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In the late 19th century and early 20th century, local newspapers produced special editions outlining the beauty and industry of Marin County, to attract people to buy property in the sleepy, bucolic peninsula across the Golden Gate from the metropolis of San Francisco. These richly illustrated issues were sent across California and all the way to the East Coast The Marin Journal printed this effusive description of their October 1887 Illustrated Edition: “One of the best special editions of country newspapers we have seen is the illustrated edition of the Marin County Journal, just issued. It is a folio of over fifty pages, containing an admirable map of the county, with descriptions of all its chief towns, its leading productions, scenic features and recent progress, with a large number of excellent illustrations of the attractions of a county that is second to none in the State in picturesqueness. After a sketch of the history of the county the various locations are taken up and fully described, with the homes of many San Franciscans who have had the good taste to select the more accessible parts of the county for their suburban villas. There is a mass of information here in regard to the products of the county, and anyone who has regarded Marin as purely a dairy county will be surprised to learn of the advance recently made in planting vineyards and orchards.” The Marin Journal published another “New Era” Edition in 1909, and the San Francisco Chronicle published their own 24-page tribute to Marin County in 1923. The Marin History Museum is fortunate to have all three of these in its collection, and we have recently scanned them and made them available for searching and browsing at https://archive.org/details/@marinhistory. I am assessing the rest of our unique newspaper collection to find other copyright-free content to share with the world, so stay tuned! |
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