Over 100 years of Sonoma County family portraits

Flipping through old family photo albums a million questions come to mind. How did those people live? What’s with all those stern faces? Photographic family portraiture has been around for a little over 170 years. The Sonoma Heritage Collection has captured the faces of our local ancestors since the first waves of film photography. The images provide us with a insight into the fashion, values, and technology of the time.

In the1850s and 60s, photos began to be printed on paper cards, making the image capturing method more affordable and opening it up to more social classes. Even recent immigrants had portraits taken to share with family members and let them know they were doing well. Scroll through our Sonoma County photo album to see the way images of families have changed over time.