The Western Sonoma County Historical Society is on the hunt for copies of Sebastopol Times from specific years that the society doesn’t already have in its collection.
According to Mary Dodgion from the historical society, the society is missing issues of the Times from February and March of 1921, as well as issues from all months of 1958 to 1961.
“There is still hope that those issues are still with us, maybe your parents had a stack of newspapers,” Dodgion wrote in a December column for Sonoma West. “Before throwing them in the dumpster, please think about their possible value to your town.”
While whole pages or whole issues are ideal, Dodgion said that to try and bridge the gap in the collection, she’s taken to keeping a collection of individual clipped articles as well — anything she can find, or anything that’s turned into the historical society.
“Even if I go and look at the California Digital Newspaper Collection or the National Archives, they don’t exist there either. This is something that’s really unique and vital to all of California,” Dodgion said of the missing papers.
People who come across issues that fit the bill for what the historical society is missing can give them to the historical society by putting them in a manila envelope and dropping it through the front door slot at the museum, located at 261 South Main Street, Sebastopol. Dodgion asked that people include their name and contact information, so they can be thanked and credited for their donation.
People who may come across larger collections of the Times and may be hesitant dropping them through the museum’s drop box can set up an appointment to hand them to someone from the museum by calling 707-829-6711.
