Photographs
Arnold Del Carlo Photographs (1940s-1960s)
The Arnold Del Carlo photograph collection spans thirty years of work by local commercial photographer Arnold Del Carlo, from the 1940s to the 1970s. The collection documents the growth of the valley during a period of rapid change that followed the Second World War.
The collection includes negatives and prints of the San Jose built environment, including locations downtown as well as aerial photographs of the Santa Clara Valley. Del Carlo's earliest photographs are of the athletics department at San José State College while his wedding and portraiture photographs document numerous local people and families throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Arnold Del Carlo's aerial photographs are a notable sub-set of his commercial work. 
Flying his own airplane (his first plane was a used Cessna 170A), Del Carlo cut a 12-inch oval hole through the floor of the back seat so he could shoot verticals, and had a luggage door installed behind the back seat so he could shoot oblique shots. Del Carlo shot aerial photographs all over the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County. The photos in this collection date primarily to the 1950s and 1960s.
Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century Photographs
The Sourisseau and Edith C. Smith photograph collections together document the development of San José and the Santa Clara Valley from the late 1800s through the middle of the 1900s. The photographs provide insight into the events, people, businesses, and places that shaped the city of San José and the neighboring areas over the past one hundred and fifty years. 
The collections include photographs from many local photographers such as James Clayton, John Heering, Carlton Watkins, Loryea and Macauley, Andrew P. Hill, Howard C. Tibbitts, John O. Tucker, John C. Gordon, Arnold Del Carlo, and many others.
Photographs from several early local families are among the collections at the Sourisseau Academy, including the families of:
Postcards
Edith C. Smith Postcard Collection
The Edith C. Smith Postcard collection consists of thousands of postcards that capture aspects of life in San José and Santa Clara County in the early 20th century. The collection has many real photo postcards that document local homes, buildings, parks, and landscapes. Other postcards in the collection include colored and tinted views of the city, the built environment, and the surrounding areas. Emphasis has been placed on collecting the works of various photographers who focused on creating postcards of local areas such as Edward O. Webb and Robert Law. Portions of the collection were collected by local history enthusiasts Leonard McKay, Jack Douglas, and Steve Carlson, as well as hundreds of cards collected by the Edith C. Smith Trust.