The Bay Area is home to many colleges, universities, and cultural heritage institutions that have special collections and archives available for public use. While many institutions provide access to some content online, there is often more to be discovered when visiting these institutions in person.
When visiting any archive or special collection, make sure that you are prepared by following these guidelines:
The Bancroft Library is the primary special collections library at the University of California, Berkeley. One of the largest and most heavily used libraries of manuscripts, rare books, and unique materials in the United States, Bancroft supports major research and instructional activities and plays a leading role in the development of the University's research collections.
The library collection includes more than 4 million titles, 6,000 maps, and 250,000 photographs. It has an extensive collection of documents from and about the state’s rich history and is one of the major genealogical reference libraries on the West Coast. It also holds significant collections from Mexico, the United Kingdom and Europe, with manuscripts dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries. The State Library is both a State and Federal Depository Library, providing free and open access to government information, and is a U.S. Patent and Trademark Resource Center.
The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings as well as print materials dating primarily from the late-1960s to the mid-90s. These collections chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements for liberation and social justice.
The Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives & Special Collections of the GLBT Historical Society are among the largest and most extensive holdings in the world of materials pertaining to LGBTQ people, occupying more than 3,500 linear feet of storage. Broadly speaking, our over 900 discrete collections fall into four main areas: archives, periodicals, oral histories, and arts & artifacts.
Buttons from the GLBT Historical Society’s ephemera collection, accessed 22 February 2022.
Founded in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, the library and archives are among the world’s most important repositories for unique archival materials and rare publications on political, social, and economic change in the modern era. Located at Stanford University, the Library has particularly strong holdings on the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union, Russian emigres, the world wars, the Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and political and ideological movements of the 20th century.
December 8, 1938 cover of the Palo Alto Times announcing the funding of the Hoover War Library, accessed 22 February 2022.
Holds the permanent records created by Federal agencies and courts of Northern and Central California, Nevada (except Clark County), Hawaii, U.S. Navy bases on foreign territory in the Pacific and Far East, American Samoa, Guam, and the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
"No. 1. Effect of earthquake on houses built on loose or made ground." (ARC ID 2127357); Records of the United States Senate; Record Group 46; National Archives, accessed 24 February 2022.
The Oakland History Center, located on the second floor of the Oakland Public Library's Main Branch, is an important center for the study of the history and current development of the East Bay. Its collection contains a wide variety of materials relating to the history of Oakland and the larger Bay Area.
The first Main Library building, at its second location, 14th St and Washington. Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Center, accessed 24 February 2022.
Formed in 1964 as the Californiana Collection, the current San Francisco History Center holds a comprehensive, non-circulating research collection covering all aspects of San Francisco history (and, to a lesser extent, California and Western history) from the time of the area's earliest habitation to the present day.
The San Francisco History Center contains a wealth of primary and secondary source materials in print, manuscript, audio-visual, and digital formats. These include books, periodicals, pamphlets, ephemera; newspapers and news clippings; maps; photographs and slides; microfilm and fiche, videos, DVDs, and recordings; posters and broadsides; archives and manuscripts, scrapbooks, oral histories; realia.
Main Library 1917, 1918. San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, accessed 24 February 2022.
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