MANATEE COUNTY LIBRARY
LOCAL HISTORY RESOURCES
Elizabeth Eaton Florida History Reading Room & Collection -- The Eaton Room collection houses the following resources at the Downtown Central Library: City directories of Manatee County dating back to 1897, yearbooks from local high schools and private schools, some dating back to 1916, local newspapers, weekly and daily, on microfilm, historical maps and aerial photos, hundreds of books on local and Florida history, and items such as oral interviews and archival negatives from the Manatee County Historical Society have been added to the Eaton Room Collection over the past 40 years.
Our Historic Digital Collections include over 35,000 images which portray Manatee County people, activities, and buildings from the late nineteenth century to the early 1980's, as well as hundreds of historic speeches and interviews and dozens of historic local maps. Images are free to download for personal use and fair use. Please give credit to the Manatee County Public Library Historic Digital Collections if re-using these items.
GENERAL GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES
The Manatee County Downtown Central Library. The Library has an extensive genealogy collection that is available to the public. The collection's scope is largely for states east of the Mississippi River, concentrating on the colonial states, though we do have some materials from west of the Mississippi. Types of materials include:
This collection also includes materials on foreign ancestry including:
LINKS TO MANATEE COUNTY LIBRARY RESOURCES & INFORMATION