Our Mission
The Oakland History Center Friends (OHCF) supports the work of the Oakland History Center (OHC) staff by providing financial support and technical assistance; helping with community outreach and program facilitation; and locating and preserving historic documents to add to the OHC collection. The Friends’ membership includes civil servants, writers, historic preservationists, librarians, educators, and lay historians.
The Oakland Public Library has maintained an archival history collection for over 100 years. Since 1951, the Oakland History Center has been an integral part of the Oakland Main Library. Like the OHC staff, the OHC Friends work to make Oakland history accessible to everyone today and well into the future. Please consider joining us in support of this important community resource!
Advocacy
The Oakland History Center Friends supports the work of the Oakland History Center by promoting its programs, collections, and services at community events, conferences, community meetings, and in the media.
Recent Projects
Over the past few years the OHC Friends have financed OHC’s digitization projects; inventoried archival collections; cataloged historic Oakland tract maps; identified East Bay landmarks on vintage aerial photographs; and facilitate OHC’s History Diorama event and the annual Fall History Series.
Community Partners
Our work is supported by a network of lay historians, planning professionals, historical societies, preservation organizations, and general public in the East Bay. We collaborate to sponsor lectures, host informational fairs, provide volunteer opportunities to students, and share information and material resources about Oakland’s history.
“I started getting curious about these old buildings and the old architecture and started going to the History Room to research it, and so many episodes of East Bay Yesterday are based on those random explorations.”
— Liam O’Donoghue, podcaster/local historian
Contact
Fill out the form to the right if you have questions about what we do and how you might help! To become a member of the OHC Friends, click here.
Email
oaklandhistorycenterfriends@gmail.com