San Diego Public Library

The sixty-four images featured in this pictorial overview of the history of San Diego Public Library’s Central Library, from 1882–1970’s, were selected from the Special Collections Photograph Collection. This twelve box archival collection of photographs, housed in the San Diego Heritage Room, includes photographs and negatives collected by staff and donated to Special Collections from the 1880s to the present. The collection represents an important part of the historical record of the development of the San Diego Public Library, preserving images of 19th and 20th century citizens, planners and staff who were critical to the growth of early library services …

Institution: San Diego Public Library

The San Diego Public Library’s Special Collections contain many treasures that few know about; one such collection is the Babylonian clay tablets. The collection is part of the larger Wangenheim Collection that traces the history of book making and includes Egyptian papyrus, vellum manuscripts, lacquered palm leaf books from India, a bark codex, Chinese silk scrolls, and early handmade papers from Japan. The Babylonian clay tablets collection contains 27 clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform characters, ca. 2300 BCE. Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known systems of writing emerging from Mesopotamia, now modern day Iraq. Tablets were made of …

Institution: San Diego Public Library

The David Smollar Map Collection, donated to the San Diego Public Library’s Special Collection Center in the spring of 2020, consists of over 400 maps and related materials. The maps date from 1914 to 2018 and primarily cover the city and county of San Diego. This collection is a wonderful addition to the over 1,000 maps owned by the San Diego Public Library.

Institution: San Diego Public Library

The San Diego Public Library's Wangenheim Collection contains a large portfolio of fore-edge paintings. These are images that have been painted onto the edges of a book (usually the edge opposite the spine). Sometimes the painting is visible when the book is closed. Sometimes the image is visible only when the pages are fanned. There are even books with double fore-edge paintings--fanned one way, the fore-edge displays one image; fanned the other way, the fore-edge shows an entirely different image.

Institution: San Diego Public Library

The Joseph Murphy Baseball Autograph Collection is a 10-volume private scrapbook collection of baseball-related materials accumulated primarily in the 1930s with some additions thereafter; authentic autographs, correspondence, stat sheets, and biographical clippings. There are over 1,200 items in the collection including autographs of Baseball Hall of Fame members such as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, and Honus Wagner. Joe Murphy started his Collection in 1931. After that year’s World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Athletics, nine-year-old Joe and his seven-year-old brother, John, sent a congratulatory letter to Pepper Martin on his World Series record of …

Institution: San Diego Public Library

The San Diego Public Library has a large Postcard Collection, over 5,000 Postcards from California. These Postcards were donated by Norma McCumber and Florence Wilson and collected by library staff over the years. These select few were chosen as highlights to our collection and to illustrate the changes in the City of San Diego. San Diego has always been America’s Finest City. This Collection of postcards gives a glimpse into treasures from San Diego’s past. There are Post Cards from the 1915 Panama California Exhibition, cards that depict the rolling hills of Mission Valley and cards that show original Military …

Institution: San Diego Public Library

What became known as the San Diego Public Library had its beginnings in 1882 on the second floor of the Consolidated Bank Building at Fifth and G Streets in downtown San Diego. The first published catalog, compiled by Lulu Younkin in 1889, listed 7,800 volumes. In the decades since, the San Diego Public Library has grown into a robust stystem comprising thirty-five branches and the central library. Today our collections include more than 3.8 million items, including books, audio-visual materials, and the latest downloadable ebooks. We serve a population of more than 1.3 million residents over a geographic area of …

Institution: San Diego Public Library