MHC collections

Newspaper clip of Montclair Street Directory, listing streets

Black and white photo of Neogothic Architecture style mansion

Black and white photo of lavishly decorated room, with piano in foreground and empty fireplace at the far side

Honeycomb-patterned quilt of hexagonal color segments.

Vibrantly-colored quilt employing optical illusion patterns

Boldly-colorized illustration (possibly from a postcard) of North Fullerton Avenue, Montclair, with large red building occupying the center and a tower in the background looming over the trees

illustration of Glenfield Park, possibly from a postcard

The Montclair History Center collections encompass a treasure trove of artifacts related to Montclair’s history. Everything from tax and county maps, old and new Montclair history books, vintage photos, phone directories dating back to the late 1800s, school yearbooks, oral histories, extensive Crane family genealogy, scrapbooks and files on 20th century, African-American life in Montclair, and ephemera from local history and Montclair organizations can be found within our archives. A few select collections have been made available online through our Online Collections including some of our Oral History Collection, historic photographs, quilts, and maps. Discover what more lies in our archives by digging through our Finding Aids including our African-American history collection, Football collection, and World War II collection. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Give the MHC office a call at 973-744-1796 or email at mail@montclairhistory.org and we may be able to help.

Online Collections

Check out our new site!

View select digitized material from our collection online! Explore historic photographs, oral histories, antique maps, and material from our Montclair High School Football Collection, Montclair Dramatic Club Collection, and Quilt Collection. Stay tuned as we continuously add more content to this site!

Use the new site to explore our Many Voices of Montclair, Oral History Project. In honor of the 150th anniversary of Montclair, the Montclair History Center compiled oral histories from people who grew up in Montclair and/or lived here prior to 1960. The project recorded the stories of people who grew up in Montclair in a wide variety of neighborhoods and decades, creating a multifaceted snapshot of Montclair in the early to mid 20th century.

Online Collections

Finding Aids

MHC’s finding aids list available archival materials, books, maps, newspapers, and more from our collections. Each finding aid lists the material found within various collection from our archives including our African-American history collection, Football collection, Crane Family collection, map and blueprint collection, Zenas Crane and Dr. Love collection, and World War II collection. While these materials are not available for online viewing (yet!), you can contact our staff to inquire as to how to view the material.

Finding aids

Photo Reproduction Policy

Interested in having a high-resolution scan of a photograph or archival material in our collection? Take a look at our policy below. Please fill it out and return to us either my email or mail.

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