Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, c.1875-Present, bulk 1885-Present

Online content

Collection context

Summary

Creators:
Marin County Free Library and Anne T. Kent California Room
Abstract:
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. Special collections include: The Dr. Leo Stanley Collection on San Quentin Prison; The Stinson Family Collection; The Kent Family Collection; Frank Lloyd Wright and the Marin County Civic Center; Mountain Play Collection; California Motion Picture Corporation Collection.
Extent:
Approx. 10,000 books; 9,000 photographs; 400 oral histories; 500 maps; 225 linear feet of documents, clippings & ephemera. 900 online items
Language:
Languages represented in the collection: English
Preferred citation:

Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library, San Rafael, California.

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Special Collections:

  • The Dr. Leo Stanley Collection on San Quentin Prison: Personal journals, travel diaries, manuscripts, prison records, medical papers, photographs, clippings, and ephemera. Dr. Stanley was the prison doctor at San Quentin Prison from 1913 to 1951.
  • The Stinson Family Collection: Papers focus on the family's property holdings at Bolinas and Stinson Beach. Family photograph albums include views of the Stinson Beach area.
  • The Kent Family Collection: Photographs & ephemera pertaining to the Kent Family who settled in Marin County in 1871 and who had extensive land holdings in the Ross Valley and the Mt. Tamalpais area. Also, papers and writings of Congressman, William Kent, and his wife, Elizabeth Thatcher Kent, who donated the land which became Muir Woods National Monument to the federal government in 1908.
  • Frank Lloyd Wright & the Marin County Civic Center: Books, documents and photographs on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, with a special emphasis on the Marin County Civic Center.
  • Mountain Play Collection: Mountain Play Association scrapbooks, 1913-1972; Mountain Play Association minutes, 1914-1957; clipping files; photographs; ephemera. An annual Mountain Play has been performed on Mt. Tamalpais since 1913.
  • California Motion Picture Corporation: 99 glass plate negatives of stills; photograph albums belonging to actor, George Skaff; clippings; ephemera. The California Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC) was located in the Sun Valley neighborhood of San Rafael, Marin County, 1914 - 1921. The studio produced 15 feature-length silent films, most of which were lost in a 1931 vault explosion.

Biographical / historical:

The Anne T. Kent California Room was created by Marin County Librarian, Virginia Keating, in the mid-1930s.

The 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, established the California Room oral history program.

Since 1962, the California Room has been housed in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin County Civic Center, with materials relating to the Civic Center, forming one of its special collections.

Acquisition information:
Collected by the Anne T. Kent California Room, 1935-present.
Processing information:

260 (of the approx. 900) items on the Online Archive of California and Calisphere were digitized from the Kent Family and the Dr. Leo Stanley Collections of the Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library, as part of a one-year project funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), administered in California by the State Librarian, from July 2005 through June 2006, in order to provide an additional access point to primary graphic resources documenting the history of Marin County. Over the course of the grant year, 200 photographs were digitized by Northern Micrographics and 60 were digitized by the Anne T. Kent California Room. Metadata was created for these images by the California Room staff using CONTENTdm software provided by the grant. In addition, the grant funded the purchase of an Epson Perfection 4990 scanner; an Epson Stylus Photo R800 ink jet printer; and archival polyester sleeves and preservation enclosures for 5000 loose photographs.

Digitized materials on the history of Marin County and Northern California, including a portion of our oral history collection, can also be accessed on the Anne T. Kent California Room Digital Archive at californiaroom.marinlibrary.org.

Topics covered in the digital archives include: The 1906 Earthquake and Fire; Bear Valley Country Club (Pt. Reyes), c.1893-1895; Bear Valley Ranch (Pt. Reyes), 1940s; Bill Shannon's Villa, San Rafael, c.1895-1918; California Motion Picture Corporation, c.1914-1918; Camp Taylor (Samuel P. Taylor Park), 1889; Frank Lloyd Wright & the Marin County Civic Center; Golden Gate Bridge Construction, 1933-1937; Kentfield: Charles Bach Collection, c.1895-1930; Kentfield: Kent Family Collection, c.1880-1930; Marin County Free Library, 1927-Present; Marin County: Lothers & Young Collection, 1920s; The Mountain Play (Mount Tamalpais), 1913-1972; Muir Woods National Monument: Kent Family Collection, c.1908-1925; Marin County Railroads, c.1875-1941; San Quentin Prison: Dr. Leo Stanley Collection, c.1910-1930; San Rafael Illustrated & Described, 1884; San Rafael & Marin: Howitt Family Collection, 1913-1914.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with the Marin County Free Library. Literary rights are generally retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce, please contact the Anne T. Kent California Room Librarian.

Preferred citation:

Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library, San Rafael, California.

Location of this collection:
3501 Civic Center Drive, Room 427
San Rafael, CA 94903, US
Contact:
(415) 473-7419