Oakland History Room of the Main Library

Oakland History Room of the Main Library

125 14th Street 2nd Floor, Oakland, CA 94612				(510) 238-3222
Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1:00- 5:00	10:00-5:30	10:00-5:30	12:00-8:00	12:00-8:00	12:00-5:30	10:00-5:30

The Oakland History Room is an important center for 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, including books, magazines, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, photographs, postcards, sheet music, trade catalogs, and scrapbooks.

Previous Exhibit Descriptions

Upcoming Exhibit:

Educating Oakland: The history of the Oakland Public Schools, 1852-1982

Exhibit runs January 1 - March 31, 2011

Download the official exhibit flyer

Click here to view historic images of Oakland

Materials Include:

Biographical and genealogical sources:

Oakland city directories, 1869-1943
Alameda County voter registers, 1867-1944
California county histories
Oakland birth and death certificates, 1870-1904
A locally generated index of personal names
Click here for more information on family history and genealogical resources.

Images of Oakland, Emeryville and Piedmont:

Photographic prints of Oakland's neighborhoods, buildings, houses, people, etc. from the 1854 to the present
Postcards from 1900 to the present
Oakland Tribune yearbooks, 1911-1949
Published pictorial works, 1876 to the present

Unique collections on local authors:

A Jack London research collection
Papers of Joaquin & Juanita Miller, Ina Coolbrith and others
A collection of rare, small-press editions by local writers

Sources for researching Oakland's houses and other buildings, including:

Tax Assessor's block books for the City of Oakland proper, 1877-1925
A scattered set of Sanborn fire insurance maps of various periods between 1882 and 1951
The published portion of the Oakland Cultural Heritage Survey

Primary materials related to arts and culture, including:

Theater and concert programs, 1880 to the present
Original programs from local fairs and festivals

Sports memorabilia:

A collection of early photographs of local boxers
Yearbooks, media guides, championship programs and books about the city's three major professional teams
Yearbooks of the local high schools

Sources for the study of local history, including:

A locally generated subject index to articles in books and magazines
Newspaper clippings files and indexes to 19th-century Oakland newspapers and to the Oakland Tribune beginning in 1978
An index to historic African-American newspapers
Historic documents and published materials from local government agencies and the Oakland Unified School District

Please check the library's online catalog to check the availability of specific items. Materials in the Oakland History Room do not circulate.

Services include:

Assistance by mail:

Reference librarians in the Oakland History Room are able to provide limited research by mail, including the retrieval of birth and death certificates issued from 1876-1904. For birth and death certificates, please enclose a payment of the amount currently listed in the fees table, per request, payable to the Oakland Public Library, provide the date of death and the person's name, and a self-addressed stamped envelope and send your requests to:

Oakland History Room
Oakland Public Library
125 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612-4319

Each search is limited to about 1/2 hour of staff time and 10 photocopied pages.

For copies of obituaries or death notices, please contact the Magazine & Newspaper Room at (510) 238-3176 for information.

Assistance by email:

Questions relative to Oakland's history are eagerly accepted over the Internet at the Oakland Public Library's Information Center.