Tower Records

VIDEO SERIES

UNLOCKING THE PAST: EXPLORING RACISM IN SACRAMENTO

The Center for Sacramento History's video series "Unlocking the Past: Exploring Racism in Sacramento" focuses on the history of systemic racism in the Sacramento region in order to provide a historical context for the issues that affect our community today. The goal with these short films is to tell stories from the region in a more complete and honest way, and to face and examine discrimination while acknowledging its long-term effects on our communities.

The films are produced by the Center and local filmmakers using film footage, photographs, and archival material from the Center’s collections, along with interviews with national and local scholars, and people from the community telling their own stories. The series received the 2023 Leadership in History Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History.

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2010-036-298

DOCUMENTING INEQUALITY

NATHANIEL COLLEY

In October 2010, the Center for Sacramento History received the Nathaniel S. and Jerlean J. Colley Papers from the Colley family. Nathaniel “Nat” Colley opened his law practice in Sacramento in 1949, then the city’s only African American attorney. His legal career and leadership within the NAACP saw him engaged in civil rights cases involving fair employment practices, fair housing, and equitable school funding in California. The collection documents the legal and civic activities of Nathaniel Colley and is primarily comprised of speeches, statements, editorials, and publications. The finding aid, or guide, provides a complete description of the collection, some of which is available for viewing in an online exhibit titled, The Time is Now: The Civic Life of Sacramento’s Nathaniel Colley.

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COLLECTIONS

The Center houses archival, photograph, film, audio, and artifact collections that tell the history of the Sacramento region. We are the official archives and research center for historical government records from the City of Sacramento and Sacramento County.

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PHOTOGRAPHS

We have millions of images in a variety of formats, from daguerreotypes to digital. Our largest photo collections come from the Sacramento Bee and local photographers who documented Sacramento over the decades.

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FILM FOOTAGE

Our film collection is made up of millions of feet of film, and includes news footage from KCRA and KOVR TV stations, film from local production companies, and family home movies.

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OBJECTS

The object collection features tens of thousands of items documenting the cultural, social, and political history of the Sacramento region. It includes everything from clothing and furniture to neon signs and a 19th-century jail cell.

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Four H Club - Courtland
GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

Archival collections include City of Sacramento and Sacramento County government and court records dating back to 1849.

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NBC Newscaster Howard Bailey
Audio

Our recorded sound collections include oral histories, radio broadcasts and transcriptions, local music, and public meetings.

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MAPS

A majority of maps are focused on Sacramento, Sacramento County, and the towns within Sacramento County, and were created by government agencies or developers. 

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FILM IS TIME TRAVEL

THE CENTER FOR SACRAMENTO HISTORY’S FILM ARCHIVES

Containing over 15 million feet of 16mm news film and video, the KCRA-TV and KOVR-TV film collection documents the work of Sacramento's two largest continuously operating television stations from 1957-1982. The collection has been licensed for use in countless documentaries, television productions and motion pictures all over the world. Other major collections include local features and advertising, family home movies, and multi-media art.

ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS

NEON SIGNS FROM OUR COLLECTION LIGHT UP THE ARENA

Thanks to a partnership between the Center and the Sacramento Kings, six neon signs from our collection now hang in the plaza-level concourse of the Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento.

When planning for the new arena started in 2014, the Kings approached the Center to investigate borrowing signs for display.  After reviewing our collection of seventeen neon signs, the Kings and staff selected six.  The selected signs represent Sacramento businesses from the 1930s through the early 2000s. They include Coronet Portraits, Franke’s Drugs, Newbert Hardware, Shakeys Pizza, Sleeper Stamp and Stationery and Tower Records.  Like most of the objects in our collection, these signs were donated to the Center. While we have been collecting artifacts since the late 1960s, these signs came to us from the early 1990s through 2009. Some were donated by the owners when their business closed. Others stayed attached to the building and came to the Center when a new owner or business moved in. 

 

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NEW FINDING AIDS ONLINE

We have hundreds of archival collections, and we're making a push to upload finding aids for them to the Online Archive of California. This will make it easier to discover what we have in our repository, further opening up access to our collections for research. New finding aids are being added all the time. Check them out, and check back often!

 

 

NEW FINDING AIDS ONLINE

The Historic Environment Consultants collection was recently processed and its finding aid added to our Online Archive of California page. The group was founded in Sacramento in 1977 by architectural historian Paula Boghosian, who has been the principal consultant for the life of the company. The firm has helped preserve historical buildings, districts, and cultural resources throughout the state, but mainly focused on Sacramento and the Sacramento area.

 

 

NEW FINDING AIDS ONLINE

The Linda Birner Mom Guess What collection was recently processed and its finding aid added to our Online Archive of California page. The collection documents the founder of Mom Guess What newspaper, Linda Birner's, interest in spreading information about the LGBT community in Sacramento during the 1970s through the 2020s.