Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Anne T. Kent California Room Collection
Consult repository  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Project Information
  • Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Anne T. Kent California Room Collection
    Dates: c.1875-Present
    Bulk Dates: 1885-Present
    Collection number: Consult repository
    Collector: Marin County Free Library
    Collector: Anne T. Kent California Room
    Collection Size: Approx. 10,000 books; 9,000 photographs; 400 oral histories; 500 maps; 225 linear feet of documents, clippings & ephemera. 900 online items
    Repository: Marin County Free Library
    San Rafael, California, 94903
    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.
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    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.

    Acquisition Information

    Collected by the Anne T. Kent California Room, 1935-present.

    Project 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.

    Administrative History

    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.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    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.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection.

    Names

    Bradley, Ernest
    Butler, George E., 1943-
    California Motion Picture Corporation
    California State Prison at San Quentin
    California State Prison at San Quentin--Little Olympics
    College of Marin
    College of San Rafael
    Holohan, James B.
    Howitt Family
    Johnson, Ben, 1853?-1904
    Johnston, James A., 1874-
    Kent Family
    Kent, Albert Emmett, 1890-1933
    Kent, Albert Emmett, 1830-1901
    Kent, Anne Thompson
    Kent, Elizabeth Thacher, 1868-1952
    Kent, Thomas
    Kent, Thomas T., 1892-
    Kent, William, 1864-1928
    Marin County Free Library
    Mission San Rafael Arcangel
    Mount Tamalpais Military Academy (San Rafael, Calif.)
    Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railroad Co.
    North Pacific Coast Railroad Company
    North Shore Railroad
    Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company
    Olympic Club (San Francisco, Calif.)
    Pinchot, Gifford, 1865-1946
    San Francisco Presbyterian Orphanage
    Stanley, Leo L. (Leo Leonidas), 1886-1976
    Sunny Hills Children's Garden
    Tamalpais Centre
    Taylor, Samuel Penfield, 1827-1886
    Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959

    Places

    Angel Island (Calif.)
    Belvedere (Calif.)
    Bear Valley (Marin County, Calif.)
    Bolinas (Calif.)
    China Camp
    Corte Madera (Calif.)
    Fairfax (Calif.)
    Greenbrae (Calif.)
    Kentfield (Calif.)
    Lagunitas (Calif.)
    Larkspur (Calif.)
    Marin City (Calif.)
    Marin County (Calif.)
    Mill Valley (Calif.)
    Muir Woods (Calif.)
    Novato (Calif.)
    Olema (Calif.)
    Point Reyes National Seashore (Calif.)
    Point Reyes Station (Calif.)
    Ross (Calif.)
    San Anselmo (Calif.)
    San Francisco (Calif.)
    San Quentin (Calif.)
    San Rafael (Calif.)
    Santa Venetia (Calif.)
    Sausalito (Calif.)
    Stinson Beach (Calif.)
    Tamalpais, Mount (Calif.)
    Taylorville (Calif.)
    Tiburon (Calif.)
    West Marin (Calif.)

    Topics

    Agriculture
    Architecture
    Athletes
    Athletic clubs
    Boxers
    Buildings--Earthquake effects
    Businesses
    Camping
    Children playing outdoors, 1900-1910
    Clubs and Organizations
    Community Centers--California
    Conservation
    Crime and Criminals
    Cross-dressers
    Dairy Industry
    Earthquakes
    Exhibitions
    Ferries
    Golden Gate Bridge
    Grape Festival--Marin County (Calif.)
    Hamilton Air Force Base (Calif.)
    Highways
    Historic Homes and Buildings
    Libraries
    May Day
    Mountain Play
    Mt. Tamalpais
    Moving Pictures
    Oral Histories
    Parks
    Pistol shooting
    Prisoners
    Recreation
    San Francisco Earthquake, Calif., 1906
    Resorts
    Ranching
    Ranches
    Railroads
    Schools
    Tourism
    Track and field
    Transportation

    Genres and Forms of Materials

    Maps
    Books
    Clippings
    Ephemera
    Glass negatives
    Illustrations
    Letters (correspondence)
    Manuscripts
    Maps
    Pamphlets
    Photograph albums
    Photographic postcard
    Photographs
    Postcards
    Posters
    Programs
    Scrapbooks