They may also be viewed on the Web. The emphasis of the collection is on images of the City and landscape. Views include Palisades Park, the beaches, piers, historic buildings, hotels, bathhouses, Douglas Aircraft, streets, Venice, Malibu, Topanga, the Southern Pacific Railroad, and more. This interactive educational site covers the history of Venice Beach. It features timelines, historic articles and photographs, interactive maps, and lists of movies films in Venice streets, amusement piers and canals.
More recent histories provide photographs of the city, past and present, as well as history.
Warren Hastings wrote a definitive study entitled Trees of Santa Monica, Described and Located by Streets in 1941. A second edition of this work was issued in 1956 and it was revised and rewritten by local tree expert and environmentalist Grace Heintz in 1976. Another edition of the Heintz work was published in 1981. City Departments often contribute histories of their own. The municipal bus line is represented by History of Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus researched and written by Bob Ayer.