About Us
Mission
The Lucretia Little History Room is dedicated to illuminating the unique and vibrant history of Mill Valley and making this history accessible to everyone. We accomplish this by collecting, preserving, and promoting materials of enduring value pertaining to all people, places, and events associated with Mill Valley and a few select nearby areas, including Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods.
Our Holdings
The Lucretia Little History Room has a rich collection documenting Mill Valley's people and places spanning more than a century. These records contain primary source materials, including photographs, correspondence, maps, scrapbooks, personal papers, newspapers, yearbooks, directories, City records, and more! Significant collections include the Mill Valley Film Festival Collection, the West Point Inn Collection, the Tamalpais High School Alumni Association Collection, the Jeanie Patterson Papers which document the history of the Sweetwater music venue (1979-1999), and the Dipsea Race Collection.
We encourage you to explore our processed collections via the Online Archive of California.
Our collection is always growing and we welcome your donations. We strive to build intentional collections that recognize, value, and embrace Mill Valley's diverse experiences and multiple identities. In doing so, we seek to document the full diversity of voices and cultures that have shaped the City's history.
We encourage you to read our Collection Development Policy and review our Deed of Gift Form prior to donating material.
Instruction
In keeping with the educational mission of the Mill Valley Public Library, History Room staff offers class presentations to introduce students to our holdings and services and identifies material suitable for course assignments or research topics. We invite instructors to reach out to us to coordinate. With prior notification, staff can tailor an orientation or presentation to the subject and objectives of a specific course and/or assignment. Our aim is to make local history and primary sources accessible, relevant, educational, and approachable.
We also offer workshops on preserving family history and conducting genealogical research and will provide speakers to historical societies, local organizations, and other groups interested in archival research. To schedule a workshop, please contact the History Room at hist@cityofmillvalley.org.