This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

When I Think of Home: Images from L.A. Archives

Contributors

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

Contents of this path:

Dedicated to the preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition and study of motion pictures, the Academy Film Archive is home to one of the most diverse and extensive motion picture collections in the world, including the personal collections of such filmmakers as Tacita Dean, Cecil B. DeMille, Barbara Hammer, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Jarmusch, Penelope Spheeris, George Stevens, Gus Van Sant, and Fred Zinnemann.
The Margaret Herrick Library collects a wide range of materials documenting film as both an art form and an industry. Its holdings include photographs, posters, books, periodicals, screenplays, oral histories, and extensive clippings files on people, films, and companies. The clippings files are organized under five headings: production, biography, general subject, festivals and awards, and Academy history. The general subject files contain clippings and photographs regarding aspects of Los Angeles such as homes, studios, motion picture theaters, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, Los Angeles as a location, educational and cultural institutions, theme parks, and landmarks; labor disputes and the formation of industry-related unions and guilds are also extensively documented in the general subject files. The Academy history files provide coverage of that very Los Angeles-based activity—the Academy Awards. The library's Special Collections contain materials relating to the careers of numerous directors, producers, actors, and other craftspeople and their filmmaking work in Los Angeles. Dating from the early 1900s to the present, the materials in Special Collections include scripts in various drafts, personal and business correspondence, production memoranda, sketches, clippings, music scores, recordings, scrapbooks, artifacts, and photographs. https://www.oscars.org/library
Art Center opened in 1930 in Los Angeles. Our institutional archival collections date from the early 1930s to the present, and contain photographs, publications, documents, and moving images that trace the history of the College. We receive research requests looking at art and design education in Los Angeles, or researching specific designers and artists. Anyone studying Los Angeles car culture might be interested in looking at our Transportation Design collection. https://archives.artcenter.edu/
The Library and Archives of the Autry Museum collects books, sound recordings, and printed materials related to the history, geography, fine arts, and material, popular and consumer culture of the American West. Archival materials and artifacts related to Los Angeles cover Spanish California, and Southern California history, tourism, and industry predominately from the late 1800s to mid-1900s. Archival collections document the West of the imagination and the Hollywood cowboy that include posters, scripts, press kits, fan letters, costume designs, scrapbooks, and publicity stills that document the growth of the film and television industry as well as key personalities in the field. The Library and Archives also have Southern California collections related to books and serials on tribal histories, government, and social life and customs of the native peoples, a large photo archive, more than 700 wax cylinder recordings of Mexican American and Native American songs recorded by Charles F. Lummis between 1895 and 1912 in the Southern California area, manuscript materials strong in local history and the history of American anthropology. The collection includes approximately 50,000 books and serials, 2,000 sound recordings, 3,000 maps, 147,000 photographs, 3,000 works of art on paper, and 700 manuscript collections.

The mission of the Library and Archives is to provide exemplary stewardship for our renowned collections, inspire scholarship by a multidisciplinary research community, and fuel discussion about the past, present and future of the American West. We actively connect Autry visitors to book and archive collections in exhibition galleries and public programs, through engaging outreach and diverse collaborations.

https://theautry.org/research-collections/library-and-archives
The California Historical Society’s mission is to inspire and empower people to make California’s richly diverse past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives.

For Los Angeles and the surrounding area, the collections include nearly 23,000 photographs from the Title Insurance and Trust Company (TICOR) and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce (LAACC), housed and managed for CHS by the Regional History Center at the University of Southern California and viewable through the USC Digital Library (digitallibrary.usc.edu). Documenting development of the Los Angeles region from 1860 to 1960, the TICOR collection includes the work of many prominent local photographers, including C. C. Pierce. The LAACC collection includes promotional images in addition to those that depict the growth of the city and its transportation systems.

Southern California is well represented throughout CHS’s photography holdings. Notable collections include Anton Wagner’s Depression-era photographs of Los Angeles, 1932–33; Adolph Petsch’s early views of Pasadena and greater Southern California; Los Angeles Fire Department photographs, 1912–15; and Nina Page’s 1905 panoramas of Bonnie Brae Street, Rosedale Cemetery, Santa Monica, Terminal Island, and the Pasadena ostrich farm.

The California Historical Society can be searched in three ways. The Online Catalog contains basic descriptive records for manuscripts and photographic collections; books and pamphlets; periodicals, posters, broadsides, maps, and newspapers; and other materials. The Digital Library contains digitized primary sources such as photographs, maps, and ephemera. And the Online Archive of California contains detailed guides to manuscript and photography collections, digital images, and digitized oral histories.
Established in 1850, the California State Library is the central reference and research library for state government and the Legislature. The library collection includes more than 4 million titles, 6,000 maps, and 250,000 photographs. It has an extensive collection of documents from and about the state’s rich history and is one of the major genealogical reference libraries on the West Coast. It also holds significant collections from Mexico, the United Kingdom and Europe, with manuscripts dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries. The State Library is both a State and Federal Depository Library, providing free and open access to government information, and is a U.S. Patent and Trademark Resource Center. It is home to the Bernard E. Witkin State Law Library and the Braille and Talking Book Library. It also directs state and federal funds to support local public libraries and statewide library programs and services. https://www.library.ca.gov/

