Life is available online via Google books. I find this very useful and inspiring just to browse through. (The novel I am working on takes place in New York ca.1950.)
mrsfauthor, when you ask for "accurate references" -- accurate references for what? Can you offer more specifics about what you want to learn about? You've mentioned sources that pertain to the physical world around your characters. The sources you have mentioned are superb, and you'll get a lot of good information from them. I'm wondering what in particular you might be looking for; are there particular gaps you are trying to fill, or experiences you want to get a handle on? Or are you looking for more general atmosphere and inspiration?
Even in a given time period and locale, your characters' experiences will vary depending upon ethnicity, social class, age, sex, and so on. For my story social history is of great importance. So, I read history books pertaining to the particular communities my characters belong to, and to current events that would have been of interest to them. Memoirs and oral histories are particularly rich if you can find some that pertain the communities you're writing about. I read novels written during the period to get a sense of period-idiomatic speech and more mundane, quotidian matters than wind up in history books. (I tend to avoid modern historical novels written about the period, at least until I'm closer to done; I don't want to risk confuse other people's reconstructions with my own research.) I even watch films and listen to music from the time period to get a handle on the popular culture in which my characters are steeped.
Have fun.