Marin County Free Library
Marin County Free Library
- Location: San Rafael, CA
- Phone: (415) 473-7419
- Website: http://www.marinlibrary.org/californiaroom
The Anne T. Kent California Room is a special collection on local history which has been serving the Marin County Free Library system since the mid-1930s. Their mission is to collect, preserve and share local, regional and state history. Their many primary source materials focus primarily on the history of Marin County and include photographs, maps, oral history interviews, historic motion picture footage as well as original documents and ephemera.
Significant special collections include: the history of San Quentin State Prison; Frank Lloyd Wright & the Marin County Civic Center; the California Motion Picture Corporation; the Kent Family and the history of Kentfield; Marin’s Mountain Play; and an extensive Unrecorded Marin County Map & Survey archive, 1849-1988.
They engage the community by hosting free public events, a local history lecture series and ongoing exhibits. They have worked with the County of Marin to present the history of Marin and the Marin County Civic Center through permanent and changing displays.
Their collection includes over 30,000 historic maps and surveys; over 25,000 photographs; 575 oral history interviews; 345 linear feet of newspaper and pamphlet files; 35 linear feet of original documents; 54 linear feet of biography files; 36 linear feet of historic directories and phonebooks; over 500 local yearbooks; 200 local periodicals and more than 11,000 books.
They provide free public access to their collection Monday-Friday. Please call them for an appointment at: 415-473-7419. The California Room’s website and digital archive can be accessed at: marinlibrary.org/californiaroom.
Collections at this institution
Marin County - Lothers & Young Collection, 1920s
Views of Marin County during the 1920s photographed by Hayden Lothers and Ralph Young who had a studio at 165 Post Street in San Francisco. Images include the Mill Valley train depot with the Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railroad; hikers on Mt. Tamalpais; Hotel Sausalito; San Rafael High School; Baltimore Park, Larkspur; and Harlan Hall, Marin Junior College (now College of Marin).
Institution: Marin County Free Library
54 Items
Marin County Free Library History
Photographs and ephemera document the history of the Marin County Free Library and its branches from its inception in 1927 to the present.
Institution: Marin County Free Library
72 Items
Marin County Parks
A collection of images from the collection of the Marin County Department of Parks and Open Space.
Institution: Marin County Free Library
21 Items
Marin County Ranchos
Map of Marin County's original ranchos, granted by Mexico between 1834 and 1846. Also features a biographical summary of each land grant
Institution: Marin County Free Library
1 Item
Marinship, 1942-1945
Marinship Corporation in Sausalito was a WWII Liberty shipyard owned by W.A. Bechtel Co. During WWII, residential Marin City was developed as housing for Marinship workers and their families. In the span of Marinship's three and a half years of active service (1942-1945), fifteen EC-2 Liberty Ships were built, along with seventy-eight oil tankers and twenty invasion barges. At its peak, Marinship employed a multi-ethnic workforce of 20,000.
Institution: Marin County Free Library
21 Items
M.B. Boissevain, Marin's First Farm Advisor
"This collection represents a photographic exhibit of M.B. Boissevain's insightful photographs that premiered at the 2012 Marin County Fair. These magnificent images provide a unique opportunity to embrace Marin's agrarian roots and present bounty, as well as take an intimate look at what life was like for Marin ranchers and farmers during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. From the arrival of the Mexicans in the early 1820s, to the beginning of the Gold Rush in 1849, Marin was a rich agrarian landscape providing range for thousands of longhorns. Gradually, they were replaced by dairy cows as immigrants arrived from Europe, ...
Institution: Marin County Free Library
65 Items
Mill Valley - Jim Staley Postcard Archive, Phil Rhodes Collection
Photo postcards depicting Mill Valley, circa 1905-1953. Postcards originally belonged to collector Jim Staley. Digital copies and metadata have been provided by their current owner, Phil Rhodes.
Institution: Marin County Free Library
27 Items
Mountain Plays, Mount Tamalpais, 1913-1972
Since 1913, the Mountain Play has been performed annually in a natural outdoor amphitheater on Mt. Tamalpais. The first six decades of the Mountain Play are well-documented in our collection of Mountain Play scrapbooks which include photographs, play programs, clippings and ephemera and which cover 1913-1958 and 1961-1972. Three men are generally credited with the inspiration for the Mountain Play: lawyer and hiker John C. Catlin; producer and director Garnet Holme; and inveterate hiker “Dad” O’Rourke. One day as they hiked the Rock Springs area of Mt. Tam, Holme paused to look at the view and saw a perfect setting ...
Institution: Marin County Free Library
146 Items
Muir Woods National Monument – Kent Family Collection
William Kent purchased Redwood Canyon, now Muir Woods National Monument, and donated it to the Federal Government in 1908, to save the ancient Redwood trees and the canyon from development.
Institution: Marin County Free Library
20 Items
Oral Histories
From 1974 to 1984, Carla Ehat, with partner Anne Kent, and later Genevieve Martinelli, interviewed a broad spectrum of Marin's long-time residents, from ranchers to politicians, including descendants of early pioneer families. This program was co-sponsored by the Marin County Free Library and the Moya Library in Ross. The resulting archive, consisting of nearly 300 recordings and their corresponding transcriptions, are housed in the California Room. A subset of this collection has been digitized and posted here. (Additional interviews are posted as they are processed.) In 2002, the California Room re-started its oral history program with professional oral historian Marilyn ...
Institution: Marin County Free Library
121 Items
