we'll get back to you within 24-hours.

To view a short movie, remembering the lives of seven Sacramentans who died in the Great War, click on the image below:

A Christmas Carol: Sacramento Style

150 years ago, Sacramento celebrated its seventh Holiday season as an incorporated city. A great window into the state of the city at that time is the Sacramento Bee. The full run of the paper (back to 1857) is held at the Sacramento Public Library’s Central Library. Central also holds the Sacramento Union (back to 1851), the Sacramento Transcript (1850-51), Daily Democratic State Journal (1852-1857), and the Placer Times (1849-50), Northern California’s oldest newspaper. Papers are viewable and microfilm and patrons may make copies for ten cents a page. Here are a few Holiday snippets from the December 1857 Sacramento Bee; not quite the world of Charles Dickens, but then again, not that far off either:

Just days before Christmas 1857, Sacramentans were treated to the spectacle of the Aurora Borealis. At around 11 o’clock, the phenomenon “presented a magnificent appearance, enveloping the sky in a sheet of brilliant red…” Lasting twenty minutes, the display pulled sleepy citizens from their homes and “created no little consternation in the minds of those not accustomed to the display.” (“Aurora Borealis,” December 17, 1857).

It did not take long for settlers to grasp the immensity of the Central Valley’s agricultural value. This must have made the local Holiday table an amazing sight. A particularly germane passage comes from the Christmas Day issue of the Bee that describes the City Market of “K” Street, where the display of “meats, poultry, vegetables, etc. was superb, and attracted large crowds of citizens.” The stall of Marzen, Burnes & Co., was said to have “excelled all others…with artistic skill…beets, turnips, celery, radishes, potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, lettuce, carrots…such as would astonish our Atlantic friends too (sic) see on a Christmas at their markets.” (“A Grand Display,” December 25, 1857).

Further spectacle was recorded in the Bee under the headline of “Christmas Tree Festivals.” The article describes Reverend Benton’s Sixth Street Church, Reverend Grober’s on Seventh, Reverend Hill’s on Eighth, and Reverend Deal’s on “H,” as serving venue to “Christmas trees laden with gifts of every description.” The article goes on to say that “many hundred prizes were given to the Sabbath School children, all of whom, of course, were perfectly delighted.” (December 25, 1857).

What were the antebellum Holidays without the flow of spirits? Local saloonist, John Zwicker of the Wiener Coffee Hall on Third Street, did not forget the importance of patronage, as he supplied the Bee staff with “delicious egg nogg (sic).” The editors went on to drink to “his health in bumpers, and wished him four score and ten returns of a merry Christmas.” (“Did Not Forget Us,” December 25, 1857).

Holiday charity was even extended to those having ended up in the city’s chain gang. “roast duck, plum pudding, pound and fruit cake, egg nogg (sic), etc.” were provided by a fellow named Sands who, as the Bee said, “insure[ed] him forever against the incursion of thieves, for he never forgets the unfortunate, no matter how busy he may be.” (“A Rare Treat,” December 26, 1857).

Happy Holidays and thanks for using the Sacramento Public Library!