Publications
The Center is proud to offer a growing number of historical publications, reproductions, and educational items to the public. All product sales help CSH in its mission to preserve, exhibit, and make accessible the history of the Sacramento region. Please visit the Center during research hours to purchase items or use the printable order form link below. CSH currently only accepts cash or check payments.
A printable Order Form can be found here (pdf).
Gold Fever: California's Gold Rush
by Carl Nolte, Donna Leverenz, & Karin Muller
Odyssey Publications and W.W. Norton & Co.: 2000
$5.00, hardback
January 24, 1848, was a day that changed everything. The flecks of yellow metal, found in the American River by James Marshall, proved
to be the foundation of modern California. Fortune hunters succumbed to gold fever and flocked to the Sierra Nevada foothills in search
of unlimited wealth. The myths of California's gold rush are the subject of legendary songs and tales. Fortunes were won and lost almost
daily. The realities behind the popular images were hard and often bloody. Gold Fever tells the story as it really happened in words and
pictures. Lavishly illustrated and printed in color throughout. Part of the American Icon Close-Up Guide Series.
The Good Life: Sacramento's Consumer Culture
by Steven M. Avella
Arcadia Publishing: 2008
$20.00, paperback
Mass consumption is a defining feature of modern American culture. During the 20th century, mass production, discretionary income,
and modern advertising combined to create and fulfill demand for more products than ever before. From butchers and bakers to big-box
retailers, the story of the buying and selling of goods tells the history of our cities from a unique perspective. The Good Life
approaches Sacramento's history from the bottom up, with a look at the city's past from the perspective of ordinary citizens.
From the gold rush to the dot-com bubble and beyond, it tells the story of changing times, changing styles, and changing fortunes,
and their effects on the lives of the people of Sacramento.
The Lower American River: Prehistory to Parkway
edited by Peter J. Hayes
American River Natural History Association: 2005
$15.00, paperback
Here is the fact-filled account of a "pure-gold" asset of California's heartland. It's the story of those who tapped the riches of the American River from
Sacramento City to today's Folsom Dam. Here are the native Nisenan who were nurtured by the river's bountiful salmon fishery…Jed Smith's "reckless breed"
of fur trappers…Central Valley empire builder John Augustus Sutter…the gold seekers, the growers, the entrepreneurs…and the latter-day heroes who battle
to preserve and protect the 23-mile-long river parkway within the Sacramento metropolis. The book includes dozens of vintage photographs, drawings,
historic map, a timeline, and an index.
Old Sacramento and Downtown
by Center for Sacramento History and HOSF
Arcadia Publishing: 2006
$20.00, paperback
The discovery of gold in 1848 launched an unprecedented and epic rush of humanity to California's Sierra foothills. Many of those miners and minerals flowed as naturally
as the rivers into a settlement that grew near the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Soon the Sacramento River, once the main traffic artery between the
mines and San Francisco Bay, was flanked by a rapidly growing Embarcadero, prompting John Sutter Jr. to authorize the surveying of Sacramento City in 1849. A large
commercial district quickly developed, later requiring the streets to be raised 12 feet to avoid the rivers' deadly recurring floodwaters. Paddlewheel riverboats, like
the New World and the Delta King, plied the waters, carrying goods, passengers, and great wealth. Besting all jealous rivals, Sacramento became the state capital, and
fittingly, a merchant's residence was transformed into the governor's mansion. Today Old Sacramento, a 28-acre state historic district, and downtown are thriving, graced
by such treasures as the restored State Capitol Building and the art deco-style Tower Bridge. The area features scores of historic structures and such attractions as the
Leland Stanford Mansion, the Crocker Art Gallery, the Discovery Museum, and the California State Railroad Museum.
Private Thinks by C.K.
by Charles K. McClatchy
Scribner Press: 1936
$5.00, hardback
Charles Kinney McClatchy was the editor and publisher of the Sacramento Bee newspaper from 1883 until his death in 1936. During that time he penned a regular column,
originally known as "Notes" and later changed to "Private Thinks by C.K." The column offered strong opinions and this volume collects the best of his published work.
Edited by his daughter Eleanor (President of McClatchy Publishing) and Roy Bailey, it also includes a forward by Senator Hiram W. Johnson, a close friend and confidant
of C.K's.
Rush For Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California
by J. S. Holliday
Oakland Museum of California and University of California Press: 1999
$20.00, paperback
Holliday's book is considered by many to be the definitive account of the California gold rush and the state's explosive growth through 1884. During this period,
California was an entrepreneurial free-for-all, with the Silver Barons of the Comstock Lode, the timber barons of the Sierra, the Big Four who built the
transcontinental railroad, and countless smaller businessmen looking for their share. The book features over 225 images from the major collections in
California, including the Center for Sacramento History.
