Sutro Library

Adolph Sutro's collection of 90K vols of rare books & 100,000 pamphlets given to the @CAStateLibrary for the edification of all

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October 12-16 is National School Lunch Week and we found a book from the 1860s,
Practical dietary for families, schools, and the labouring classes

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Shelf Life is here! Take DIY to a whole new level with oak galls. To make iron gall ink, the type of ink used to sign the Declaration of Independence, you would need to find some oak galls in trees. Oak galls are rounded structures that grow on oak trees because of wasps

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Sailing the seven seas this Talk Like a Pirate Day? A good seadog needs a map, and this world map from the treasure chest at Sutro Library will help yer navigations

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Observe the moon tonight with this Observatory Atlas from our collection.

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It’s 9/16, repping the Sacramento area code! But before area codes, we had telegraph codes, as found in this 1871 copy of Bolton’s Telegraph code held at our Sutro Library.

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This episode of Shelf Life takes us to México in the 1600s with a manuscript in the Nahuatl language on āmatl paper. From our Sutro Collection. @SutroLibrary

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Sept. 6 is Read a Book Day! You may need a magnifying glass to read these tiny books from our Sutro Library Collection, or you can just admire them in their spinning carousel.

Video description: custom made wood book carousel w/ 2 shelves of red bound books, about 3 inches tall

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Sept. 6 is National Beard Day, and this item from our collection displays quite a beard! The original British pamphlet was published in 1921 but we have the 1986 republished edition.

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Today we lost a feminist icon, Gloria Steinem. Here in our Sutro Library collections are some trade cards created by the Ms. Foundation, which was co-founded by Steinem. In 1994 the trading card was part of the promotional push during the event.

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Aug 26 has been designated Women's Equality Day and this registration book from the woman suffrage headquarters in NY is the perfect item to celebrate this day. While being an important historical item, it's also a treasure trove for genealogists. It spans from 1909 to 1917.

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The best season of all: Virgo Season (the social media staffer is a Virgo, so there's some bias) This earth sign started as The Furrow with Barley Stalk in ancient Mesopotamia & changed into the Maiden when the zodiac was invented. It's associated with fertility & harvest

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This one's for the birds!  A little bird told us that Sutro Library had a spectacular book about pigeons that we just HAD to feature in a Shelf Life episode. Do you have a favorite? @SutroLibrary

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Get ready for today’s eclipse with this 1873 book on the moon from our collection.

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The Book of Cats: a chit-chat chronicle of feline facts and fancies, legendary, lyrical, medical, mirthful and miscellaneous by Charles Ross is a purrfect find from Sutro Library to honor #InternationalCatDay 😸

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Are you in your feels — World Cup over, autumn still so far away? Add this 1954 doo-wop single 'I Cried' by the Velvets to your playlist. This red record from Red Robin Records is part of our collection.

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Summer views, make us feel fine! Here’s a little nostalgia this summer with a View Master, complete with 3 cardboard reels featuring Donald Duck, Chip and Dale and Uncle Scrooge

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Some more of our favorite things! Kappa of Chi Phi Dance Card collection, 1896-1929. Steenalisa shares that "although each of these cards is special, this one is my favorite because of the inscription written in pencil on the first page, presumably by the owner of the card.

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Sometimes the treasures in our collection aren't the ones that are the rarest or the most beautiful, but rather we connect with them in some personal way. This is our new series Some of Our Favorite Things, enjoy! #lakeplacid #adirondacks #someofourfavoritethings #libraries

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Shelf Life pages through history with this 1776 edition of Common Sense by Thomas Paine from our Sutro Library.

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Customs House following an incident earlier in the day with a colonist and a soldier. Colonists taunted and threw objects at the British soldiers, who fired into the crowd killing Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks immediately. Samuel Maverick died the next morning

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Our Sutro Library collection houses some real gems of American history, like this 1776 newspaper with engravings by Paul Revere that describes the Boston Massacre. Note that each coffin included the initials of one of the fatalities of the massacre.