The Library’s California History Section holds a premier collection of documents from and about California's rich history. Our vaults house thousands of rare books, maps, newspapers, and periodicals in addition to a huge collection of one-of-a-kind photographs, letters, and ephemeral items such as posters, pamphlets and sheet music. Visit https://www.library.ca.gov/california-history/ for more information. The Sutro Library (the State Library’s San Francisco branch) holds the original collection of Adolph Sutro (1830–1898), California businessman and San Francisco mayor. The library has a large collection of publications and items dating from the 13th to the 21st centuries as well as one of the largest genealogy collections in the U.S. Visit https://www.library.ca.gov/sutro/ for more information.
The Archives and Special Collections Department at CSUDH serves several functions as the archives for the California StateUniversity System, CSUDH, and the Rancho San Pedro/Dominguez Family. In addition the Archives has various South Bay Los Angeles and Compton Collections, an Asian Pacific Studies Collection, the congressional papers of Glenn Anderson (the 105 Freeway is named for him) and rare book collections. The collection consists of nearly 2000 feet of archivalmaterials dating from the 1850s through the 1990s as well as 25,000 photographs. Although the California State University (CSU) system was founded in 1960, the Archives for the CSU System did not open until 1979. The work of collecting and transferring records began in 1981, with the designation of the Dominguez Hills campus as the CSU repository. Since each of the CSU campuses (including Dominguez Hills) has its own archives, the CSU Board of Trustees decided the CSU Archives would contain materials having only system-wide importance. Consequently, much of the material documents the activities of the Board and the Chancellor's Office, both located in Long Beach. The Dominguez Hills Archives serves as the institutional memory of the University and documents the functions and activities of its community.The Asian-Pacific Studies Collection documents Japanese- American evacuatio and internment during World War II, the Japanese Garden Collection and the Mochizuki Collection, which contains documents pertaining to the internmentof Japanese-Peruvians during World War II in the U.S. The local South Bay History Collection provides documentation regarding the early history Compton and the Rancho San Pedro and its original family owners-the Dominguez Family. These records include some early family records as well as extensive files on early 20th century LA businesses related to the Carson,Watson, Del Amo, Dominguez and other families. The Book Collection offers a wide of materials relating to the South Bay history, 19th-20th century popular literature, winners of the Newbery Honor Award for children's books and the Glen Schwendemann Bindery Collection (1550-1990s) which includes books relating to voyages of discovery as well as many re-bound books in vellum, leather and cloth. The Glenn M. Anderson Collection consists of the papers of the former California Congressman and deals extensively with South Bay Los Angeles transportation issues including highways and the Port of Los Angeles. Many finding aids are available on the Online Archive of California or the CSUDH web page.
Special Collections & Archives is the home of CSUN's rare book and periodical collections, as well as its archival and manuscript collections. In Special Collections & Archives users can perform research, engage in classes using primary sources, or view exhibitions. Our collections are made available to researchers in a supervised reading room. We welcome users, and ask for understanding concerning our special procedures, which are designed to ensure these collections are available in the future.

Special Collections & Archives is comprised of five areas within the Library which were independently established between the 1970s and 1990s. In 1993 the Urban Archives Center, University Archives, and Special Collections areas were combined, and became Special Collections & Archives. The Old China Hands Archives was added in 1996, and the International Guitar Research Archives in 2000. While each group of collections has a unique history, patrons can access all materials in the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room (University Library, Second Floor, room 228.)

Collections in the department include archives, manuscripts, rare books, periodicals, maps, prints, art, and more. They focused on several topical areas including the growth and development of Los Angeles, the history of CSUN, the history and development of the classical guitar, people from other countries and cultures who have resided and worked in China, American literature, California and the West, children's literature, the history of printing and publishing, human sexuality, music, and 19th century European history.
The California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections, founded in 1968, has a mission of facilitating understanding of Caltech’s role in the history of science and technology. Our collections include the papers of Caltech researchers; photographs, film, audio, video, websites, and publications documenting Caltech’s history; scientific instruments characteristic of research at Caltech; and rare books anchored by the Rocco Collection of early modern physics and astronomy. We have been collecting oral histories of Caltech faculty and other affiliates since 1979, and have published approximately 200 transcripts on the web. Caltech has also made publicly available on the web the papers of astrophysicist George Ellery Hale, founder of Mount Wilson Observatory; aeronautical engineer and pioneer of human-powered flight Paul MacCready; and Nobel Prize-winning particle physicist and molecular biologist Donald Glaser. https://archives.caltech.edu/
Symbolically housed in the oldest and last surviving structure of Los Angeles’ original Chinatown, the Chinese American Museum (CAM) is the first museum in Southern California dedicated to the Chinese American experience and history in Los Angeles. The museum occupies the historic 1890 Garnier Building within the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument and is located at 425 N. Los Angeles St. Museum is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and is closed on Mondays and selected holidays. The mission of the Chinese American Museum (CAM) is to foster a deeper understanding of, and appreciation for, America’s diverse heritage by researching, preserving, and sharing the history, rich cultural legacy, and continued contributions of Chinese Americans. CAM collects/has objects related to: Immigration to the United States, immigration issues (past and present) Chinese and Chinese American organizations, many of which operated out of the Garnier Building Sun Wing Wo Herb Store, which operated out of the Garnier Building Chinese American participation in the U.S. Military Livelihood Children’s toys Clothing, costumes, and other textiles Work created by Chinese American Artists Historic Chinatown New Chinatown The San Gabriel Valley The Chinese American Museum houses objects related to the history, livelihood, and experience of Chinese Americans, particularly in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, and the Garnier Building. The collection has grown to over 7,500 artifacts, documents, and photographs, spanning the late 19th century to the present. http://camla.org/
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics is an educational and research archive that collects, preserves, documents, and exhibits domestic and international poster art. The Center’s domestic and international collection of more than 90,000 political posters dates from the early 20th century to the present, and includes the largest collection of post World War II political posters in the United States. The posters are produced in a variety of artistic mediums— offset, silk screen, lithography, woodblock, linocut, stencil, photocopy, and computer-generated prints. The collection is focused on international, domestic, and Los Angeles-specific human rights issues, with an emphasis on progressive movements in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Poster topics include the women’s movement, racism, peace, apartheid, labor, liberation theology, AIDS, gay and lesbian rights, immigrants’ rights, children’s rights, and ecology. Between one and two thousand posters are acquired annually, primarily through donation. Approximately half of these are given by collectors in Los Angeles and reflect the diverse political interests of the donors. This has yielded a collection that, in part, documents important but often underrepresented aspects of local history and life in the Los Angeles area. The collection contains approximately three thousand human rights and protest posters produced in Los Angeles from 1965 to the present. The earliest of these came out of the Watts Uprising of 1965, while the more recent posters not only reflect prevailing concerns but commemorate older events, such as the U.S. government’s internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Altogether, the posters illustrate the commitment of many Los Angeles-based artists, organizations, and individuals to a variety of social and political issues over the last five decades. http://www.politicalgraphics.org/
Serving as NASA’s official living tribute to the crew of the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Columbia Memorial Space Center is located where the Apollo and Space Shuttle spacecraft were designed and built. The CMSC aims to be the most accessible STEM experience in Southern California. While acknowledging the rich aeronautic/aerospace history of the area, the CMSC focuses on the future, working to be the hub of innovative STEM learning throughout the Southern California region by reaching out to all of its communities with activities centered on critical thinking, creativity, technology, and science.

