The Liisa Penner Research Center & Archives at the Clatsop County Heritage Museum contains an ever-growing trove of materials, documents and images that tell stories of the people and history of Astoria, Warrenton and surrounding areas of the county.

Named for longtime archivist Liisa Penner, the center is an invaluable resource for beginning researchers and professional scholars alike who are interested in learning about people and groups of the region — including Indigenous families and Finnish immigrants.

The archives house primary documents sourced from personal collections, including personal diaries, journals and letters by early settlers.

There are also clues to properties, events and social life — city directories dating back to the 1890s, school yearbooks, maps, police ledgers, audio and video recordings, voter rolls and census files, as well as cemetery, church and death records.

The center also boasts a collection of more than 45,000 historic photographs and materials on the Port of Astoria, the Astoria Regatta and local schools.

Books on area history, scrapbooks, biographies, genealogies, house and building histories, indices, almanacs and periodicals, including Clatsop County’s and Oregon Historical Society’s journals, round out the collection.

As Penner said, “You can find just about anything here.”

Since 2019, the center has undertaken a significant project in converting much of its material into a searchable digital collection.

For researchers looking to go beyond what’s available online, the center offers the opportunity to peruse the physical, often original materials.

Knowledgeable staff are on hand — by phone appointment only, on a limited basis during regular business hours — to assist researchers, assemble requested documents or obtain materials from partner archives and historical societies.