The collection contains directories and phone books of the city of Sacramento, California, and surrounding areas from 1850 through the early 1990s, and phone books published from 1967 through the present. City directory entries are listed by individual or business name and include their residence or business address, occupation and business address, and often their spouse's name. The earliest directories include where a person came to Sacramento from, and later directories include telephone numbers. The 1889-1890 city directory included a key code (SCOTLANDER - S=1 C=2 0=3 T=4 L=5 A=6 N=7 D=8 E=9 R=0) next to each person's entry that included their real estate (R), income (I), and personal (P) income. Occasionally acreage (A) and mortgage (M) appeared as well. In 1914, the city directories began providing a reverse directory by street name and address for individuals and businesses. Beginning in the late 1950s, two separate directories were published for the city proper and the suburban areas. In the 1960s and 1970s, a separate Roseville/Citrus Heights directory was published.

Published on January 1, 1851, James Horace Culver's Directory for the Year 1851 was the first book to be published in Sacramento, California, and the first city directory on the West Coast to list street address numbers. The directory listed the city's residents, churches, benevolent organizations, saloons, restaurants, boarding houses, city and county elected officials, schools, theaters, courts, leading taxpayers, steamboat captains, and a brief history of the city.

196 Volumes

All requests to publish or quote from private collections held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.

Collection is open for research use.