The permanent collections of the Columbia Memorial Space Center include a wide focus on artifacts pertaining to the aeronautic and aerospace history of Southern California, and NASA. Items collected by the Columbia Memorial Space Center are taken in with the intent of preserving, interpreting, and making accessible the aeronautic and aerospace history of Downey, as well as Southern California, to the community and researchers alike. Items within the collection primarily include materials produced in the normal course of business by the former aircraft plants of the City of Downy, and other Southern California aerospace sites, including but not limited to, the North American Aviation/Rockwell Corporations in Downey, Lockheed Corporation in Burbank, the Hughes Aircraft Company/Raytheon Company in El Segundo, and the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach. Furthermore, items produced by or for NASA in the regular course of business also fit within the collections held by the Columbia Memorial Space Center.
Our mission is to connect people to the past and lead them to the future about the city they live, work, and do business in by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting the history of Compton. Through our programs and services, we will develop a conclusive narrative that gives residents a greater understanding and appreciation of their role in the story of who their neighbor and city is. C 125 HS serves as an important resources for groups and individuals including preservationist, architect, artist, filmmakers, authors, journalist, educators, researchers, students, policy makers, genealogist, and the community at large. http://www.compton125historicalsociety.org/index.html
The Genealogical Society of Hispanic America – Southern California Chapter (GSHA-SC) book collection specializes in Hispanic family research. Subjects include California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. There are Mexican genealogy and history titles in Spanish about the various Mexican states. GSHA-SC also publishes a quarterly journal. The collection is located at the Southern California Genealogical Society Library in Burbank during regular library hours. Please check their calendar for hours of operation. http://calendar.scgsgenealogy.com/ https://www.gsha-sc.org/
Located on the Getty Center campus in Brentwood, the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute focuses on the history of art, architecture, and archaeology from prehistory to the contemporary period. Presently, the collections are strongest in the history of western European art and culture in Europe and North America; however, in recent years, they have expanded to include other areas, such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, and selected regions of Asia. The library's foundation lies in its special collections of original documents and objects. Recent acquisitions and initiatives have documented developments during the postwar years in Southern California. The special collections include contemporary artists' photographers' by Los Angeles artists; archives and manuscripts of Southern California artists, writers, and curators such as Sam Francis, Robert Irwin, and Henry Hopkins; archives of art publications such as High Performance magazine; prints, drawings, and multiples, including a complete set of those produced by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; rare photographs and photographers archives, such as Charles Brittin's; architectural drawings and comprehensive archives such as John Parkinson's drawings for Union Station, the Walt Disney Concert Hall documentation, the Pierre Koenig and John Lautner archives, and the Julius Shulman Photography Archive highlighting Los Angeles architecture. Documenting the advanced art that put Los Angeles and Southern California on the map of the international art world, Long Beach Museum of Art Video Archive, now part of the Research Library's collections, contains close to 5000 tapes and supporting files. http://www.getty.edu/research/
The Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB) was formed in 1962 with the mission to collect, preserve, and present the city’s history. Throughout the years the HSLB has occupied many locations around the city, settling at its current location in Bixby Knolls in 2007. Operations are sustained at the HSLB by grant funding, membership dues, and community fundraising through programs and events.

Collections at the HSLB include an extensive photograph collection (including the studios of Lawrence Inman, the Winstead Brothers, A.C. Brown, and Joe Risinger), City Manager’s Files ranging from 1923 through 1953, maps, blueprints, city directories, and bound volumes of local newspapers including the Press-Telegram and Independent.

