Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center

Regional History
The Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center (SAMCC) exists to foster, stimulate, and promote the study and appreciation of Sacramento's regional history. Jointly funded by the City and the County, it serves the community by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and providing access to the documentary and material culture of the area.

SAMCC is the repository and research center for City and County historic collections. These collections reflect the many aspects of local history and are organized into three major areas: domestic, commercial, and government. Within these areas the holdings consist of the official records of City and County government, personal manuscript collections, business records, photographs, and artifacts.

Public Records Collections
SAMCC's government collections date from 1849 and provide the researcher with the most complete set of local public records of any archives in the state. For example, SAMCC has the City Council Minutes, City Clerk records, County Board of Supervisors Minutes, County Recorder records, Superior Court Cases, Probate records, City and County Assessment records, and much more.

Private Collections
SAMCC's private collections are extensive and comprise the papers or manuscripts of individuals, businesses, and organizations. Our largest private collection, donated by Eleanor McClatchy, contains materials that document the gold rush, the theater, and the history of printing. The Hazel Pendleton Papers is a collection of letters, journals, photographs, and other materials chronicling family life in Sacramento from 1854 through 1968. Business collections include records from the Natomas Company, the California Almond Growers Exchange, and Weinstock-Lubin. These comprehensive business collections represent the development of agriculture, mining, reclamation, and the retail sales industry in the Sacramento region. Collections reflecting organizations include the American Association of University Women and the Tuesday Club, both which record the development of women's clubs in the Sacramento area.

Millions of Photographs and Millions of Feet of Film
SAMCC's three million photographs are regional to Sacramento and range from Daguerreotypes of the Gold Rush era in the 1850s to contemporary prints of local families and scenes. Large photograph collections include the Sacramento Bee newspaper "morgue," the Eugene Hepting Collection of City and County images (1920s-1960s), and the Michael Benning Collection of local school class portraits (1920s-1950s). The KCRA Film Collection contains news stories by the Sacramento NBC affiliate from 1958 through 1982. Footage from the 9 million foot collection has been used in documentaries aired on Public Television, private cable stations, and film festivals.

Artifacts
SAMCC's artifact collections are as varied as the people who have lived and worked in the Sacramento region. To document daily life in Sacramento, SAMCC stores a variety of household items, furniture, toys, quilts, and costumes. The working life of Sacramentans, from farmers to clerks to miners, is represented in farm tools, office equipment, and dredging machinery. Other artifacts include: one of the first fax machines, the neon sign from the Rosemount Grill, and a railing from the Alhambra Theater. The public can see artifacts from SAMCC's collections featured at the Discovery Museum in Old Sacramento. The museum has regularly changing exhibits which draw on SAMCC's collections.

Open to the Public
SAMCC is a public facility and its collections are available to the community for research by appointment. SAMCC staff is ready to assist all its researchers, including historians, authors, film makers, genealogists, students, resource managers, publishers, and employees of City and County agencies.

Facts About SAMCC (pronounced "Sam-See")
SAMCC's storage area contains more than 5.5 miles of movable shelving. Ten thousand linear feet of archival records are stored on the movable shelving. Twenty thousand square feet of space house the museum artifacts. The storage area is environmentally controlled, has a dual security system and a fire suppression system. SAMCC is administered by the City of Sacramento, History and Science Division, and is jointly funded by both the City and the County of Sacramento.

Volunteer Program
SAMCC's volunteers help preserve the documentary and material culture of Sacramento by operating a woodworking shop, a photographic lab, a film lab, and by assisting with processing collections. Volunteers are SAMCC's most valuable resource; if it were not for the volunteers and student interns, SAMCC's doors would close. If you are interested in working in a friendly and interesting environment, sign up today!

Sacramento Archives & Museum Collection Center
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.
Sacramento, CA. 95814
(3 blocks east of Interstate 5 at the Richards Blvd. exit)

Administration hours: 8:00am to 5:00pm, Mon- Fri
(closed 12:00-1:00pm)

Research by appointment:
Tuesday 1:00 to 4:30pm
Wednesday 4:00 to 7:45pm
Thursday and Friday 8:15am to noon

Call 916-264-7072 to make an appointment

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updated 1/31/00
feedback to Site Administrator Linda Taylor