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Peek in the Stacks

Wood engraving from the Yolla Bolly Press edition of My First Summer in the Sierra, QH31.M9 A3 1988

John Muir (1838-1914) was an American nature writer and an advocate for our National Park system. Born in Scotland, he moved with his family at the age of ten to Wisconsin, where his father farmed a homestead. Muir studied botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin; those disciplines informed his books and magazine articles...

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The Whirlwind front page, September 26, 1932, Baldwin-Shaffner Family Collection

Student newspapers offer insight into the types of issues and events that were seen as newsworthy to the student body. They are generally written by students, for student readers, often as part of a writing or vocational curriculum. As well as having a full run of our own Daily Sundial student newspaper, we also have several student papers from local high schools that document early 20th century youth culture in the San Fernando Valley.

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Homer Halverson, his wife Mill, and his daughter Gail, 1935

Recently the Homer Halverson Collection expanded with the addition of some materials donated by his children. The collection holds a treasure trove of local history including documentation of the development of Los Angeles's water infrastructure, the Halversons' donation of land to the City of Los Angeles that would eventually become the CSUN campus, construction of multiple freeways around Los Angeles, and the Halverson Family's move from Oklahoma to California in 1924.https://library.csun.edu/SCA

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Detail from “AIDS: The Facts” pamphlet distributed in New York, 1987. Vern L. Bullough Papers

In 1981 the first case of HIV was reported in the United States. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which left untreated can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), was still a mysterious virus at the time where friends, family, and loved ones were lost in a short time span. Special Collections & Archives holds many documents and resources on the topic. With these materials we are able to able to get a glimpse into the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and its territories.

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