The HSLB hosts various programs throughout the year including a recorded oral history series, an architecture and hors d’oeuvres tour, panel discussions, and a historical cemetery tour. The storefront gallery space in Bixby Knolls is utilized to present rotating exhibitions. Past exhibits include Chrome! Cruisin’, Clubs & Drag Strips, Long Beach Remembers Pearl Harbor, Black Gold: Oil in the Neighborhood, Coming Out in Long Beach, and the current exhibit is Water Changes Everything, exploring the way water has affected the city of Long Beach, and the ways we have affected our water.
As the Digital Age continues to increase our interaction with screens, typography, which has always been a core element of graphic design, has become increasingly vital to our visual culture. Consequently, ArtCenter developed a plan to become a central and influential force in this burgeoning field by providing a dedicated space to advance the research, teaching and understanding of letterform design and typography.

HMCT was designed to become home and a catalyst for the enhanced study of typography and letterform design. HMCT serves as an educational forum, design laboratory, research center and archive, as well as a meeting place for learning, discussion and the exchange of ideas and skills. HMCT holds workshops and special classes, symposia, lectures and residency programs dedicated to all aspects of the typographic field.
The June L. Mazer Lesbian Collection, formerly the West Coast Lesbian Collections, was founded in Oakland, California, in 1981. Six years later it was moved to Los Angeles by Connexxus Women's Center/Centro de Mujeres, and it acquired its present name in 1987 after the death of June L. Mazer, a community activist and an invaluable supporter of the collection. The Mazer Collection remains the only archive in the western half of the United States that is dedicated exclusively to preserving lesbian history and to "guaranteeing that those who come after us will not have to believe that they 'walk alone.'" It is committed to gathering and preserving materials by and about lesbians of all classes, ethnicities, races, and experiences. Included are personal letters and scrapbooks, private papers, artwork, manuscripts, books, records and audio recordings, newspapers, magazines, photographs, videos, flyers, papers from lesbian organizations, and even clothing, such as softball team uniforms from the 1940s and 1950s. The all-volunteer staff of the Mazer Collection not only keeps the doors open but also helps make lesbian communities aware of lesbian history through speaking engagements, the collection's newsletter In the Life, and special programs and exhibits. http://mazerlesbianarchives.org/
The Sports Library houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections on sports information. The collection highlights include more than 8,000 volumes archiving the Olympic Games; photograph and slide collection of 90,000 images; 5,500 instructional and historical sport videos; current subscriptions to over 500 periodical titles covering all areas of sport. The AAF Sports Library acquired both the National Track and Field Research Collection and The Ralph Miller Golf Library. The library administers a growing digital archive of Olympic Games Official Reports, scholarly sport journals and popular magazines. LA84 Foundation Sports Library's Los Angeles material: -The library's special collection on the Olympic Games includes an extensive archive documenting the 1932 and 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Documents include the Official Reports, programs, photographic images and video recordings. -High school sports awards including the Helms Athletic Foundation's Los Angeles City and Southern Section award selections. -Coliseum Relays programs and video footage (1941-1965). -Oral histories of Southern California Olympians. -Programs, photographs and video recordings of other Los Angeles and Southern California sports events, meets and competitions. -Printed materials and videorecordings of the 1994 World Cup and 1999 Women’s World Cup. http://www.la84.org
The Lanterman House Archives preserves and makes available a wide range of materials pertaining to the history of the Crescenta-Cañada Valley for the historical and cultural education of the City of La Cañada Flintridge, the Greater Los Angeles Area, and the State of California. Major collections include the Lanterman Family Papers, the Frank D. Lanterman Sheet Music Collection, and the Local History Collection of the Crescenta-Cañada Valley and La Cañada Flintridge. The Archives also house the political papers of Frank D. Lanterman, whose 28-year career as a California State Assemblyman yielded significant advances for the rights of the developmentally disabled as well as water rights for unincorporated areas. The Lanterman House Archive's series of 45 oral histories bring the area to life through interviews with residents and local historians on topics ranging from education, to water rights, to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Lanterman House, owned by Dr. Roy and Emily Lanterman, was designed by architect Arthur Haley in 1915 and features a U-shaped Mexican Colonial hacienda design. The house's interior, which is completely restored and decorated with English Arts and Crafts design elements, includes its original furnishings. Now a museum, the Lanterman House is open to visitors for tours. https://www.lantermanhouse.org/
Rare books has over 22,000 volumes predominantly in English and Spanish, dating from the fifteenth century. The majority of materials were published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Our two largest special collections are Photographs and Maps, although only a small fraction of these collections are housed in the Rare Books Room.

Core collections in the Rare Books Room include California History, Mexicana, Bullfighting, Pacific voyages, Food and wine, Costume, Travel in North America, Europe and the Near East, History of the book and printing, Ornithology and American Indians.

