Historic Photo Collection of East Bay Regional Park District Staff Unveiled

The East Bay Regional Park District proudly announces the release of the Park Workers Martin J. Cooney photo collection. This historic digital photo collection was researched and curated by Park District Archives staff and volunteers and has been published to commemorate the District’s 90th Anniversary. The new collection is available to view here and on the Celebrating 90 Years webpage.

The four Cooney photo collections released this year to celebrate the Park District’s 90th Anniversary include People in Parks, Park Landscapes, Park Workers, with Special Events to be published later this year. 

Park Workers, as its name implies, focuses on the people working in the Park District from 1965 to 1981: staff, board of directors, concessionaires, contractors, and volunteers. History comes to life in this collection, which features the small but nimble staff of the 1960s, broadening to a larger and more diverse workforce starting in the late 60s and early 70s, and expanding to an employee roster that tripled in size by the 1980s. 

In 2016, Martin J. Cooney’s family donated over 15,000 negatives taken from the 1960s to the 1980s to the Park District. Cooney’s commercial studio provided professional photography services to the Park District during that time. While Cooney took some of the photos, most were taken by Nancy McKay, who became his apprentice in 1968 while working in the Park District’s Public Affairs Department and served as its primary photographer for more than 37 years. Additional Cooney photo collections were donated in association with the Oakland Tribune archives and are housed at the Oakland Museum of California. 

Visit the Park District’s 90th Anniversary webpage to explore interactive photo collections, story maps, and online exhibits, and to mark your calendar for special 90th anniversary events, activities, and programs. 

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The East Bay Regional Park District is the largest regional park system in the nation, comprising 73 parks, 55 miles of shoreline, and over 1,330 miles of trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and environmental education. The Park District receives an estimated 30 million visits annually throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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