Archival Collections
About the Collections
Escondido Public Library's Pioneer Room is the primary historical research center for the community of Escondido. The Pioneer Room identifies, collects, preserves, and provides access to a non-circulating collection of records, manuscripts, and other significant resources of enduring historical, legal, administrative, and fiscal value.
Documents, photographs, and other reference materials are available for researching various local history topics, including historic homes and properties, biographies of people and families local to Escondido, and events about the history and development of Escondido and the surrounding region.
The Pioneer Room is proud to partner with Flickr, Online Archive of California, Digital Reel (library computers only), and Internet Archive to help you search our collections.
The Pioneer Room is proud to bring you a central location for our digital collections. Click the banner to view photographs of historic Escondido. You'll also find our finding aids and more information about the collections. We're always adding new content, so check back often for new collections.
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Finding Aids help you discover what's inside the Pioneer Room's collections. They include dates, places, people, and other facts you'll find helpful to narrow down which collections are the best fir for your research. Click the banner to view the Pioneer Room's Finding Aids.
Search the Times-Advocate, Escondido Times, and North County Times newspapers published before 1995 using Digital Reel. The Daily Times-Advocate was founded in 1909 following the merger of two weekly papers, The Escondido Times (founded by A. J. Lindsey in 1885) and The Escondido Advocate (founded by A. D. Dunn in 1891). Also known later as the Escondido Times-Advocate, it was one of the longest-standing institutions in Escondido's history. The North County Times was formed in 1995 from the merger of the North County Blade-Citizen of Oceanside and the Escondido Times-Advocate.
PLEASE NOTE: This resource is only available on Library computers and the wireless network in the Library.
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Historic Photographs
Local historian and benefactor Frances Beven Ryan gave selected photographs from the collection to the Library. The collection includes Escondido and San Diego County locations.
This collection features photographs of Escondido and San Marcos area homes and businesses taken by Lowell William "Bill" Rutledge, a local photographer, for real estate listings.
Perkins was a staff writer for the Times-Advocate (1948 -1981). Photos in this collection reflect her research into places, people, and events in Escondido and surrounding areas. (Online Archive of California).
Selected photographs from the collection feature Atilano's travels, his band of troubadours, and other musicians.
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Pioneer Room Digital Exhibits
NEW! The Pioneer Room is working to digitize past gallery exhibits featured in the reading room.
- HOME: A Living Archive Escondido Public Library’s Living Archive series highlights the experiences and activities of contemporary Escondido society. This inaugural installment aims to facilitate conversations about origins, self-identity, and the constructions of belonging. “HOME” is the result of the collaborative efforts of Escondido Public Library’s Pioneer Room and Adult Literacy Services to establish Escondido’s own living archive. Click here to view the exhibit.
- More exhibits to come!
Visit the Pioneer Room’s audiovisual recordings on the Internet Archive.
- City Directories (1955-1985)
- Interviews with Escondido historian Frances Beven Ryan
- Videos from Channel 10 and Channel 39 news
- Escondido High School Music Department presents Guys and Dolls (1966/67)
Visit the Pioneer Room’s digital collections on the Internet Archive.
- Select photographs from the Eloise Perkins Collection
- Pioneer Room Finding Aids
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