Other collections include the Casey Fashion Plate Collection, the Tom Owen Collection of Bookplate Art, Japanese Prints, California Prints, Artists' Books, Travel posters, the Menu Collection, the Paul Fritzche Collection of Culinary Literature, the Cookery Ephemera Collection, Fruit Crate Labels, the Lummis Autograph Collection, the Gladys English Collection of American Children's Book Illustration, and the Behymer Opera Collection.
The Los Angeles Union Station Historical Society (LAUSHS) is a private, non-profit, volunteer educational and advocacy association established to acquire, preserve and interpret original archives and artifacts relating to Los Angeles Union Station (formerly Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal). It also advocates for the protection of the historical and artistic legacy of Los Angeles Union Station and its environment. LAUSHS is recognized by the United States Federal Railroad Administration as a Section 106 historic resource.
The History and Genealogy Department of the Los Angeles Public Library maintains a variety of resources related to the history of Los Angeles. The History Collection includes hundreds of books related to social, cultural and political aspects of Los Angeles’ storied history; the department also maintains both the California Subject and Biography Indexes, retrospective databases indexing selected citations from newspapers, magazines, and books about Los Angeles events, landmarks and historical players throughout the city’s past. The Map Collection features historic street guides of Los Angeles, historic maps of Los Angeles on aperture cards, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of California cities, United States Geological Survey topographical maps, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration nautical charts. http://www.lapl.org/central/history.html
The Los Angeles Public Library’s Photograph Collections comprise a number of major collections including: The Security Pacific National Bank Collection, donated to LAPL in 1981, consisting of over 150,000 photographs documenting the growth of Los Angeles and its many neighborhoods. The SPNB Collection also contains images from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce depicting business, industry, sports and agriculture in Los Angeles during its greatest growth spurt, 1920-1939. The Shades of L.A. archive contains images representing the full range of contemporary and historic ethnic and cultural diversity in the greater Los Angeles region. Copied from family albums in a project sponsored by Photo Friends, the photographs show daily life, work, social organizations, personal and holiday celebrations, and migration and immigration activities. Also archived are approximately twelve oral histories that were collected during the project and available through the LAPL website. http://www.lapl.org/catalog/shades/ The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Photograph Collection consists of the newspaper’s morgue of 2.2 million photographs doumenting Southern California, the nation, and the world in the years from the 1920s to 1989. The Valley Times newspaper morgue spans from 1946-1972 and focuses on the post-war growth of the San Fernando Valley. The LAPL Photo Collection also has smaller collections of specific photographers including Ansel Adams, Herman Schultheis, Howard Kelly, Gary Leonard, Carol Westwood, C.C. Pierce, William Reagh, and Ralph Morris. https://tessa.lapl.org/photocol.html
The Department of Archives and Special Collections, of the Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, acquires, organizes, and opens to research, primary source materials in the arts, humanities, education, and religion. Collection strengths center on rare books, ranging in date from incunabula to the present, including Los Angeles history, religion, and culture; historical manuscript collections, especially those related to the political, cultural, and religious history of Los Angeles and Southern California; postcard collections; audiovisual collections; university records, and art and artifacts. Within the over 12,000 volumes of its rare book holdings, English literature of the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries is emphasized, as well as other areas such as Jesuitica, which includes some of the earliest histories of California, and book collections of Californio families such as the del Valles. Manuscript holdings are especially strong in documenting the history of the Los Angeles’ urban development, with the Fritz Burns and Daniel Freeman papers; of important Roman Catholic families in Los Angeles, such as the Workmans and Dockweilers; and of the entertainment industry of Los Angeles, including, for example, the papers of Hollywood producers Arthur P. Jacobs and Samuel Z. Arkoff. The University Archives document the history of Los Angeles’ oldest chartered institution of learning and contain materials from the 1860s to the present. The audiovisual collections document Los Angeles politics and social and cultural history. The department’s million postcard collection provides additional sources for the study of Los Angeles as well as cultural and architectural history of locales world-wide, and of the history of the postcard itself. The holdings in art and artifacts range from Japanese woodblocks and prints to German Expressionist art to movie props to religious vestments used during the Californio era.
Founded in 1952, the ONE Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries in Los Angeles is the oldest continuously-operating LGBTQ organization in the United States and the largest archive in the world dedicated to collecting and preserving LGBTQ materials. Our collection comprises over 33,000 volumes of books and monographs; over 13,000 titles of LGBTQ periodicals; 700 manuscript and photograph collections; 15,000 items of audiovisual and moving image materials; and over 100,000 items of other materials, including posters, banners, textiles and ephemera. Collected for over 60 years by ONE Incorporated and historian Jim Kepner, ONE’s materials span over a century and are international in scope. In 2010, the independent ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives became a part of the University of Southern California Libraries, which provides operational support to ONE for preserving and improving access to its collections. The USC Libraries actively support the discovery, creation, and preservation of knowledge with collections and services that encourage the academic endeavors of faculty, students, and staff. Library collections include more than 4 million volumes, 5.8 million microforms, 3.1 million visual materials, 98,700 serial titles, and 48,500 linear feet of manuscripts and archives.
The Local History Center of the Palos Verdes Library District focuses on the social and cultural history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula from the early 1900s to the present. This fairly extensive collection includes rare books, photographs, maps, blueprints, loose-leaf materials, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, telephone books, and oral history interviews—all relating to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The Research Library and Archives has been collecting material relating to the history of Pasadena since 1924. The archives contains approximately 1 million historic images (including photos, negatives, postcards, stereographs) of Pasadena and surrounding areas. There are 45 cubic feet of maps and plans of the area, as well as a set of Sanborm fire insurance maps for Pasadena. There is a large collection of ephemera, scrapbooks, and photo albums relating to the history of the city. There are about 250 special collections, including the Sylvanus Marston set of architectural drawings; the Tournament of Roses Collection; the Giddings-Hollingsworth Family Collection; the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo Papers; the Black History Collection; the Hugh Anderson/Model Grocery Company Collection. There are more than 1,000 books and 50 linear feet of periodicals on the history of the city and general Southern California area, including a nearly complete run of Pasadena city directories from 1895-1976.
Pepperdine University's Special Collections and University Archives maintains several collections of materials related to the history of Los Angeles. The Malibu Historical Collection includes a full run of the Malibu Times newspaper (1946-present), a full run of the the Malibu Surfside News newspaper (1973-present), the John Mazza Collection of Historic Surfboards, historic books related to Malibu and its residents, audio recordings of lectures on Malibu history, and records of the Malibu Water Company, the Rindge Dam, and the Malibu Stage Company. The James Hahn Collection (1990-2005) includes materials from Hahn's years as mayor of Los Angeles and as Los Angeles City Attorney. The Elinor Oswald Collection of Los Angeles Tourism Ephemera includes brochures, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings related to museums, art galleries, and artists in the Los Angeles area. The William S. Banowsky Papers and the M. Norvel Young Papers include materials related to various civic and political events in the Los Angeles area that occurred during their tenures as Pepperdine presidents. The Pepperdine University Archives includes photographs, audio and video, publications, and institutional records that document the history of the institution from its founding in 1937 in South Central Los Angeles, to its move to Malibu in 1972, to the present time.
Rancho Los Cerritos is an historic home and gardens located in Long Beach, California. While the history of the land dates back many centuries, the house itself was built to be the headquarters of a 27,000 acre cattle ranch in 1844 by Los Angeles resident John Temple. The ranch evolved during the 175 years since its construction, its ownership and land use changing several times before becoming a city-owned museum in 1955. Currently, Rancho Los Cerritos is a National, State, and Local Historic Landmark.

