Collections

The Sacramento Public Library History Collection

The library in Sacramento is closely tied to the history of the city and county. Founded in 1857 for subscribers only, it continues to survive and serves its public as a free resource.

The Sacramento Public Library History Collection chronicles the functions and activities of the library. Contents of the collection include scrapbooks and photographs of the buildings and staff, ledgers showing accounts and statistics, realia, and memos and press releases.

Over the years, library staff has assembled a treasure trove of nostalgia. Among these items is the "time capsule" entombed in the cornerstone of the 1918 Carnegie Library building. The copper box and its contents, including coins, a train schedule, and a quill pen, now reside in the Sacramento Room vault.

Although Melvil Dewey invented the Dewey Decimal System of Classification in 1873 and first published it in 1876, it did not come into universal usage until much later. In 1898 an aid to finding books in the Sacramento Public Library was awarded a medal at the World's Columbian Exposition. The medal was one of the items included in the cornerstone time capsule.