Once it has a permanent physical location, the Cannarchives Institute will be a research destination for anyone interested in learning about the history and people of California cannabis culture.
Library, Special Collections, and Archive
We are currently forming a library devoted to all publications of reference and primary source works that are useful to studying the history of cannabis culture in California, with an emphasis on prohibition, policing, and criminalization from the community’s perspective; and with a special interest in the history of cannabis law reform activism.
If you have materials that you would like to donate or share, please let us know using our donations page.
Our Special Collections holdings will focus on rare, fragile, one-of-a-kind print and manuscript materials in need of special preservation. These materials will be available to any registered researcher via a reading room.
Our Archive collects, describes, digitizes, and preserves the history of cannabis in California. This archive includes substantial personal records that require the highest level of privacy and protection. The Archive also specializes in law enforcement documentation and proceedings, legal documentation, government reports and documentation, private papers, governmental communications, and other evidence of the disproportionate impact of marijuana prohibition policing on poor rural and urban communities of color.
Donations
We are not primarily interested in “collectibles” or high-valued “treasures” for our collection, but rather on the everyday materials that record the history of Cannabis culture in California.
Our main interest is in donations from community members documenting their personal experiences or from collectors who have specialized in the history of cannabis in California.
We cannot physically take in any materials until we have secured a premises, but you can still submit information about your collection to us, and we can begin documenting them digitally if you would like.
To donate, please see our donations page.