The mission of Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site is to restore and preserve the ranch house structure and grounds; collect appropriate resources; and interpret the relationship of the Rancho’s diverse peoples, from the period before Spanish settlement when Native Americans controlled the land, through the development of the Long Beach area, to the present day.

The adobe ranch house, built in 1844, is the most important “artifact” at Rancho Los Cerritos, and the museum collections are aimed toward researching and sharing information about the house. For this reason, our collections include objects and archival materials that are directly associated with the Rancho and its owners, occupants and workers from prehistoric times through 1955.

The Archives contain original documents, maps, blueprints, photographs, and sound and image recordings directly associated with the Rancho and its owners, occupants and workers. Highlights include the Sarah Bixby Smith Manuscript Collection, Llewellyn Bixby, Jr. Manuscript collection, a series of 1872 stereograph cards of Rancho Los Cerritos by William Godfrey of Los Angeles, photographs of the site from 1872 through the 1940s, and architectural blueprints of the adobe during the 1930 remodel. The museum’s collections include more than 1,000 items of clothing and textiles from the 1830s-1930s. There are also over 1,100 historic photographs of the rancho and its occupants, as well as various maps, letters, deeds and other documents relating to the site. The collections also include archaeological artifacts discovered onsite.
The SPBHS Archives are located at 638 S. Beacon Street, 6th Fl., San Pedro, CA 90731. Note: Mail is not delievered here.

The collections of the San Pedro Bay Historical Society comprise documents, large and small photographs, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, maps, slides, books, ephemera, and regalia relating to the flora, fauna, geology, people (including Native Americans), industries, businesses, social life, and organizations of the San Pedro Bay area. These materials include in-depth information on the history and development of the Port of Los Angeles. Archival materials such as photographs, memorabilia, and documents provide insight into social, political, and cultural life in the San Pedro Bay area.
The Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives contain historical photographs, postcards, and slides documenting the city's changing landscape and architecture as well as the commercial enterprises that shaped the development of the City of Santa Monica. The Archives include surrounding areas such as Pacific Palisades, Venice and Malibu among others. As early as 1875, Santa Monica's beaches attracted visitors from other areas, making tourism and transportation key local industries. The Archives include many images of resort hotels, bathhouses, amusement piers, the Long Wharf (intended Port of Los Angeles), Southern Pacific Railroad, and Douglas Aircraft, along with bearchgoers, shopkeepers, classes of schoolchildren, founding families, Spanish land grant holders, and other historically significant people. All of the Archives' images are available in digitized format on the web from the Library's digital collection site, Imagine Santa Monica, http://digital.smpl.org. The Library has the Santa Monica Outlook newspaper (1875- 1998) available on microfilm at the Main Library. Early years of the Outlook (1875-1920) are also available from the Imagine Santa Monica site. The Library's staff has selectively indexed and annotated articles published in the newspaper between 1950 and 1998. Since the demise of the Outlook, the Library's staff has indexed the local information published in the weekly "Our Times" section of the Los Angeles Times and is currently indexing the Santa Monica Mirror. Both are also available on microfilm. The newspaper indexes are available online from Imagine Santa Monica, http://digital.smpl.org. Regions covered: Santa Monica Bay area including Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Venice and Malibu among others. Time Period: 1848-1899, 1900-1920, 1921-1949, 1950-1963, 1981-Present Languages: English Sectors: Business, Community Service Organizations, Education, Lower to Middle Income, Middle to Upper Income, Politics/Government, Seniors, Veterans, Youth
Founded in 1970 as "Art, Inc.", but incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1973 as "Self Help Graphics & Art" (SHG), SHG is dedicated to the production, interpretation and distribution of prints and other art media by Chicana/o and Latinx artists. Our multidisciplinary and intergenerational programs promote artistic excellence and empower our community by providing access to space, tools, training and capital.
Aided by KGFJ Radio and based out of Los Angeles, California, SOUL started out as a weekly publication. They received on air radio promotion from KGFJ in exchange for advertisement space for the station in the paper. 10,000 copies of the first issue were printed and in under a week they were sold out. Within a year SOUL was in 30 major cities, expanded from eight to 16 pages long and now ran twice a month. Other publications began using SOUL as a primary news source, sales of the paper were on the rise and most artists’ managers had reprints of SOUL featuring their clients as part of their portfolios.

