The Oceanside Public Library houses a special collection of material relating to Southern California and Camp Pendleton. These materials are located in the Helen M. Nelson Heritage Room in the Civic Center Library.

Examples of books in this special collection include:

• A complete set of Bancroft’s Works, a 39-volume history of North and Central America by Hubert Howe Bancroft, published between 1883 and 1890, donated by Dr. Herbert Gabriel
• Oceanside High School yearbooks from 1920 to 1924
• A collection of books about the art and culture of Samoa in honor of our Sister City, Pago-Pago, American Samoa
• Books signed by authors ranging from Ray Bradbury to Victor Villaseñor
• Three Years in California by Walter Colton, published in 1850, one of the oldest books in the collection
• Books on the old West, including Theodore Roosevelt’s Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, with illustrations by Frederic Remington, published in 1888

Books on California history, including books by T.S. Van Dyke promoting the Golden State in the 1880’s and the 1916 edition of a book by Helen Hunt Jackson about the California missions.