We've Got Your History
Berkeley History Room
2nd floor Central Library
2090 Kittredge St. at Shattuck
Berkeley, CA 94704
510-981-6212
Open Sat 1-5 pm and other hours by appointment
After hours call 510-981-6148
Although the Library has long collected books on Berkeley, the Berkeley History Room provides a space dedicated to an expanded collection of historical materials, sure to be of interest to genealogists, researchers, students, scholars, and especially the historically curious. The Berkeley History Room is open Saturdays, 1:00-5:00 pm and by appointment during normal Library business hours. Individual items may be paged from the History Room any time the library is open. Please call or visit the Central Reference desk for paging from the History Room collection or to schedule an appointment with History Room staff. (510) 981-6148.
Berkeley History Online
Berkeley History Online is a subsection of the very large, statewide Online Archive of California. It includes images of Berkeley from the 1870s through the1990s.
Available in the Berkeley History Room
- A near-complete set of Berkeley High's Olla Podrida
- Oakland-Berkeley city directories - 1892 to 1943
- Local telephone directories - 1943 to the present
- Berkeley City Council minutes back to 1930
- Berkeley Daily Gazette on microfilm from 1894 to 1983
- Blue and Gold yearbooks from the University of California
- Berkeley Sanborn maps - in print, on microfilm, and soon online
- Near-complete runs of some hard-to-find local publications, including the Berkeley Barb, Tribe, Berkeley Insider, City Miner, Berkeley Viewpoint, Berkeley Samisdat Review, and the CNA Newsletter
- Oral histories, city documents, local maps, brochures, pamphlets, postcards, photographs, and videos
- Clipping files - The Berkeley History Room newspaper clipping file contains flyers, brochures and articles from local newspapers about people, politics, businesses, organizations, and events in Berkeley, arranged under some 1,500 subject headings. Download a list of clipping files subject headings
. The entire file is 80 linear feet. The oldest material dates from the 1920s, but most of it is from the 1970s to the present. No newspaper articles were added after December 31, 2006.
Contents of the files can be photocopied. For electronic access to recent newspaper articles see Local Newspapers Available Online. - The Library's own publications, including "Fiction Set in Berkeley" and an index to the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association's calendars
- The War File - clippings and pamphlets on Berkeley in World War II
- The Swingle Collection - books, promotional circulars and broadsides, photographs and photographic negatives, ephemeral items and manuscript materials on the history and life of Berkeley from 1842 to 1942
- Berkeley Alumni Association Archives (Berkeley Public Schools, not UC Berkeley)
- Berkeley Junior Traffic Police Archives, 1936 - 1968
Further Information on Berkeley's History
- Bancroft Library, University of California
- Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
- Berkeley Historical Society and Museum
- California Historical Society
- Calisphere - primary source material on California history
- Library of Congress - American Memory Project
- Oakland History Room, Oakland Public Library
- Wikipedia Entry for Berkeley, California