Stamp That Tax

From British Colonial days to America’s Civil War, governments foreign and domestic used stamps to levy taxes.

Marin’s Past is Always Present

Marin’s pioneer Sais family left their names behind in Fairfax and San Anselmo streets.

The Greening of Marin

In the 1800s, the Irish flocked to the United States to earn a living and worship in peace. As new citizens, they contributed much to America and Northern California.

Voter Fraud!

Voter fraud and the murder of James King of William launched San Francisco’s second Committee of Vigilance in 1856.

Marin Magazine Features the Black Family

Marin Magazine article features Marriage, Murder, and Betrayal in Nineteenth-Century California.

The Ducks are Cackling in the Pond

FIRE! When flames consumed the city of San Francisco, the 1851 Committee of Vigilance fought fire with violence.

This Land is MY Land.

Diseños were hand-drawn maps confirming ownership of Mexican land grants in the mid-1800s. Farming and cattle empires grew and shrank as Marin pioneers bought, sold, and traded diseño patented land.

Cross-cut Trees

An accidental discovery helps map northern California’s portion of El Camino Real, the Royal Road linking California’s missions.

Not Silk, Plaid

When not intimidated by his second wife, James Black railed against her spendthrift habits. “I’ll not cover her back in silk out of my money,” he thundered during an atypically long monologue. After Black’s death in 1870, the oft-wed Widow Black traded her usual taffeta for a riotous plaid dress, immortalized in a luxurious setting

Sea Otters: Dying to be Worn

Sea otters have the misfortune to be born with plush pelts boasting up to one million hairs per square inch. Hunters prized their skins as “blacker, thicker, and glossier” than their cousins: the beaver and land otter.  When fashion dictated the Manchu nobles of the Chinese Qing dynasty (1644-1912) dress in sea otter skins, the animals’ demise was