Bennett Desert Club Collection

This collection documents the history of the Desert Club—the current site of the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center—from its founding in 1950 as a country club through several phases of ownership and use before it joined the NRS. Created by local volunteer, historian, and archaeologist Mary Bennett, this collection consists of: (1) photographs documenting the site’s transition from a country club to an antique store, from 1968-2006, including clipping and photographs of events, renovations, facilities, signage, and landscape, (2) Desert Club ephemera including club applications, menus, brochures, mailers, event documents, and real estate listings, and (3) physical objects including rubber stamps from the country club era.