Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library

The Anne T. Kent California Room is an archive dedicated to collecting and preserving information on local, regional, and state history with a strong emphasis on the history and culture of Marin County. Resources include photographs, oral histories, biography files, maps, books, directories, voter registers, local newspaper clippings, documents and ephemera.  We are currently in the process of digitizing our large collection of primary source materials. Visit our Digital Archive at http://contentdm.marinlibrary.org

 

History

In the early 1930s, County Librarian, Virginia Keating, started what was to become the California Room with a small collection of books kept in a locked case in the basement of the old Marin County Courthouse in San Rafael (the first home of the Marin County Free Library). Because so little had been written on Marin County history, Mrs. Keating also began collecting ephemera, photographs and other primary sources.

The California Room is named after Anne T. Kent, who, in the 1920s, was instrumental in establishing the Marin County Free Library System and in 1974, with Carla Ehat, pioneered the California Room oral history program.

Since 1962, the collection has been housed in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin County Civic Center.

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Phone: (415) 473-7419