Prior to becoming incorporated as a city on November 8, 1921, Royal Oak was first established as a township on January 23, 1819, and then a village on March 18, 1891. The city’s first mayor was George A. Dondero, who later went on to become a Michigan representative to the U.S. House.

Though Royal Oak’s first “library” appeared in 1852 as a reading room in the Township doctor’s home, it was not until almost the mid-twentieth century before the city’s librarians started collecting information about the city and documenting its history. The local history collection contains atlases, tax assessment rolls, and other city records and documents, as well as an extensive array of newspaper clippings that primarily cover the past seventy years. Other print materials include books about the city, its residents, and reference materials such as Polk’s and Bresser’s. The collection even contains yearbooks for local high schools dating back to 1919, and two small boxes of black and white photographs of various people and landmarks in Royal Oak. In addition to these resources, microfilm reels of the Daily Tribune and Oakland County census records and mortality schedules are available as well as a local history image gallery on our website that features images of Royal Oak’s World War II service men and women.

The bulk of the materials in the local history collection focus on Royal Oak. There is a separate filing cabinet that contains news clippings related only to Oakland County history.

• Collection Finding Aid listing important items and subjects in this collection. Compiled by Monica Brady, ROPL Library Science Intern Project, 2011.
• Image Gallery showing scanned images from our Local History Collection.
• Oakland County Historical Resources, a 501(c)3 consortium of libraries, genealogical and historical societies, seeks historical materials pertaining to the Oakland County, Michigan area to make them searchable and accessible to the public. They digitize local history materials and make them available to the world through our website.
• Obituaries published in The Daily Tribune are posted monthly with the assistance of Ranger Data, Inc., a Royal Oak-based technology company. Online obituaries are available for Jan. 2010 – present. Earlier obituaries are available at the library.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/hide comments

Show/hide comment form

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment Preview