Sacramento: An Illustrated History: 1839 to 1874
by Thor Severson
California Historical Society: 1987
$30.00, hardback
The history of California's present-day capitol city, told with all its warts intact--from Maidu Indians to John Sutter, and from the 1st building constructed in
California for theater use to the demise of all but 2 of what originally were 62(!) newspapers. Constantly plagued by flood in its early years, Sacramento pioneers
used mule scoops and jackscrews to raise their young city off the ground (by as much as twelve feet in places), and built great levees to give themselves a chance
to survive and prosper. By 1854, gold dust was flowing through the city at the rate of $3 million a MONTH. Fascinating history, wonderfully and copiously illustrated,
in one of the finest volumes ever produced under the aegis of the California Historical Society.
Sacramento City Directory, 1851
edited by Mead B. Kibbey
California State Library Foundation: 2000
$40.00, hardback
This facsimile edition of J. Horace Culver's Sacramento Directory for the year 1851 now makes available one of the rarest and most important books concerning Sacramento
and the gold rush. Historian and author Mead B. Kibbey has supplemented the rare directory with a history of Sacramento to 1851, biographical sketches, and informative
appendices. Mead Kibbey has added materially to the value of the directory by including a thoroughly researched narrative history of Sacramento covering Native Americans,
early explorers, the gold discovery, and such dramatic events as the Squatter Riots, cholera epidemic and the great inundation of 1850. Detailed biographies of fifty-five
prominent individuals listed in the directory provide a veritable who's who of pioneer Sacramento.
Sacramento City Directory, 1853-1854
edited by Mead B. Kibbey
California State Library Foundation: 2000
$30.00, hardback
This facsimile edition of Samuel Colville's The Sacramento Directory for the Year 1853-54 makes available one of the most important directories from the rambunctious
gold rush era. The volume includes Dr. John F. Morse's History of Sacramento, the first published narrative history of the river city. Historian and author Mead B.
Kibbey has supplemented the directory with a 24 page introduction. This handsome facsimile edition is bound in gold-stamped royal blue Kivar cloth and consists of 200
pages printed on acid free paper, plus the folded map. The original directory consists of 172 pages.
Sacramento: Gold Rush Legacy, Metropolitan Destiny, An Illustrated History of Sacramento
edited by John F. Burns
Heritage Media Corporation: 1999
$15.00, paperback
This is the story of Sacramento, the city and county on two great rivers in California's Central Valley. An important part of America's western heritage, Sacramento
was a gateway to the phenomenal California Gold Rush for people from around the world, terminal point for the pony express and transcontinental railroad, and capital
of the Golden State. Sacramento's early history is a centerpiece of the 19th century frontier experience. The 20th century brought further development as an
agricultural and commercial center, transportation hub, defense bastion, expanding state government head quarters, and most recently, a financial processing and
high-tech industrial center. All of this, and more, make Sacramento the complex, diverse and exciting place it is today, where Gold Rush roots blend with a modern
metropolis. How did Sacramento become what it is? Why did grow the way it did? What is the origin of its communities? Who are its people and where do they work?
These and other questions are addressed in this new, 150th birthday illustrated history of California's dynamic capital, where California's modern history began!
Sacramento's Elmhurst, Tahoe Park, and Colonial Heights
by Center for Sacramento History
Arcadia Publishing, 2007
$20.00, paperback
Originally named "Fruitvale" in the 1890s, the Sacramento suburbs now known as Elmhurst, Tahoe Park, and Colonial Heights were once home to the California State Fair,
the Sacramento County Hospital, and the Sacramento Army Depot. On May 8, 1910 the Central California Traction Company opened interurban passenger service to Colonial
Heights, connecting the neighborhoods to the rest of Sacramento. Today, the region is home to the Coca Cola Bottling Company, the University of California, Davis
Medical Center, and Proctor and Gamble. These neighborhoods began to thrive after 1945 as many wartime workers remained in Sacramento and looked for affordable housing.
Bounded by Highway 50, Stockton Boulevard, Fruitridge Road, and Florin-Perkins Road, the area today is a mixture of mature housing tracts, a sprawling medical campus, a
converted military facility, commercial service centers, and light industrial operations. The area's recent resurgence, led by groups like the Tahoe Park Neighborhood
Association and numerous community leaders, has made the district a true success story.
Sacramento's Midtown
by Center for Sacramento History and HOSF
Arcadia Publishing: 2006
$20.00, paperback
As Sacramento's neighborhoods grew eastward from Fifteenth Street to Thirty-first Street (later Alhambra Boulevard), the area evolved into a complex mix of housing and
businesses known as Midtown. Sutter's Fort was still popular, and community groups like the Native Sons of the Golden West restored its last remnants for future
generations. In 1927, the city built Memorial Auditorium, a tribute to fallen soldiers, as a large central venue that continues to serve as an important setting for
graduations, concerts, and conventions. The J and K Street business corridors expanded from downtown, and identifiable neighborhoods such as Poverty Ridge, Boulevard
Park, and New Era Park developed as people settled and established businesses in these growing areas. Today's Midtown supports numerous Victorian mansions and Craftsman
bungalows, as well as the legacies of such employers as the California Almond Grower's Exchange, California Packing Corporation, Buffalo Brewery, Sutter Hospital, and
the Sacramento Bee newspaper.
