The collection comprises a wide variety of ephemera pertaining to printing practice, culture, and history in the Western Hemisphere. Dating from 1802 to 2013, the collection includes ephemera created by or relating to booksellers, printers, lithographers, stationers, engravers, publishers, type designers, book designers, bookbinders, artists, illustrators, typographers, librarians, newspaper editors, and book collectors; bookselling and bookstores, including new, used, rare and antiquarian books; printing, printing presses, printing history, and printing equipment and supplies; lithography; type and type-founding; bookbinding; newspaper publishing; and graphic design. Types of ephemera include advertisements, announcements, annual reports, brochures, clippings, invitations, trade catalogs, newspapers, programs, promotional materials, prospectuses, broadsides, greeting cards, bookmarks, fliers, business cards, pamphlets, newsletters, price lists, bookplates, periodicals, posters, receipts, obituaries, direct mail advertising, book catalogs, and type specimens. Materials printed by members of Moxon Chappel, a San Francisco-area group of private press printers, are extensive.

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of Library and Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Consent is given on behalf of the California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates: https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/