SOUL expanded in 1968 and created SOUL Illustrated, a music news magazine with in-depth feature articles, full color pictures, comics, music, movie and television reviews.

For 13 years SOUL continued to bring the stories of Black musicians, artists, writers, politicians, actors comedians and entertainers to the forefront. Entertainers like Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, James Brown, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Pam Grier and Sam Cooke graced the covers of the publication multiple times and their fans across the country ran to get SOUL to be in the know.

With bold original articles, amazing photos and a dedicated staff SOUL Newspaper was a crucial publication not only for its readers but for the artists it featured. Former contributors to SOUL’s success have gone on to become highly recognizable names. To name a few:

Writer, syndicated columnist, Pulitzer Prize recipient Leonard Pitts, Jr., writer editor Steven Ivory, Los Angeles Times writers Mike Terry, Connie Johnson, Rochelle Smith, J. Randy Taraborrelli, photographers Bruce Talamon, Bobby Holland, Erik Whitaker, and Howard Bingham who believed in SOUL and took Ken and Regina under his wing, providing them with photos to run in the paper for free while he freelanced for other publications.

27 years after the last issue was published the legacy of SOUL continues. Regina Jones, the Backbone of SOUL and long time publisher recently donated near complete sets of SOUL Newspapers to University of California, Los Angeles and Indiana University. Compilation books of past SOUL issues are also currently in the works. I have been working for the past year to organize and archive past issues and to bring the publication back to as many people as possible. SOUL was not only important to my family but to the families of many and the preservation of “OURstory” is imperative to our progression.
The Special Collections holdings reflect the diverse communities of the Claremont Colleges and the local area and region. Among the collections especially pertinent to Los Angeles and Southern California are the following: • McPherson Collection: books on California history, particularly Southern California and Orange County; records and papers, the bulk of which are about agriculture and avocado culture, and miscellaneous correspondence, 1773-1856 • Mission San Gabriel Marriage Investigation: manuscript records of matrimonial investigations, 1788–1861 • Lindley Scrapbooks: documentation of business and civic events in Los Angeles, late 1800s–early 1900s, compiled by Dr. Walter Lindley, founder of the California Hospital, mayoral candidate in 1904, and board member of the Los Angeles City Library • Kewen Dorsey Collection: twenty-five manuscript diaries, 1879–1904, documenting Dorsey’s life in Spadra, Pomona and Los Angeles • Archives of the Claremont Colleges: includes publications, records, photographs, and ephemera that document the history of the seven Claremont Colleges (Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College [formerly Claremont Men’s College], Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences), 1880–present • Claremontiana: early documents, maps, photographs, oral histories, and publications of the town of Claremont, circa 1887–present • Congregational Church Records: institutional records, circa 1888–1963, from a number of Congregational Church organizations in Southern California; papers from women’s organizations account for more than one-third of the collection • Rude-Frankenfield Papers: papers that present the daily lives of at least six generations of the female side of the Rude-Frankenfield family, circa 1895–1971 • Water Resources Collection: includes ephemeral materials on the distribution, augmentation, and use of water in Los Angeles and Southern California, circa 1900–present • George Martin Scrapbooks: one hundred three scrapbooks, 1900–1962, assembled by this California banker and civic leader • Elbert A. Wickes Collection: materials from this Los Angeles-based impresario and manager of lecture tours for celebrities who also acted as the American representative for various English and Irish theatrical groups, including the Abbey Players, early 1900s • H. Jerry Voorhis Papers: papers, circa 1919–1984, from this founder of the Voorhis School for Boys in Claremont, U.S. congressman for California’s twelfth district (1936–1946), member of the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities, and head of the Cooperative League of America after losing his congressional seat to Richard M. Nixon in 1946 • Zamarano Club Keepsake Collection: publications from book collectors, printers, and librarians who are members of this famous Los Angeles book collectors club, 1928–present • Marion Parks Papers: historical photographs, some possibly by Charles Fletcher Lummis; manuscripts and printed pamphlets, 1930s–1950s, used by Parks while researching for publications and historical pageants on Southern California • Rev. Walton E. Cole Papers: correspondence, newspaper clippings, and publications by this Unitarian minister from Toledo, Ohio, who in the 1930s challenged through radio broadcasts the pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic views of “radio priest” Father Charles E. Coughlin • Howard D. Mills Collection: documentation of the U.S. government’s World War II finance efforts, including war bond drives, in Southern California, 1940–1945 • Carey McWilliams Collection of War Relocation Authority Records: reports, opinions, books, periodicals, and correspondence with evacuees that were assembled by McWilliams while he was writing Prejudice (1944), as well as sixty-six volumes of newspapers from War Relocation Authority centers and the minutes of the Japanese American Citizens League National Conference; 1942–1947
Though the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive has traditionally focused on collecting musics outside of Los Angeles, in recent years the Archive has developed a significant collection of LA-based materials. These materials include the following: AFAMILA - Archiving Filipino American Music in Los Angeles: includes commercial and non-commercial recordings of LA based FilAm artists. Donn Borcherdt Collection: includes recordings of LA based Mexican music. GALA - Gospel Archiving in Los Angeles: includes commercial and non-commercial recordings of LA based Gospel music; UCLA Ethnomusicology Audiovisual Collection: includes audiovisual recordings documenting guest artists, lectures, and performance ensembles associated with ethnomusicology at UCLA; Emily Sene Collection: includes field recordings of LA based Sephardic music; D. K. Wilgus Folksong Collection: includes LA based field recordings documenting original field recordings of cowboy songs, jokes, oral histories, Japanese tales, Israeli folklore, blues, and folk music.
