Anne T. Kent California Room
About the Anne T. Kent California Room
Visit the California Room online
The Anne T. Kent California Room is an archive dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting information on local, regional, and state history with a strong emphasis on the history and culture of Marin County. In doing so, we seek to document the full diversity of voices and cultures that have shaped our community. We are committed to providing full public access to our primary source materials through our digital archive and onsite collections. We engage the community by hosting free public events, a local history lecture series and ongoing exhibits. We disseminate local history through regular local history tweets, opens a new window and our local history e-newsletter, opens a new window where each week, an interesting facet of Marin County history is profiled. We expand our outreach through partnerships with other organizations including the Online Archive of California, Calisphere, opens a new window and the California Digital Newspaper Collection, opens a new window.
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.
Our 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.
Our website and digital archive can be accessed at marinlibrary.org/california-room.
Contact Us
Please contact the California Room to arrange an in-person appointment, for research assistance, donation inquiries, and other local history and genealogy questions. Visit our digital collection online 24/7.
Anne T. Kent California Room
at the Civic Center Library
3501 Civic Center Drive, Room 427
San Rafael, CA 94903
Please email to schedule a visit
or discuss a research project.
CAROL ACQUAVIVA
Librarian & Archivist
californiaroom@marincounty.org
JENNIFER CHRISTENSEN
Librarian & Digital Archivist
californiaroom@marincounty.org
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Local history articles written by California Room staff and guest authors.