Library Special Collections is the largest of the special collections units administered by the university and encompasses the following divisions: Rare Books; Manuscripts, Prints, Photographs, and Maps; Oral History; and University Archives. It acquires, organizes, preserves, and provides access to rare and unique materials in the humanities and social sciences. The holdings include three hundred thousand rare books, forty-two thousand linear feet of manuscript and archival collections, and four million photographic negatives and prints. In addition, the department’s nineteenth- and twentieth-century collections contain a variety of artifacts, audio recordings, videos, printed ephemera, oral history transcripts, phonograph records, postcards, and posters. The department acquires principally materials relating to the arts; California; area studies; ethnic studies; the history of printing, including atlases and early Italian books; and literature, including children’s books. Some of the department’s areas of specialization are Hebraica and Judaica; the history of philosophy; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies; natural resources; photography; travel and exploration; and women. The more than twenty-four hundred collections in the Department of Special Collections are managed by the divisions of. Each division’s holdings are selected or created to complement those of the other divisions. Researchers are welcome to discuss holdings at greater length with the staff.
The materials of the Regional History Collection document 100 years of Southern California history in various formats. The collection was founded in the mid-1970s as a repository for the papers of Southern Californian political figures, among them Governor Jerry Brown Jr., Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke; and Congressmen Alphonso Bell, Chet Holifield, Craig Hosmer, and Gordon McDonough. The scope of the collection was expanded with the acquisition of collections such as the Century Freeway project, the Webster and Christopher commissions, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project; the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper photographs and clippings morgue; the California Historical Society photographic collection; and the Dick Whittington photographic collection.
Based in the Little Tokyo area of Downtown Los Angeles, VC was founded in 1970 by a group of pioneering independent filmmakers to record, collect, and preserve a visual record of Asian Pacific American cultural heritage. VC originally worked as a film collective, concentrating on honestly portraying accurate images of Asian Americans and meticulously capturing pivotal social movements. VC produced groundbreaking works about the Asian American experience, including: CHINATOWN 2-STEP, a documentary on the suburbanization of Chinese American community in Los Angeles and the role of the Chinatown Drum and Bugle Corps; MANONG, a film on the first generation Filipino American immigrants; and WATARIDORI, a documentary on early Japanese American immigrant pioneers. VC published three books, In Movement: A Pictorial History of Asian Pacific America, Little Tokyo: One Hundred Years in Pictures, and Moving the Image: Independent Asian Pacific American Media Arts. Productions were used for education and activism that addressed setting up ethnic studies programs on local campuses, city redevelopment issues, the redress campaign for Japanese Americans interned during World War II, and the declaration of martial law in the Philippines. VC’s own past in all media, narrative films, documentaries and educational projects are intertwined with the Asian Pacific American movements of the 1970s, and in itself represents a rich resource for researchers of the Asian Pacific American movements. The Archives’ purpose is to document the history of the organization by organizing, preserving, and creating access to a variety of media art and primary materials recording impactful political moments and depicting the Asian Pacific American heritage for staff use, as well as by scholars who are interested in Visual Communications’ role in the Asian American communities and history. The holdings include over 300,000 photographic images, 1,500 titles in the Media Resource Library, 100 films and videos produced by Visual Communications, and over 1,000 hours of oral histories of pan-Asian Pacific American content. As a valuable resource of Asian media art representations, The Archives is open to a wide variety of users, and we encourage the public, artists, filmmakers, students, faculty and others to pursue an intercultural understanding of the Asian American heritage. VC’s vision for the archives is to accurately reflect and represent the diversity of the American populace and to cement Asian Pacific American experiences in the historical record through the preservation, access, and dissemination of our materials, which provide historical context and insight of Asian Pacific American influence not only for Asian Pacific Americans, but also for all Americans.
As the only collecting institution focused solely on the art, craft, and history of Hollywood writers and their labor union, the Writers Guild Foundation Library & Archive are vividlly relevant to the creative and business communities of Los Angeles. The holdings document a rich facet of Los Angeles culture in relation to the role of writers in the entertainment industry. The collections include Writers Guild of America historical materials, current and vintage produced and unproduced scripts, letters, periodicals, photographs, production materials, memorabilia, oral histories, and personal items pertaining to film, television, and radio writers. The non-profit Writers Guild Foundation strives to promote and preserve the work of writing for the screen, and to inspire and educate writers everywhere. In addition to the Shavelson-Webb Library & Archive, other programs include a robust slate of educational events, the Military Veterans Writing Project, and a Visiting Writers program.